Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

JUL3

JUL3

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I dunno if we have any Potter-ites here on the forums, but I for one love the series. I'm going to see part 1 of The Deathly Hallows in a few hours, so I'll probably have a lot to say afterwards.

Who here grew up with the series? Discuss.
 
I'm gunna wait. i may even see it someday on bluray for all i care. when you get older the movies just don't do it for ya anymore especially when your super busy with friends and the holidays and in my case writing a damn novel of my own
 
Off to see this tonight, I'll let y'all know what I think.

edit: I should also add that I love the books, although I thought the last one was a bit over the top in some aspects. Hopefully this film doesn't leave too much out.
 
They're guilty pleasures of mine.
I only saw the first 3 in theaters though.

Will definitely see this one.
 
I saw it last night at midnight, pretty good. I liked the scandalous Harry and Hermione scene. Also the animation during the telling of the Deathly Hallows folktale was really cool.

I was within a year or so of age of Harry Potter as each book came out, so I'm awfully fond of the books though I'm not terribly enthralled by the movies.
 
The books are much more engaging, overall. The last 3 movies (haven't seen Deathly Hallows) have been so formulaic and boring. Is the newest one any better? By that I mean is there less middle-of-the-movie stagnation of teenage angst and drama with all the action crammed into the final 30 minutes?
 
I would certainly recommend it. I think it benefits greatly from the decision to split the film into two parts. I had hoped that it would allow for a more interesting exploration and reflection of the emotional journey these characters have gone through. It is here where the film often excels. I think it's my favorite since Prisoner - though I will need time to digest it all. That said, I don't think it exceeds Prisoner, which I believe to be a brilliant piece of work (more of an extension of the source material, I think, as opposed to an adaptation). I have a high opinion of Prisoner. But Hallows Part 1 is the closest in the series, I think, to matching its benchmark quality, and that in itself ought to be commended. Of course, it's lasting impact will depend on how well Yates has directed the final act of this grand story. I have a feeling that it will be a strong finish albeit unrewarding. The film series has been plagued by installments that haven't done nearly as much as what they should have. The film journey will feel hollow, I expect. I have more to say on it all but I'll leave it here.

I didn't at all like the visions - or intrusions - of Voldemort's mind regarding the interrogation of Ollivander regarding the Elder Wand. I've read the book, of course, but I thought that was terribly obscure and hard to follow. The opening montage of the trio and their families was lovely. Hedwig's sacrifice was one of the few alterations in the film series that actually worked. The Locket Hocrux scene with Ron experiencing the visions was, dare I say, better than the book. I really enjoyed Harry and Hermione's little dance. The final scene involving Dobby was lovely.

What I found really surprising was that Emma acted out her parts really, really well. What a shocker!
 
It was good, better than the last one, mainly because it didn't feel like they'd cut a whole lot out. The deathly hallows animation was great, it's definitely a very dark movie.
 
Well I just saw it. I absolutely loved it, being a devoted HP fan all my life I noticed alot of things most others in the cinema didn't (e.g. Harry looking in his cupboard under the stairs & finding the little toy soldiers he was playing with for a few seconds in The Philosopher's Stone). There were alot of homages to previous installments, which is fantastic for die-hards like me, it helps to mesh the films together, rather than alienate them further through lacking continuity in the series etc.
Ron's destruction of the Horcrux was incredible, that whole scene is still giving me goosebumps.

A few things didn't sit right with me though;
Bill Weasley was just all wrong - A) He's a principle character who was missing throughout the whole series, I got a "Yeah this is Bill, we didn't realise we'd actually need him until the last film" vibe out of him. B) His style is just all wrong, his accent is off & he doesn't look like a Weasley. Having red hair isn't enough IMO.
Regulus Black/Kreacher weren't honoured - I always loved the idea of this younger, dark-arts involved sibling of Sirius' actually rebelling & fighting back against Lord Voldemort. A lack of his backstory felt unnecessarily harsh, surely it wouldn't have taken so much extra effort to include Kreacher recounting his story properly.
Lupin & Tonks - There is absolutely no indication at all of Tonks' pregnancy, if this means a lack of Teddy Lupin in Part 2 I will be sourly disappointed.

So far I'd place The Deathly Hallows for equal first with The Order of the Phoenix, definitely the best film I've seen this year. Looking forward to Part 2!
 
Have not seen the movie but it sounds like a re-hash of the 6th movie:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/11/19/1257388/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows.html

you get a series of unpronounceable names and unexplainable clues to a hard-to-pin-down plot. If you’re not up to speed with the series and the characters, what any of the them are saying or doing will be almost impossible to discern. Even if you’ve read all of the books and are familiar with the characters, terms and magical gadgets, you are going to be challenged to make sense of this one.
Click to expand...

