Harry Potter - It All Ends
 

Yeah, I think the Harry Potter finale is enough of a subject to be worthy of a separate thread. It's not just a movie, it's EIGHT of them. It's not just a film series, it's a cultural phenomenon of astonishing proportions.

Now that the series has concluded, in both literature and film, let's discuss the final movie and anything else Harry Potter in the benefit of hindsight.

Next person who asks me if I'm gonna go see Harry Potter gets a falcon punch.

Ohh! Which book is Falcon punch from? Is it made with butterbeer?

We had tickets for the midnight show, and then my daughter got sick, so we punted. I had my toast all ready, too.

Is a Falcon punch all pretty, but softcore?

I think it's quite a thing to have produced that many movies without the usual "sequels suck" phenomenon. Of course, it helps to be based off a series of books written AS books, and not "ooh that made money what can we keep doing with the characters now?"

Are you going to see Harry Potter?

I thought the last film was lovely, moved quickly, and got me all choked up in just the right spots. It's going to be a long time before I undertake any re-reading or re-watching of this series, but this was about as good a way to go out as I could imagine. Several movies of this series left me feeling exhausted and straining to remember important left-out details or wondering if it was worth bothering to. I left this one thinking "just right." Probably the most favorable response I've had in the immediate aftermath of seeing any HP movie.

I was vaguely disappointed. Of course, I didn't like the book - so this rather faithful adaptation didn't have much chance to impress me.

It was beautiful. Well-acted. Nice, um, cinematography and effects and score. Fast-paced, action-packed, all that. Emotionally bankrupt and distant is how I perceived it though. Not a single time did I get choked up or thrilled or frightened or surprised.

Of course, I pretty much hate understories. And as the finale of the piece, it had to wrap up all the decade-long understory - but it did so perfunctorily and by-the-numbers. Boring. But .. that's how Rowling's last two HP books were - great.big.bores.


Death Eaters attack Hogwarts in the long-anticipated battle between the forces of good and evil. Yawn. Each character gets their single moment in the sun, often out-of-the-blue and gratuitously. Yawn. Wizards Duel and Wizards Duel redux. Yawn and double yawn. Even Harry's bit in wizard purgatory with Dumbledore was played for yawns, imo.


Don't get me wrong. The movie, like I said, was fast-paced, action-packed, well-acted, and gorgeous. The story is just lame as can be, and that's all Rowlilng's doing - - but it is what it is, and I think it's a dumb story that no film could overcome.

Most understories are bare bones nothingness that can only end in ways seen sixteen miles off. The last hour of Harry Potter 7.2 seemed like going through a checklist.



It's hardly coincidence that my favorite of the series, Prisoner of Azkaban, which has the best story, the best performances, the best score, the best art design, the best tone, and the best direction by far and away - is also the ONLY film in the series with no Voldemort and none of the Harry v. YouKnowWho storyline.



I really like the film and book series through book 5. After that, Rowling went off a cliff. It's one thing to make the stories more 'adult' and 'dark,' but no one wants a series about magic and fantasy to be brooding, meandering and dull.

With the double disappointments of Half Blood Prince and Deathy Hallows, I think I'm glad the series is finally over.

Prisoner of Azkaban is the only one of the movies I've seen all the way through, too. :)

I do remember Azkaban being my favorite reading experience of the series. I haven't revisited the movie since it came out, though. I vaguely remember not liking it as much as I wanted to.

It's a stellar bluray

Least favorite movie: Chamber of Secrets. I was glad to see Chris Columbus go away.

Goblet of Fire is the movie in this series I've seen the most times, I think really by chance more than anything, but it does have a lot of stuff in it I liked. It also seems to be the de-facto setting of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure, a themed environment that I can assure you has got people in Imagineering flummoxed. (It's gorgeous, and needs to be expanded.)

I had a theater all to myself last week, when I saw Prisoner of Azkaban for the princely sum of $4 at the Chinese Six.

Even though I'd seen it twenty times, a big screen provided the opportunity to see a few new things, and the fantastic sound clued me in to several undertone lines of dialogue I'd never heard before.

Plus it's my favorite Harry Potter movie, and one of my favorite movies of all time. An infinitely better experience by myself last week than with the excited crowd of fan folk at the opening show of Harry Potter 7.2 last night (er, this morning).

