Secondly, if you haven't seen "A Very Potter Musical", you REALLY need to. Darren Criss - Blaine on Glee - formed his own production company, and wrote this wonderous addition to the musical world, long before appearing on Glee. Also, he plays Harry Potter. Which makes it all the more fabulous. It's pretty long, because it's a legitimate play so it's in installments, but I'll try and post the link to a playlist so if you have two hours and nothing to fill them with, I promise, you won't regret wasting them here:
It combines all seven books into one fabulously funny, two hour musical production. It's amazing to say the VERY least. I may actually watch it in its entirety after this post.
In completely unrelated news, for the few of you who actually read my blog regularly, you'll recall my bird friend that nested and had a baby on my windowsill. Obviously, said baby has departed (a few weeks ago actually).
Yesterday, to my extreme surprise, I looked out my window to see my dove standing over a brand new egg!! This was ridiculously exciting and I proceeded to call my papa bear immediately. I had no idea that doves only had one egg at a time - but apparently they do!
Back to HP:
I've already seen the final installment to this extraordinary series twice since its premier on Thursday. And I must say, this is the best one ever. Evidently J.K. Rowling acted as a producer for this last movie, which probably had a lot to do with its much more accurate than normal story-line.
I will go ahead and give my thoughts - but beware, it'll probably ruin the movie if you haven't seen it yet... So don't read on. I guess in the internet world, I must post "SPOILER ALERT".
Let's not pretend I was not emotional going into this. That's why I had to see it twice before posting anything about it. I actually cracked up a bit because yesterday, I received an email from my Aunt Sheryl asking me when I was going to post my thoughts. So I went and saw it again so I could control myself and focus.
I started crying halfway through the movie at the premier, I did better the second time though, so don't worry.
I was really impressed by how incredibly quickly the trio reached Hogwarts in this half of the film. In the book, the Battle of Hogwarts isn't until the very last couple of chapters - so I assumed that it would take proportionally long to get there in the movie, but they managed to arrive at Hogwarts less than halfway through the movie.
Even though they reached the battle WAY faster than expected, they did a remarkably good job of including absolutely everything up until that point. They included the conversations at Shell Cottage, the break in at Gringotts, the escape, Voldemort's fury, the whole darn thing! It was just ridiculously fast, but the details were spot on - which is what really matters to me.
The Battle of Hogwarts was, for lack of a better word, astounding. There was a lot more detail than was in the book, but all of it would have happened behind the scenes of the book - nothing was outside of the imaginable based on J.K. Rowling's description of the battle - the Acromantulas, the giants (however, I was disappointed that Grawp didn't make an appearance), the protectors and the duels.
I get chills just thinking about Professor McGonnagal calling the castle's statues to arms. And the Professors and Molly Weasley putting up the great protection around the castle.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that they included a scene about Hermione destroying Hufflepuff's cup Horcrux. In the book, we follow Harry through his whole journey, but in film, we have the liberty of following other characters more closely, and I was really impressed by Hermione and Ron's journey to the Chamber of Secrets and, most of all, the STELLAR, and long awaited kiss!
King's Cross was a major scene that everyone looked forward to seeing how it was interpreted. I think Rowling's involvement solidified the scene into what most people (myself included) would have seen it as. It was exactly how I pictured it. What was more, Dumbledore was given a line in the film, that was not in the book, but definitely would have fit in perfectly. It contained much truth and played a major part in the whole series. It was something to the effect of: "Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it". Brilliant.Molly Weasley obviously kicked Bellatrix's ass in a major way - which was exciting and honestly, kinda gross. Same goes for when Voldemort dies. In the book, he just dies and they place his body in a chamber/closet off the hall so that he lies away from everyone who died fighting him. In the movie, he disintegrates - both disgusting and disturbing... I would not want bits of him flying around in my air. No sir. And that's what Molly does to Bellatrix too - explodes her.
Neville really shines in this movie as well, his part with the bridge - which is absolutely brilliant - really gives a scope of how he's grown into himself and his name.
I wept like a crazy person when Harry used the Resurrection Stone to call back his parents, Sirius and Lupin. Like an absolute FOOL both times. Cried like a nutter through Snape's memories and seeing Tonks and Lupin and so on.
I really only had two specific problems with the film:
1) The Boathouse: What the hell. There has never been a boathouse in the entire HP series - but that's where Voldemort kills Snape. How dumb. It was supposed to happen in the Shrieking Shack - people actually know what that is.
2) The disposal of the Elder Wand: In the book, the ending was very elegant - The trio return to the headmaster's office to thunderous applause from the previous headmasters/mistresses and to speak to Dumbledore one last time. Harry fixes his Holly and Phoenix wand with the Elder Wand and explains that he will be the last true master of the wand and its power will die with him. Dumbledore notes his approval and all ends well, all making sense. Instead he breaks it in half and throws it in the gorge. WHAT?! not even close.
The epilogue was, actually, really good. I had no idea how they were going to pull it off, but it ended up being pretty perfect. Fortunately, the composer (somehow not John Williams) thought to use Williams's pieces to close out the series - genius, in my opinion.
Now that I think about it, I would have been quite happy to see the House Elves of Hogwarts, led by Kreacher, take out some Death Eaters like it happens in the book, but you can't have everything, I suppose.
Fun Fact: Crabbe wasn't in this movie because the actor was in jail!! Since Crabbe was supposed to have died in the Room of Requirement, they replaced him with Blaise Zabini and had Goyle cast the FiendFyre and die. Turned out fine either way.
Overall, a great end to an EPIC series. Seriously people, if you haven't read the books yet, you REALLY need to. They're all great reads, with good side stories and values, namely: friendship, loyalty, and above all, love.
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."
-Albus Dumbledore
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