Added to the plot difficulty is the poorest possible sound recording and a cast — especially Rupert Grint’s Ron Weasley who serves as “comic relief” — that either mumbles most its lines or throws them out in indecipherable rapid fire.
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The kids get into trouble — zap. Scenery change.

A puzzling clue or two later and — zap, they’re somewhere else.

As expected, they get into trouble there, too. Zap. Scenery change.

And on it goes. Nothing comprehensible happens for 146 minutes.
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Almost all of the Potter films have received a rating of a high to low 70 range on rotten tomatoes. Yates and Heyman must be like "YAY we got a C- maybe we can get a C for the next film"!
 
This film was close enough to awful for me, and that's not only because it was bad, but because it was boring and unentertaining. I'm no lover of the books, but I'm no hater, either, and I certainly grew up with the Harry Potter series. I enjoyed the last book despite Rowling's inadequacies as a writer of plot and character, and hoped that the film might prove to be a worthwhile piece of cinema. Alas no; Yates, an unimaginative oaf, soured it from beginning to end with derivative directing, shoddy narrative and the flare and flamboyance of a dirty puddle. At first I found it hard to believe that people could like and enjoy this film, but it gradually occured to me that...of course they would. Because it's not like we can expect anything better from the Harry Potter flicks, is it?

Stories have a natural progression to them, but these films, they don't - they're glorified slide-shows, hastily moving from one event to the next simply for the virtue of getting through them. No scene has weight or gravity to it; no character drama ever leaps off the screen, what with painful acting from the trio and lines of dialogue so banal, so forced that it's hard not to cringe as you try and work your way into the fetal position in those ****ing cinema chairs. The storytelling is so unnatural. No sense of pace, no sense of progression; they're just scenes, flicking by heedless of what comes before or after.

"Dark times, no denying" declares the Minister in the opening. Sure, that was one of the highlights of Deathly Hallows the book - that totalitarian landscape Voldemort and his cronies were crafting as they swept aside resistance. Magic is Might indeed. But to Yates, this meant little, and apparently the only way to convey it is to sap all colour from the visuals and landscapes; we're talking ****ing grayscale here. Did anyone imagine the Malfoy manner to be so toneless? It's forced and unimaginative. Running through a barren forest in a 28 Days Later-esque inspired chase sequence? Can you imagine them trying any harder to sell the URGENCY of the situation? And if that wasn't subtle enough for you, take any scene from the film where it wants to scare you. It's all done through cheap, shock value shots, with Nagini leaping at the screen in as predictably boring manner as physically possible. It's the same thing with Harry's flashes of Voldemort - you can't follow them, because they're too snappy. Really, Yates - you're rubbish. You're just rubbish, and you don't have what it takes to transfer these stories from page to screen.
 
It was a terrible movie, something I would expect from an A-level flunky.
I wonder if the film was meant to be so rubbish just so I could derive massive pleasure from reading the hilariously accurate criticism of it.
 
It's been said many times but I'll echo it: The Harry Potter books would have made a much better series than films, with each book being one series.
 
Samon Fish said:
Stories have a natural progression to them, but these films, they don't - they're glorified slide-shows, hastily moving from one event to the next simply for the virtue of getting through them.
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I won't disagree with this at all.
 
JUL3 said:
There is absolutely no indication at all of Tonks' pregnancy, if this means a lack of Teddy Lupin in Part 2 I will be sourly disappointed.
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Actually there is. At the start when the order all arrive had harry's place, Tonks says she has some news to announce, but before she can say anything Mad Eye bursts in and says something like "we can all have a catch up later".
 
morgs said:
Actually there is. At the start when the order all arrive had harry's place, Tonks says she has some news to announce, but before she can say anything Mad Eye bursts in and says something like "we can all have a catch up later".
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Yeah, that's true. But why did Mad Eye have to cut her off? Maybe it will be a neat little surprise in Part 2. I certainly hope Teddy Lupin wasn't cut though.
 
I'm going to see this with my mom and sister tomorrow at the local IMAX. Did you guys have to make me hate it before seeing it?
 
Saw it lastnight. Never read the books or really followed the films. Would watch them if they were on tv over xmas.

The reviews have been really poor for it. Too long, too dark(literally). I would agree with alot of the criticisms posted above. The ending was very flat, for me atleast. I thought Hermione was played well. I loved the animation of the Deathly Hallows tale and the Horcrux apparition. Wit was lacking despite a few scenes. The way the principal 3 characters moved between locations didnt feel right, too. Voldemort should be given more screen-time. Hogwarts was missed.
 
