Did you see Harry Potter? What did you think? SPOILERS inside!!

[Deb in IA]

We are all HUGE Harry Potter fans, and for the most part, we thought this movie was well done, and we loved it, as we have all the others, so far.

This was much more true to the book than the last couple of movies, although it was weird to have Bill Weasley suddenly appear when we've never seen him before.

I too was disappointed that we did not get to see the backdrop of The Dursley's leaving their home and especially the scene between Dudley and Harry.*

We also loved that scene in the book, when Dudley finally realizes that Harry saved their lives, and Harry tells Dudley, "Well, good-bye, Big D." But the Dursleys have been such horrible people in the movies, it would have been awkward to have them suddenly become nice.

I just wanted to add that I also loved how they did the telling of the story of the Three Brothers. I thought that was very well done.

I liked it too.

I was very impressed with Helena Bonham Carter, that girl can do crazy!

She said that she was shooting this at the same time she was doing "The King's Speech". How different that must have been - alternating between evil Bellatrix and the saintly Queen Mother to be! She said that her kids asked her, "Who are you going to be today, mummy? The queen or the witch?"

We have it on CD for the car trips--its great to both get lost in the book together even though I am driving I can still "read" the book....and Jim Dales voices for the book are so good!

We LOVE Jim Dale and the his audio recordings!!

I really enjoyed the bit where they snuck into the Ministry...the actors playing the polyjuiced characters did a heckuva job with that. The guy who played Harry/Runcorn looked terribly uncomfortable in his own clothes.

That was very well done, especially since they were acting with other people's voices!

LOVED Jason Isaacs as Lucius (and the Malfoys in general) - there really was this sense of "in too deep," and Lucius' desperation, knowing that one false move is going to get them killed.

I love Jason Issacs! He said in EW that Azkaban was not kind to Lucius, and that he went from being a vain, arrogant racist pig to a haunted, hunted man, and I think he did a great job protraying that!

The wand follows the power trail, rather than the physical ownership of the wand. Thus, when Harry "defeated" Draco at Malfoy Manor, the power trail was now with Harry. I equate it to the Trace, except for random magical objects.

Yeah, that was the conclusion I came to. Although the physical wand was buried with Dumbledore, the power of the Elder Wand or the "virtual" wand, if you will, went to Draco then Harry.

I know I'm going to be a mess when Severus Snape dies, and most likely cry through his backstory. It's so sad :'(

Yup, me too. I've always been a Snape fan.


Some of our minor criticisms -

I can understand some of the stuff they cut out. I would have liked to see Viktor Krum at Bill and Fleur's wedding, and the fake Ron with the pox at home, but they are not essential.

I do wish they had shown Harry giving the fake locket to Kreacher, and Kreacher being nice to them.

I LOVE Rupert Grint!! I can spend the whole movie just watching his expressions, even when he is just in the background. He is so good, and so funny!

I was a bit disappointed in Harry's lack of emotion after Hedwig dies. In the book, it affects him much more - Hedwig is one of Harry's oldest friends. But in the movie, she gets zapped trying to protect him, and he doesn't seem to faze him at all.

Dobby's death - well, I knew it was coming, but it still made me cry.

All of this is really setting up for the final movie. I just hope that they will do it justice. There will be some great scenes from there - the Gringotts break-in, the Room of Requirement inferno, The Prince's Tale (Snape's backstory), The Forest Again (when Harry walks to face Voldemort, accompanied by the ghosts of his parents and Sirius), and finally the Battle of Hogwarts.

 

[Jennasis]

In the book, at least the last one, Polyjuice allows the drinker to have the voice of the person they are impersonating, so no idea why they changedit in the movie.

 

[gometros]

I think for the sake of the movie timeline, putting in Kreacher's extended story and attitude change would have been irrelevant. It was already established that house elves MUST obey their masters... period. What I didn't like was that there was no explanation that Harry inherited everything that belonged to Sirius, includind Kreacher.

Understood, but what would it have cost them, just to show Harry giving the locket to Kreacher? They didn't need to go into the whole Kreacher being nice and cooking for them. Just one little 15 second scene would have been sufficient.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

In the book, at least the last one, Polyjuice allows the drinker to have the voice of the person they are impersonating, so no idea why they changedit in the movie.

They started that back in Chamber... Ron and Harry had to modify their voices to be more like Krabbe and Goyle.

Movie continuity would force them to do the same for HP7... [though I agree with your point].

Then again, I think if they went for the full switch, it may not be clear enough for some viewers to remember it's not Ron, Harry, Hermione, or one of the others being someone else...

Which makes me think of the whole Mad Eye scenario... his only slip was the tongue... I think they did it so people would remember who's who.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Understood, but what would it have cost them, just to show Harry giving the locket to Kreacher? They didn't need to go into the whole Kreacher being nice and cooking for them. Just one little 15 second scene would have been sufficient.

ITA. DH got confused there, so I had to explain it all (he never read the books).

There were a few things I think they could have mentioned in a touch more detail and it wouldn't have added on too much time.