really, it had to be done

[trinsy]

So a week later than the rest of the world, I finally saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday. It was pretty amazing. Way better than OotP and HBP. I thought it was kind of choppy, and there was one big thing I disagreed with, but overall I really loved it.

• I loved the beginning! The rusting WB would have been enough to gut me, tbh, but then Hermione broke my heart into a million little pieces! I really like that they showed her sacrifice onscreen. And I loved the parallels among the Trio in the opening, with all of them being isolated and on their own (even Ron). My only complaint (of course I have a complaint!) was that there wasn't the moment between Harry and Dudley. I'm not sure they could have had the parallel thing and the moment, so I do get it, but I've always loved that sweet little moment between them in the book. I wanted Dudley redeemed!

• SNAPE. There is this moment right when Snape walks in and sees Charity hanging above the table, and there's this look in his eyes for a just a second, and it's heartbreaking. You can see just how much he wants to save her. I don't know how Alan Rickman can pull that off, but he does it brilliantly every single time.

• I love that they changed the way Hedwig dies. It's a hero's death, which is exactly what she deserves!

• Oh Bill, I would care so much more about you if you'd been introduced in the previous films and I were in any way invested in your character.

• Which actually brings me to the way they handled Scrimgeour. So, I guess we're supposed to like him? He's not a good dude, guys. I mean, I get it. You cast Bill Nighy, it automatically makes you want to like him. And I think Bill Nighy was brilliant casting, don't get me wrong. And that's not why they made him not an asshole, either, and I get that too. They did it because making his character more complex would have been too complicated since they didn't have his HBP storyline, and that's the thing. Most of my issues with this movie aren't even issues with this movie, they're issues with the previous movies. Like wtf is this mirror Harry keeps looking into? Guess you shouldn't have cut that subplot out of OotP after all, huh?

• There was not enough Kreacher/Regulus backstory. Way too rushed. But the scene at the Ministry was brilliant! The adult actors were amazing! Though, seriously, try to look more suspicious, guys.

• I loved the scene with Xenophilius. However, it really bothered/distracted me that Evanna Lynch is Irish (which actually makes little sense, since the Lovegoods live like, one village over from the Weasleys, but that doesn't actually bother me because, hello, Evanna Lynch is more Luna Lovegood than Luna Lovegood herself!), and then the dude who plays her dad is Welsh. And I'm not even British! (Okay, so maybe about 70% of my distraction was feeling really proud of myself for being able to identify his accent as Welsh, but whatever. All that British tv finally paid off!) I mean, I know most Americans aren't going to notice, but HP is a British series starring British actors being shown in British cinemas. Isn't that going to bother them?

• So my biggest complaint: I completely disagree with Grindelwald telling Voldemort that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand. As if Grindelwald would ever betray Dumbledore like that! Way to destroy that relationship completely!

• Okay, but I'll be honest. None of this really matters (except Grindelwald, because seriously, not okay!) because they finally, FINALLY, after six films, got the Trio dynamic right! Ron was actually part of it, and you really felt, through the whole thing, the unifying force of the three of them. It's not a Harry and Hermione thing: It's an us thing, and you really feel that. And that dance scene was totally cute and handled really well, I think, especially at the end where you get that it was just a temporary fix and there's still something really wrong with Ron gone. And I loved the way they did the Horcrux scene, because it was so creepy and gross. It was just really perfect, the whole thing. Everything between the three of them. I am so, so happy about that, I can't even tell you. It makes anything and everything else they got wrong kind of irrelevant to me. (Except Grindelwald!)

I do want to say, though, that the thing about adapting something like the HP series for film is that you either make it for the book fans, or you make it for people who have never read the books at all. (Oddly, I think Twilight has done perhaps the best job at balancing those two of all the series that have been adapted over the past decade ... but that's another post.) The thing about HP, however, is that it's never done either: they cut just enough of the fan-favorite scenes and just enough of the exposition that if you're a die-hard fan, you're severely pissed off, and if you're not, you're absurdly confused. This movie was actually made much more for the book fans than any of the previous ones (except probably the first two), and that's cool, sort of, but honestly, if I hadn't just reviewed the book with Mark Reads HP, I would have had trouble following the movie, and I have read this book and the entire series multiple times. However, I'm willing to forgive a lot for finally getting the Trio dynamic right. So, you know, good job, HP team. I guess seventh time really is the charm.