Been looking at RT and seeing the history on Yates and Kloves. They only did like 3-5 films previously before HP and you never have heard of them. Thing is look at this: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/steve_kloves/ Steve Kloves has taken part in every one of the HP films except for Order of the Phoenix (78% rating). Now if you look at the film scores you will notice that the first started out with a 78% rating. Each movie gets better with a different director until finally we hit Prisoner of Azkaban with a score of 90%! After Azkaban though the review scores keep falling. The last 3 films have been made by Yates, the lowest scoring film's of the series, and the newest one has essentially the same score as the first film. It can be predicted that the last film will be the lowest score of the series. Also the first film was the most costly to make and since then they have been much less costly to produce. Since Yates started directing though, the films jumped in price. Guess more expensive doesn't mean better quality eh?
 
Makes no sense at all!

I don't think I have read this book. The books I did read were many many years ago. This movie does not stand on it's own at all. Nothing is explained, nothing makes sense. All I got was a lot of teleporting to pretty scenery and camping. I think that the movie is basically a series of events from the book without any of the narrative or explanation from the book. It's like they just took the things that people did and the things that they said but didn't include any of the other explanations of who people are or why they are doing things.
 
Can't believe that I'm gonna have to eat my own words now. In preparation for the final films, I have started (since July) reading the series again for the first time. At the end of the books I would watch the film adaptation and I gotta say they do the series right. They do make a lot of changes but probably the worst film is the Half-Blood Prince. They adapted it well but many things were taken from the book and put a new spin on it. They even added a major Burrow burning scene.

Deathly Hollows Part 1 is by far, the best book to film adaption and easily the best of the series. I stopped last night reading exactly where I knew the film would end and just saw the film.

My only major complaint is how they handled Peter Pettigrew. In the 3rd book Harry had a chance to let Siruis and Lupin kill Peter. Harry instead spared his life for prison but Peter escaped and re-joined Voldmort. Later Peter was given a fake silver hand for cutting off his own to resurrect Voldmort in the 4th book. In the final book in a struggle between Harry and Peter to escape the cellar of the Malfoy house, Peter attempted to strangle Harry. Harry while struggling said "you are going to murder me after I saved your life"? Peter loosened his grip in an act of remorse. Then the hand turned on him by an old curse for he had tried to kill Harry after he saved his life. Harry and Ron tried to free the hand but it strangled Peter to death in the cellar. In the movie though they made Dobby stun Peter. David Yates deemed it as too violent and "almost SAW like" so hopefully it's on the DVD. Oh and the Burrow is there like it always was making you wonder why they made it burn down in the last film.
 
hool10 said:
Can't believe that I'm gonna have to eat my own words now. In preparation for the final films, I have started (since July) reading the series again for the first time. At the end of the books I would watch the film adaptation and I gotta say they do the series right. They do make a lot of changes but probably the worst film is the Half-Blood Prince. They adapted it well but many things were taken from the book and put a new spin on it. They even added a major Burrow burning scene.

Deathly Hollows Part 1 is by far, the best book to film adaption and easily the best of the series. I stopped last night reading exactly where I knew the film would end and just saw the film.
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The issue I have with Half-Blood is that it tries too hard - and ultimately fails - to break up the pace and tone of the series. The sixth film was produced with the events of the seventh book in mind, and it was a conscious decision on behalf of Yates to provide a much lighter and comedic experience. Ultimately, the film came off terribly hollow. It focuses far too much on that which is inconsequential and sacrifices the interesting exploration into Voldemort's past. I'm no way in favor of the decision to omit the Gaunt memory, for example. Dumbledore's death was treated with little impact.

That said, I don't think it's the worst film of the series by any stretch of the imagination. I'm pretty sure Order kicks it squarely in the ass in that department.

The Deathly Hallows is nowhere near a perfect film. But despite the comments made by such naysayers as Samon, I did enjoy it immensely, especially during my second viewing. It definitely suffers from many of Yates' shortcomings, but I don't think it is without its merits. Despite the terrible obscurity of Harry's visions into Voldemort's mind and the cut-and-paste nature of the narrative, I felt it offered some interesting instances of exploration into the minds of the characters in a way the book never quite achieved. The scene where Voldemort's soul attempts to possess Ron through the images of a cruel Harry and Hermione was quite brilliant. The little scene where Harry and Hermione dance is another instance. The brief opening montage another. I don't think its fair to dismiss those scenes because other parts may have faltered. I may be wrong, but Samon seems to base the credibility of a piece of fiction on the whole; when one aspect fails, the rest quickly tumbles. I don't personally hold the same perspective. Where would be the fun if we all did?

That said, it also sacrifices a few scenes I thought were important enough not to cut; the outburst between Harry and Lupin at Grimmuald Place, for example, along with Harry's discovery of the torn letter written by Lilly.

