To set the scene: I am sitting in our conservatory/lean-to and it is bucketing down with rain outside (possibly linked to the lack of internet connection). The roof of this room is both translucent and very conductive of sound. I feel like nature is giving this review a drum-roll!
I saw the much-anticipated final Harry Potter film last night, so I’d like to get some thoughts down whilst they are fresh. Please be aware that this may contain some spoilers, particularly of Part I. I’ll do my best to keep the key details of Part II under-wraps, but I’m new to this, so please bear with me!
As a fan of the books, I have been an interested observer of the films, but haven’t considered myself to be really that fussed by them until The Order of the Phoenix
which is where the current director, David Yates took over the franchise.
The film is brilliantly done. One of the worries that I had was that splitting the book into two would break the magic and lose the build-up; not so! It really isn’t an exaggeration to say that my heart was beating faster from pretty much the beginning of the film. It was straight into scenes of Hogwarts under the new regime to set the scene and then back to our team at Shell Cottage, where we left them at the end of the last film. I was pleased to see that the proper epitaph was placed on Dobby’s tomb, something which I had noticed and missed in Part I and this caused the first big sobs for me.
Our time at Shell Cottage is shortened by the necessities of film dynamics: the weeks and weeks of plotting and planning are truncated into two brief conversations with Mr Ollivander and Griphook. The latter is particularly done-down by this editing; sinister as he should be; the books allow for lot more description of the history of wizard/goblin relations and the significance of the goblin origins of the Sword of Gryffindor is lost. This leaves Griphook’s later actions looking rather colder than they were written in the book.
Pretty quickly, we move on to the Gringotts heist and I thought that Helena Bonham-Carter and Emma Watson teamed-up beautifully to portray Hermione as Bellatrix Lestrange. They really captured the uncertainty that Hermione would feel and which was nearly the undoing of the whole plot. Quickly, we move into the vault-scene, which was very true to the book with the small exception that Harry now seems to be able to hear the Horcruxes, which is something that I can’t remember from the books at all (and could be my faulty memory), but certainly seems to speed up the finding of them once he is in close proximity, and so may be a time-saving device for the films.
Next was the wonderful scene with the dragon. I’m fairly certain that this was an occasion where my imagination was surpassed by the film-makers! The detail of the dragon destroying the chimneys and rooftops as it was trying to get enough lift was so clever, and gorgeous backdrop of the London sky-line was really atmospheric.
From about now, the pace doesn’t really drop very much at all, and I am afraid I can’t remember everything in the proper order so I will just jump to the points of significance, hopefully without giving too much away!
The trio end-up inside Hogwarts, where they are reunited with many of their friends and family who are ready to rally around and fight the last stand with Harry, but before that there are things to be done...
The sections in the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requirement didn’t quite have the urgency that I needed. It was all over a bit quickly (and dare I say easily? No. I guess not, the struggle was portrayed but did lose something in being relatively short). The much built-up-to scene with Ron and Hermione was done really well and was spot-on with their characters and the circumstances in which they found themselves.
The collateral damage over the next few scenes is high, with many main characters not getting to the end. Again, lack of time here somewhat diminished the great sadness that was felt in the book, where the loss of certain characters is given far more significance. I do wonder whether the way the film deals with these losses is actually more reflective of behaviour in the midst of battle and so I can forgive this.
The scene in the Shrieking Shack (now moved to a boathouse, with no great loss, but perhaps a more aesthetic setting) was just perfect. Alan Rickman was so right and played it so well. Combined with the bit in the Pensieve and I was blubbing properly!
Gosh, what next? Harry in the Forbidden Forest and Harry at Kings Cross. I think that by this point in the book, I was racing through the pages and actually the pace of the film scene is slower than I read it, to great advantage. Both in the Forest and at the station, I felt a sense of resolution and peace which really illustrated why Harry was able to do what he did.
My absolute favourite part of the entire series of books is the duel between Mrs Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange and I’m afraid I was slightly disappointed. I wanted it to be longer, more of a struggle, more of a triumph, but it was over before I really felt the peril of the situation. Bellatrix should have been a more formidable opponent.
Neville’s significance as the other wizard boy born in late July 1980 is largely glossed-over in the films, but he really rises up as a “true Gryffindor” and I actually clapped him at one point. Great casting. I was unsure of Matthew Lewis to begin with, wondering whether he could carry off only the comedic bumbling role that he was given in the first few films, but he has really risen to the challenge and I think we will see more of him now that the HP franchise is over.
I can’t really go much further without giving away massive plot details. The ending was well-done and thankfully didn’t have that annoying Hollywood trait of completely changing the end so that fans of the book leave the cinema annoyed and frustrated thinking “but that’s not what happens!”. If you’ve followed the books or the films, you really should see this film. I think even the most hard-hearted of audience members were sniffing and sobbing and when was the last time you went to the cinema and the audience spontaneously clapped as the credits rolled?
o Sydney Welles, the title under which it is published in the US.
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