Seems a pretty obvious choice, what with a Tri-Wizard Tournament providing lots of opportunities for outdoor attractions. I don't think Wizarding World took enough advantage of that, but maybe future expansion of the wildly successful land will capitalize on those ripe opportunities.

Who is this Harry Potter fellow y'all are talking about? Never heard of him.



Skipping iSm's post as I want to judge for meself

BTW (and if this has been posted before, I apologize for the duplication), have you seen that people have devised a version of Quidditch that can be played by us Muggles?

I can't believe it's over.

Wow. I hope Radcliffe fired his stylist after that photo. He looks ridiculous.

Poof, just eight movies later and Radcliffe is an emo vampire.

Someone could at least have combed his chest hair so it didn't give one the distinct impression of cleavage...

I loved the last movie :) I didn't understand a lot of what was going on since I've read the books a mere once, but it was a fun movie.

Here's a REALLY hilarious article on Slate about the last Harry Potter movie, written by two people who have never seen a Harry Potter movie nor read the books:

http://www.slate.com/id/2299131/pagenum/all

(Generally, they liked it, without understanding much, but the article is super funny, especially to Potterites)

I enjoyed it, but either the second movie should have been longer or Book 7 should have been one long movie. I agree that much did feel perfunctory. Can't believe they didn't show Fred getting killed. Ending was a big improvement on the "do you feel lucky punk" dialogue prior to the final duel. Film also did a good job of showing that Voldemort got a thorough ass kicking.

Prediction: Alan Rickman gets best supporting actor Oscar to honor him and all the fun performances throughout the series.

Hopefull, I'll be seeing it today!

:snap:

That was great!

Someone should have told him he was purchasing a woman's shirt.....

I saw the movie, and thought it was great! I did wince a little when Dan took of his shirt.....

After seven movies, none of which I particularly cared about it will come as quite the shock that I didn't particularly care for this one. But at least it is over, I have enough of the cultural literacy of Harry Potter to fake things if necessary, and I know personally it wasn't that good instead of just speculating.

What was interesting to me as the camera wasted precious hours lingering in the last 15 minutes on every big and major character still alive just how little of the specifics of what transpired in the previous movies actually stuck with me. I generally have a very good memory of such things. But suddenly before me on screen was Jim Broadbent and I realized that I had no actual memory of him having been in any of the previous movies (Lani assures me that he was significant). I had no idea who the woman who says "not my daughter, bitch" was until she said that (then I guessed).

I also don't get the talk of Rickman and Oscar. I like Rickman but for the last decade this role has required nothing more than making faces like someone was kicking the stick that had been shoved up his ass.

To those for whom this was a great series I'm glad you liked it. But I'm just glad that it actually did finally all end.

...and I drooled a little when Rupert took off his ! :evil:

Clearly, Rickman has more emotions to mine in this movie, and he does it well, so I'm sticking with my prediction.

Or we could give the Oscar to Warwick Davis for his double duty as Flitwick and Griphook. (Poor Verne Troyer.)

I probably napped through a key moment but how did Droopy Horseface end up with the sword?

Not the Larry King goblin, the horse-faced kid at the end.

He pulled it out of a hat.

That hat he found in the rubble? I'd thought that was the damaged remains of the sorting hat. What was its significance and why was the sword in it (I assume the hat was like Hermione's purse and large on the inside)?

I assumed it was some detail from the book that they left out. Haven't read them. It looked like the sorting hat to me too, but I wasn't sure because it didn't talk.

I think it's the same hat the Phoenix came out of in an earlier book/movie.

I can't quite recall and I did read the books.

I could be completely wrong, but doesn't the hat produce whatever the person reaching in needs the most at that moment?

ETA: Looked it up. The sword (which was Godric Gryffindor's Sword) "was said to appear whenever a 'true Gryffindor' was in need." And yes, it appeared for Harry from inside the sorting hat in Chamber of Secrets.

Deus ex machina: It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Ah. That bit did confuse me, but I wasn't exactly watching the movie expecting everything to make sense. Thought somehow I'd confused Hermione's purse with the sorting hat, and/or continuity glitch.

HELP WILL ALWAYS BE GIVEN AT HOGWARTS TO THOSE WHO NEED IT!!

Per both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon, B.

Then why were they worried?

There's no guarantee in there that said help would amount to anything.