I get the impression the production team felt more labored while filming Part 1. It is, for all intents and purposes, merely a build-up to Part 2. I think the latter will be the better of the two.

Still, Prisoner is by far the very best in the series, I think. The books themselves are unmatchable though.
 
That's what really irked me about Deathly Hallows, not once do they explain they're going off looking for horcruxes instead of school.
 
They do say that their mission now is Horcruxes and not school. The time that they were kids going to Hogwarts is long gone. This was mentioned at the end of the last film and second to last book. Try it out for yourselves and re-read the series. When you read books you create stuff that wasn't in the book and you remember them differently so when you watch the movie, it's terrible to you.

The Harry Potter series was created initially to be a kids book but as the series and readers grew older, the books grew darker and more progressive. The important thing is that I enjoy the books because it's not too challenging and are fun to read. Challenging is like reading a LOTR novel.

I strongly suggest though that if you take somebody with you to see this, that doesn't follow the series, you fill them in on what generally happened so far. It's like watching the last Star Wars film without watching the first.
 
Remember reading the book and thinking 'how on earth are they going to film this?'. A thankless task: not only are they constantly teleporting wherever there's some deus ex machina to operate, two significant scenes involve the main characters being acted by someone else. What I don't remember from the book was how much Harry / Ron / Hermione love triangle stuff they rushed out of it. Now, perhaps it is because I've read all the books, but this felt like we were retreading a theme we'd already had our fill of long ago.

At best, this felt like a primer for a better second part. At worst it just felt like a bunch of stuff being thrown about episodically. I think we have the book to blame for that... though I suppose the use of whatever stunningly scenic scenes they could get hold one after the other didn't really help. Oh well. At least they've always been good at casting these things.
 
Hool, the pretense that you have something informative to say is completely unwelcome.

hool10 said:
The Harry Potter series was created initially to be a kids book but as the series and readers grew older, the books grew darker and more progressive. The important thing is that I enjoy the books because it's not too challenging and are fun to read. Challenging is like reading a LOTR novel.
Click to expand...

Yeah man, those novels -- they're so ****ing dense and morally ambiguous with so much, y'know, depth to them. I personally fell off the attention train when they started talking about Dark Lords and mystical objects imbued with evil souls and destroying them and shit. TL;dr.

hool10 said:
I strongly suggest though that if you take somebody with you to see this, that doesn't follow the series, you fill them in on what generally happened so far. It's like watching the last Star Wars film without watching the first.
Click to expand...

Stop. Right there. Stop. I'm not even going to hit you with a sarcastic rebuttal here, I'm just not. Because obviously what you pointed out here was important. Watching a later installment of an ongoing series will be confusing and it's worth filling them in so that they're not lost. Thanks.
 
Is there anything you like Samon? Why do you even visit these forums? You just stink the place up with your usual trolling. I'm just posting my review and you have to come in and be a total dipshit about it.
 
morgs said:
That's Samon for you.
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salmonx.jpg
 
I'm going to see this movie with a friend tomorrow for FREE in IMAX. pants will be shat and ears will bleed from all the teenage angst
 
hool10 said:
Is there anything you like Samon? Why do you even visit these forums? You just stink the place up with your usual trolling. I'm just posting my review and you have to come in and be a total dipshit about it.
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We know, Hool. :/
 
Oh yeah. Harry Potter dancing made me cringe. There were a lot of groans from the audience too. Sooo awkward.
 
In summary: Harry Potter is fun, dumb escapism. The writing in the books sucks and the movies don't have a lot to work with on several levels. The seventh movies sucks. The third movie is awesome.
 
hool10 said:
Is there anything you like Samon? Why do you even visit these forums? You just stink the place up with your usual trolling. I'm just posting my review and you have to come in and be a total dipshit about it.
Click to expand...

Samon is just posting his review and views here and you had to come along (he has been here longer) and be a total dipshit about it.

The whole movie was predictable and anyone claiming that it was in any way "true to the book" needs a lobotomy. Only a philistine could have truly enjoyed the movie and be able to sincerely sympathize with the characters (were talking those who still think Avatar is cinema at its best). From the gray scale filming, to toddler drama this movie is a let down not only because of lackluster (insert aspect here) but also due to uninspired source material.

Silent Presence said:
In summary: Harry Potter is fun, dumb escapism. The writing in the books sucks and the movies don't have a lot to work with on several levels. The seventh movies sucks. The third movie is awesome.
Click to expand...

I'm such a git for having expected something more from a movie with such a tiny budget.

Tl;dr Rubbish, more appropriate title; Harry Potter and the Unspeakably Drawn out Camping Holiday in which Shit Happens Three Times then a Huge Shit and Harry Turns out to be Jesus.
 
Clearly I was referring to the movie's budget and simultaneously attacking your opinion. Of course.
 
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