Harry Potter and the Amazing Cinematography

[la_belle_laide]

As is tradition, I went to see Harry Potter with Wonderful Glassworker bestie last night. I used to go with Gran, Mom, Dad, and the kids, but I always saw it a second time with Glassworker. We got there ridiculously early with ice cream already melting.

It's kinda hard to point out the flaws of the movie just for the fact that I enjoyed it so much, I kinda don't even want to think about the problematic parts. But there were a few.

The biggest problem I think with the entire movie series is that it assumes readership. If you haven't read the books, some of the scenes are going to seem dumb or are going to just plain not make sense. Like, when they find the sword at the bottom of the lake, hello. I know that was explained in the book (I can't even remember how, anymore,) but in the movie it was just like, "Yeah, it was just there, all right?"

Flaw #2, it was draggy in places. The book was, too. I remember thinking of it as "Harry Potter and the Camping Trip of Doom" and I know that skitty_kitty has always called it "Harry Potter and the Great Outdoors." I had hoped that the movie would actually cut that back a little, but it did no such thing.

The movie really, really took its time. In a way that wasn't too bad though, because it was so pretty, like all the HP movies are. Kinda like a feast for your eyeballs. The outdoors was lovely to look at, desolate, and pretty much a character its-own-self.

Flaw #3, I missed a lot of my old favorite characters who weren't in it enough. I felt like this in the book, too, I remember. Rowling gave us like fifty thousand new, last minute characters to keep track of, and we heard very little from the likes of Neville, the Hogwarts teachers, Hagrid, blah blah. I realize she couldn't fit them all in, but I'm a big fan of re-using old characters for new purposes instead of inventing tons of new ones. And that goes way back even to Order of the Phoenix and stuff. Like, there were all these characters that, although cool, never really went anywhere or, in my experience, added much to the story. Tonks seemed like an add-on, and almost everyone at the Ministry of Magic, for chrissakes.

Flaw #4, I've never really been convinced that Daniel Radcliffe is the perfect Harry Potter, because he sometimes seems sort of stiff to me, or forced or something? But, it's the end of the series and he's pretty much iconic at this point so there's no point in complaining, I guess.

Not really a flaw, but oddly, a few scenes got what I thought was inappropriate laughter out of the audience and I wasn't even sure why. The entire scene with Bathilda Bagshot had a handful of people—not just one isolated group, but all around the theater—giggling. And I actually found her super creepy and wasn't sure what I was missing that was so funny.

THAT SAID, this was the best looking thing I've seen on the big screen all year. Yeah yeah, Tom Hardy in Inception, okay let's just let that one slide. Aside from him. ;D

Oh my god, this film was so gorgeous. It was lush, dark, dripping with atmosphere, and except for the stupid upwards-floating snow (hey what's up, soap bubbles,) the effects were, of course, spot on. I mean, they had to be, it's the last Harry Potter.

But let me get to the part I've been dying to talk about since I walked out of the theater. The fable of the Three Brothers. I can hardly find the words to express how gorgeous that part was. I don't know, maybe I was super emotional or had some hormones going crazy in my head, but I had effing tears in my eyes during the Three Brothers part, just because it was so perfect. The animation was just exquisite, a combination of clean, beautifully rendered effects and ancient shadow puppetry. Oh my god, I hardly expected that in a Harry Potter film, it was effing beautiful. Okay, so I get emotional when a movie is really good, because—it's hard to explain—I get overly happy and joyful when I realize that people are still making awesome films. I cry at the end of The Usual Suspects, just because it's so freaking good. Anyway, I sat there in the theater getting all teary-eyed because this one part of the film was worth the price of admission, maybe two admissions.

On the way back, I talked about that part with Glassworker and she agreed that the Three Brothers fable part was brilliant because Harry Potter itself is kind of like a fable, and so they had to animate that section as more of a fable to set it apart from the magic world of HP, which we accept as reality in its own world. She wondered aloud why it was always three, three this and three that and wouldn't it be nice if someone did a four, or a five? But on that I disagreed, because it is a fable (within a fiction) and Rowling really knows her idioms (I think she was an English teacher?) and so, of course it's going to be a three. That's standard.

I loved the inclusion of Nick Cave, holy crap. Did that ever come as a surprise! A few people giggled at the dancing, and I think in that scene, the movie couldn't make up its mind if it was supposed to be silly, or awkward, or sweet, or desperate, or some combination thereof, and instead it was just kind of a jumble and that, too, I lay at Daniel Radcliffe's door because he is kinda clunky here and there. Wasn't sure what to do with him.

His best scene was the beginning, with the Polyjuice Potions. He totally made me LOL during that, good for him.

SPOILERS. Because I realize there are people out there who haven't read the books.

I was so much more upset when Hedwig died than I was when Dobby did. I seem to remember feeling that way in the book, too. I was like, Seriously, he gets the biggest death scene out of freaking everyone? I mean aside from Snape, which hasn't happened in the movie yet. On the other hand, I get it, because JK Rowling is always about The Little Guy, and how meaningful the smallest creature is. The one that everyone finds insignificant is going to have the biggest impact. She did that with Kreacher in Order of the Phoenix, on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Most of the acting was pretty spot on. Luna is still my favorite, I guess after Hermione. Emma, by the way, has come such a long way. The dude who played Luna's dad was ridiculously creepy, Bill Nighy is always "HEY IT'S THAT GUY" when I see him. He'll somehow always be Davy Jones to me, but he's just so weird that he's kinda captivating. Umm, what's-her-name, Helena Bonham Carter, you know, often I really, really like her. But as Bellatrix she kinda goes on crazy overdrive to the point where she's chewing the scenery. She's all kinds of Evil Is Hammy and I cannot feel intimidated by her character because she comes across as kind of goofy in this series. I actually liked her a lot better in the previous movie because she had the best entrance pretty much ever.

In this movie, that honor goes to Snape. He rocked his entrance, to the point where it was sort of hot.

Umm, and you know what? This is by no stretch of anyone's imagination a children's or middle-grade series, whatsoever. That was clear in the books too, but abundantly clear on the big screen.

Anyway, I would absolutely watch the movie again in the theater (it would have to be in the theater,) just to see the Three Brothers / three Deathly Hallows part again. I don't think it would be as effective on the television. I mean, it would still be pretty and all, but there are some films that really need to be seen on that huge screen looming over you, and this is one of them.


ADDENDUM: I need to point out that I love, love, love JK Rowling, I realize that she is not perfect because no writer is, I'm in no place to judge because she's really brilliant. The scope of this series is amazing. Not only that, but she seems like a really awesome sort of person, she worked ridiculously hard for what she has, and she's totally inspiring as a writer and as a person. So yeah. ^_^