How sad is it that I’m really happy - just because this is the longest thread I’ve ever started!
It may be the only one that’s gone to multiple pages!
I’m also gonna put the Malfoy house torture scene as one of the things I didn’t like as well. This is really only because Hermione was crying in it and acting all scared and wussy…whereas when I read the book and Rowling mentioned the guys being able to hear her screams of agony I attributed it to Hermione screaming in pain…but being a badass about it.
It’s another nitpicky thing…but it made her seem weak.
It’s not sad at all. Just wait until your thread makes the “threadspotting” homepage sometime. I almost cried when mine did.
I’ve always had the feeling that Hermione isn’t particularly close to her parents. She loves them – of course she does – but I always picked up from the books that maybe she doesn’t necessarily miss them too much when she’s away at Hogwarts. Oh, she dutifully writes them long letters twice a week or whatever, but she’s always eager to go back to school (Doesn’t she drop a ski trip with her parents in one book? I bet her parents were really hurt and disappointed.). I imagine she has always been this super-mature, intelligent, independent kid and when she finally got The Letter from Hogwarts she never looked back. “Ah, yes – I always knew I was different, and now I can be where I’m meant to be.” And then once she’s away at boarding school, they hardly ever see her any more anyway, and she grows up without them.
Or maybe they’re just cold fish, nice but boring suburbanites, and I’m reading way too much into this. 
I don’t agree. If you’re being tortured, but don’t provide information to your torturer, you’re being strong as hell. It doesn’t matter if you cry, scream, act wussy, piss yourself - if you don’t tell them what they want to know, if you don’t betray your friends, you’re being strong.
Yeah, even Han Solo screamed.
The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan and I went on a date night Saturday and saw it. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
[ol][li]They did IMO a good job of condensing a very long, very eventful book into a movie. I was not bored by the scenes of wandering in the book, but the character development that comes about in those scenes would be very hard to film, and pretty much out of place in an action/adventure film. [/li][li]The parts they left out that I missed the most were [list=A][]The back story about Kreacher. That was genuinely touching, at least as much as the death of Dobby. Kreacher was treated decently for once, and it made him likable. It would have resonated with another part they left out, which was SPEW and how badly house elves were treated.[]The whole Dumbledore back story. I am assuming that has all been transferred to Part II. At least I hope so - it is an important part of his character development.[/ol][/li][li]I loved the animation of the story of the Deathly Hallows. Just perfect - creepy and intriguing at the same time. Like Helen Bonham Carter, in fact.[/li][li]Emma Watson is emaciated almost to the point of anorexia! Even in the book/movie, she is grown up, but she still looks barely pubescent. [/li][li]I am not sure I liked the dance scene. maggenpye gave a good precis of what it was meant to achieve, but ISTM that the implied rejection of Harry by Hermione as a romantic partner should have been more of a mutual decision. It came across almost as if Harry were hitting on Hermione now that Ron was out of the picture. Harry is supposed to be in love with Ginny, and propinquity should be no excuse. [/li]
Maybe they were setting up that Ron was secretly jealous of Harry, but it would have been better if that came as a revelation in the scene where Ron destroys the horcrux.
[li]I don’t think anyone who didn’t read the books or see the previous movies could pick up on what was going on, but that is unavoidable in the seventh movie of a series. My wife has read all the books and seen all the movies, and we still spent most of dinner figuring out stuff. [/li][/list]All this is nitpicking - Part II should be a ripsnorter!
Can’t wait!
Regards,
Shodan
Well, sure, but they never asked him any questions! Kind of hard to talk, eh?
-Joe
Considering that Bellatrix is adept enough with the cruciatus curse to to torture adult wizards into incurable insanity, I had no problem with Hermiones reaction in that scene.
