I'm finally getting around to reviewing this. Yes, I was there at 12:01 am on Friday. Yes, I wore my Gryffindor shirt and scarf. Yes, it was a madhouse (my theater had FOUR theaters showing it--all sold out) and yet it was the most laid-back and fun madhouse I've seen in a long time. People were friendly, laid-back, and very excited for the movie. I got a decent seat, a bag of Sour Patch Kids, and settled in for the show.
And it was amazing.
I'll take this opportunity to warn you that if you continue reading this post, there will be spoilers galore. That's your warning. Turn back now if you don't want to know more because I'm going to spill.
As I've followed the books and movies, I've always been slightly distressed by parts of the movies that don't follow the book (Half-Blood Prince and your burning down of the Weasely's home, I'm looking at you!), so I was worried about what creative liberties might have been taken with this movie. I'm so happy to report that almost NONE were.
Let me start by revealing that the movie starts at Malfoy Manor, as the book does, and with Harry watching the Dursley's leave, and ends at Dobby's death (*sob*) and Voldemort stealing the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave. It seemed an excellent place to break the movie in half, as Harry's time at Shell Cottage is a recharging point in the book, from which he, Ron and Hermione move ahead with renewed energy towards the final battle of Hogwarts.
Sure, when Harry and Hagrid are on the flying motorcycle, there's a bit where they end up in Muggle traffic that didn't happen in the book and I was thinking, "OMG, the Ministry's gonna have a job clearing all those Muggles' memories of THIS." But it's such a little thing, it can be forgiven. The rest of the scene sticks very close to the book, except that they bypass having Harry and Hagrid go to the Tonks' home in favor of just going straight to the Burrow.
There are bits of the movie that felt slower in the book and rushed here--for example, Harry's time at the Weasely's home is rushed, as is the wedding...but it's easy to forgive this because there is simply a lot of story to tell. As in the book, a ton of time is spent on the camping and Apparating from one bit of England to another--some people find this hugely boring, but I don't.
I was a little disappointed by a couple of omissions, but not enough to rage about it: 1) Dudley, while in the movie at the very beginning, doesn't have his touching goodbye with Harry as in the book, and 2) Kreacher's Tale is cut very short, leaving out the bits about how much he loved "brave Regulus" and how Regulus died to save Kreacher.
I thought one addition was quite poignant--in the beginning, we see Hermione sadly fix the Memory Charm ("obliviate") on her parents and then watch as the camera pans across the family pictures, erasing her presence from the Granger's lives. It's not "shown" in the book, but it's mentioned that she sent them to Australia to keep them safe from Voldemort. Seeing it happen in the movie gives it that sad, "this is what we've gotten ourselves into" quality.
One thing I find myself kind of glad of is that while there is attention paid to Dumbledore's flaws, it's not quite as much of an obsession for Harry as it is in the book. There really isn't enough time in the action for him to be so worried about it, but we get glimpses of his confusion and even anger at Dumbledore for leaving him this task while he feels so unprepared for it.
In this particular half of the story, a lot of time is spent on Ron, and the movie didn't let him down at all. Indeed, we get his increased anger and resentment as the locket Horcrux remains undestroyed, and we see, just like in the book, his redemption when he comes back, saves Harry from the icy pond, and then destroys the Horcrux. We also see a new closeness between Harry and Hermione, which inspires Ron's jealousy but also strengthens Harry.
The best quality of the movie, however, bigger than any one scene or piece of story, is how it captured--brilliantly--J.K. Rowling's incredible ability to infuse a dark, lonely tale with moments of love, humor and light-heartedness. Just as in real life, there are sometimes moments of beauty even on the darkest of days, and I've always loved that just as Harry, Ron and Hermione feel they'll never reach their goal of defeating Voldemort, Rowling throws in a funny moment, some bit of cheer that reenergizes both character and reader. I thought the movie captured this very well.
The action scenes, of course, are top-notch, and the characters who die in the book (Mad-Eye, Hedwig, Dobby) have, so far, all died in the movie...with the notable exception of Wormtail. In the book, his enchanted hand kills him at Malfoy Manor as Harry and Co. escape with Dobby's help--this was skipped in the movie. Dobby, however, takes Belatrix' knife to his chest and dies near Shell Cottage after whispering, "Dobby...is proud...to be with his friend...Harry Potter..." I actually moaned out loud at this bit and am not ashamed to say that I cried a little. Such a heroic little house elf! Harry digs the grave manually, without magic, just as in the book.
In this half of the story, I missed Neville (he has one little thirty-second bit on the Hogwarts Express), McGonagall, and a few other characters, and I look forward to seeing them in Part 2. I thought the actor who portrayed Xeno Lovegood did a fine job and Luna was, as she always has been, perfectly cast.
I feel my review is disjointed--there's so much to think about and talk about with this movie. It goes a little past two and a quarter hours and is, in my opinion, the best adaptation of one of the books of all. I can't wait for Part 2!
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