Speaking as someone who had read books 1 through 6 and seen movies one through three, but was basically unspoiled about book number 7 (ok I know that the last horcrux is ooh spoiler), I totally understood what was happening with the locket in the lake. The only part I really didn’t see the point of was the old lady historian who turned into a snake; what was up with that? Seemed like a pointless action scene that only gave another hint about the Deathly Hallows symbol which had already been foreshadowed elsewhere.
I saw this at the drive-in as a double feature (along with Megamind). I enjoyed it. The audio quality could have been better; it was probably a combination of listening to it over the radio and the actors mumbling a bit.
All in all, I enjoyed it, but for me it really just made me anticipate the upcoming movie more. I really, really liked the illustration of the Deathly Hallows story, and Bill Nighy! I have read the books, but the action in the lake had me a little confused. I actually missed that the locket was pulling Harry away from the sword. I think I should go back and read the books before the last movie comes out.
The set up was at the wedding. There are competing stories about Dumbledore and Harry learns that Bathilda Bagshot was a friend and neighbour of Dumbledore’s at Godric’s Hollow (where Harry’s family also lived).
When Harry goes to Godric’s Holow to find his parent’s gravesite, “Bathilda” silently invites him to follw her back to her house and seems to be showing him some information on Dumbledore - but really she is Nagini (Voldemort’s pet snake) in disguise. Voldemort has guessed where Harry would go and laid a trap for him.
That scene was very close to the book version.
In all honesty, I think I would too.
Well, in the book it was pretty clear that Bellatrix was using Cruciatus on Hermione. In the movie, when I saw that the blood-curdling shrieks had come in response to having “Mudblood” carved in her arm, I was somewhat nonplussed.
Teenaged girls do that kind of thing to themselves during English class, and nobody hears a peep out of them.
It was actually even ickier than that, if I’m reading the book correctly (and admittedly it’s been a little while, but I’ve listened to all 7 books on audiobook several times): Nagini is possessing Bathilda’s body (almost certainly physically, since the snake erupts up out of her and goes after Harry). The snake has killed her awhile ago, and somehow crawled into her body and animated it. That’s why she was covered with so many shawls and layers, why she didn’t speak (because only Harry could understand Parseltongue, so Hermione would instantly know something was up if she did), and why Rowling several times referenced a rotting smell around the house and Bathilda.
I thought it was a cool scene, but then, I love gory horror books. 
Nagini’s costume was from the Hannibal Lector Disguise Shop!
Good catch.
I understand that…but it’s her crying that get’s me.
Han just screamed cuz it hurt…but he never lost it. Hermione lost it for me.
Well, it is a PG-13 movie. I was surprised they kept the shot of Hermione with Ron’s blood on her hands (after he gets splinched). They digitally removed the blood in some advertising and I thought they were taking it out of the movie altogether.
I’m disappointed that Hermione has such a typical, high-pitched girlie scream. So there.
Which, to this 14 year old boy, unnerved the HELL out of me. It’s one thing to shoot lots of white anonymous stormtroopers, it’s quite another to cause LOTS of PAIN to one of the heros.
Saw the movie. Enjoyed it. Felt it did a reasonable job conveying events. Not as much dropped as in previous films. Really enjoyed the animation of the three brothers story.
I so totally didn’t get that this was a reference to the Twilight films.
I did kinda miss the Dudley coming to Harry’s defense. That was such a growing moment from the books. Dudley, chief tormenter of Harry’s, now grown up enough to stand up for Harry, and they made a bit of peace. He wasn’t particularly any brighter, but had gained a bit of perspective - maybe just the personal experience from Harry saving him from the Dementors, but still. Not that it was necessary for this film, just a minor thing I missed.
Yeah, well that is the Potterverse magic. It takes the right intonation of the right incantation (which is just a word or two), coupled with a wand and the right flick of the wrist, plus some innate ability and practice to hone wielding that ability. Then it works very simplistically, no homing ability, ricocheting off object, breaking breakables. Kinda odd.
Apparently in the Potterverse, that kind of symmetry is not obvious even to the bad guys, so totally useful for the symbolic meaning to the audience.
Again, that was a small point from the books that was meaningful, but because of previous shortcutting there wasn’t a lot to work with, and no point spending time on it. Kreacher’s redemption would have been nice, but when they have to cut something, these are the things they’ve been cutting.
I have to agree - she freaks out over seeing the sword, we come to realize she recognizes it but not why she is blasting her henchmen over it. Finally it became clear to me that she thought she had the sword locked up in Gringott’s bank, but it wasn’t obvious.
Something like - “Really? We’re on the run from Deatheaters and nearly got nabbed in that coffee shop, and you’re worried about a silly birthday party?” Basically, putting perspective on her silly attitude about missing the party when it got interrupted by Deatheaters storming the wedding.
I think it was less about hiding Harry and more about protecting him. He starts out at the Dursleys’, where he is safe because of his mother’s sacrifice spell. But that protection ends on his 18th birthday, when he becomes of age. So the Order is moving Harry from the Dursleys’ to the Weasleys’, where they have enacted a large number of protection spells and aurors, under the Ministry authority. When the Ministry falls to Voldemort, he gains control over many of those protections that were using the power of the Ministry. That’s why the Deatheaters are able to show up then and invade. And why Harry and the others have to run.
Well, they did exposition about what the sword was and that it was missing at the beginning, but I didn’t immediately make the connection to it being missing and Belatrix having stolen it and hidden it in her bank vault when she started freaking out. It became clear to me when she was questioning the Goblin, but not when she started blasting henchmen. Now maybe the intent was to show her insanity by having her freak out for no apparent reason, and the reason kinda come out later. If so, I guess it worked.
I didn’t recall the mirror or who was supposed to be in it.
Question: when Harry Potter is attacked by Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot’s house in Godric’s Hollow, the setting changes briefly from a dilapited shabby room to a well-lit nursery, and then back. Is this Harry having a flashback to his childhood, or was he knocked through a wall into the house next door? I am assuming the former.
Yeah, why did Dobby suddenly appear then?
A further note, I don’t think you can trace an apparition, so if they wanted to go to the same place, they either needed to be in contact with each other or they needed to pre-coordinate where they would go in an emergency. Given the unprepared nature of their emergency exits, one would think they might prepare in advance, but apparently they weren’t that bright - look at Ron getting splinched in the first run from the MoM.
Nonsense. Hermione isn’t indifferent or neglectful. She is protecting them the only way she has the power to do. Because without her, they really are unprotected - even more so than any old wizard. They have no ability to protect themselves from the Death eaters or Voldemort - the only protection they have is anonymity. Anyone discovers they are Hermione’s parents, they become a tool to get to Hermione and thus Harry, and they are bigger targets than ordinary muggles because they have a magical child, even if it weren’t Hermione. Muggles are largely backdrop to Voldemort - he will deal with them after he gets the wizards under his thumb. The are much safer being generic muggles than being the muggle parents of a witch, or especially being the muggle parents of one of Harry’s best friends.
I liked that scene. I didn’t see it as giving any real sense of romance between the two, it was Harry trying to cheer Hermione and himself up. Seems to me a shorthand to the sense of sadness, depression, and loss without Ron, by showing the effort it takes to find something cheerful.
Harry wanted to get more info on the symbol, but especially learn the secrets of Dumbledore’s past that apparently where brought out in the book. He hoped by talking to her, she would tell him things from Dumbledore’s past that he didn’t know. And he gained information about Grindelwald, so it wasn’t worthless. But it was a risk, he expected Voldemort to have set a trap, but he didn’t realize what the trap was.
The connection to the symbol wasn’t just seeing the symbol again, but
seeing the grave and the name on the grave connected to the symbol, which later gets suggested that he was one of the original brothers. Turns out that yes he was, and that he is one of Harry’s ancestors. Thus the eventual revelation that Harry’s magic invisibility cloak is actually the one from the tale, and not just a run of the mill invisibility cloak.