Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Discuss and Grade

[Silvercrest]

Exposition Info Dumps are always clumsy, they should always try to be avoided

You're right, they should have been. Glad to see we're in agreement.

 

[Sindatur]

I do agree it's clumsy, but, it was also a mystery story, that had ravenous readership, trolling the web for every piece of the mystery. this is why she held so much, so close to her vest, so long. I agree it was clumsy, but, she did tie it up, and give all the answers she promised

HP, was the first Mainstream Book to be "Lost-icized" on the internet, and I feel, despite the clumsiness the delivery was forced to accept, it did deliver answers (They may not be answers you like, but, answers were given) unlike LOST and for some folks NuBSG didn't deliver enough answers

BTW, although I would've liked to see more answers of central mysteries, the LOST Series Finale delivered a very good emotional character arc ending episode, so I don't mean to trash it, or lower the value of the series.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

So, was anyone else surprised by the nudity in Ron's vision of Hermione kissing Harry? I thought that perhaps Emma Watson was made to look nude with CGI or a body-double, but checking interviews on the internet revealed that she really was asked to film that scene topless.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I understand why you object to when some stuff was revealed, but, in many interviews she went into detail about the notes that keeps, and charts and so, because she did have a rule book for everything, and family trees, history books, etc. And she even commented at least once how important it was to the Plotting to know all the twists and answers in advance. Now, I believe this was before Book 6 was released, and maybe even before Book 4, but, she claimed from early on to have it all planned out in advance (of course details hcange, but, generally not broad swaths. And of course, you can say she lied, or it may have been true then....)

Honestly it's immaterial whether she's telling the truth or not. All authors have copious notes that the readers never see. The point is what the reader does see. And what this reader saw was a universe presented in such a way as to seem to have vital points of its internal rules made up for each new book. And like I've said - that's fine and dandy. I enjoy the HP universe. But it's also sloppy and lacks character journeys and thematic depth. So what? It's appeal is that it is charming and fun and it accomplishes those goals admirably.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

So, was anyone else surprised by the nudity in Ron's vision of Hermione kissing Harry? I thought that perhaps Emma Watson was made to look nude with CGI or a body-double, but checking interviews on the internet revealed that she really was asked to film that scene topless.

She had a flesh-tone bra on, though. It's not like every person on set that day got a show.

 

[flemm]

I don't see the issue: Harry lays out for Voldemort the full extent of his failure and how trapped he is, and then tells him the only way out is to experience remorse. He refuses to do this, and thus is destroyed. Dramatically speaking, it's Harry finally putting all the pieces together for everyone else, much as Sherlock Holmes always does at the climax of one of his mysteries.

I thought about this a little more, and I think maybe there's more to be said. It's true that clearly Rowling was going for a more revelatory type of ending, where the curtain is pulled back and we get this sense that everything falls into place, the mysteries are explained, and suddenly the whole story can be understood in a new light.

I guess a comparison might be the ending of the Shawshank Redemption, where the first time you see it, it feels like a meditative character study and then suddenly at the end you learn that something else entirely has been going on, and you have to re-evaluate everything you have seen to that point.

The Snape subplot actually works pretty well from that point of view imo. There is a twist, but once the twist happens you do get that sense of inevitability that is missing from the resolution of the main plot. I think there are two reasons for that. On the one hand, no magical plot-developing objects need to be introduced to resolve this story. The only magic that is involved as I recall, is the pensieve (sp?)/liquid memory stuff, but that is already well-established in-universe at this point. We know how it works, so it doesn't have to be explained. We've also been well-prepared from a character development point of view. We see what Harry sees, a few missing scenes from Snape's story are revealed, and it all falls into place. We don't need a lot of extra explanation to be told what it all means.

Ideally, the resolution to the main plot would have been more like this.

 

[DBR]

Deathly Hallows has replaced Chamber of Secrets as my least favourite of the series. It was so boring. I feel like the movie could have been edited down to 20 minutes.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I'm of the opposite view. Though it's, by its own title, just "Part 1" - but if the second part holds up to the level of the first, I'd be prepared to call it the crown jewel of the film series.

 

[Mr Light]

Aside from spending too much time in the forest, it's a spectacular movie. Azkaban will always be the most entertaining and imaginative of the films, though.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Deathly Hallows has replaced Chamber of Secrets as my least favourite of the series. It was so boring. I feel like the movie could have been edited down to 20 minutes.

Pretty much matches my feelings about it.

 

[Sindatur]

Watched it again last night and loved it still, though, the first and last death in the movie, still tear me up.

The movie, actually, seems to have less running through the forest than the book, so, that's a plus for me.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Yeah, the parts set in the woods actually work quite well for me. What does slow down the movie for me -- at least in terms of less-than-interesting subject matter -- are the Ministry of Magic scenes. It's not a bad sequence. And it's good to see the trio in the obligatory Potter-type caper, but the more lighthearted tone seems too disconnected from the rest of the film to me. I generally find my mind wandering during those scenes, waiting for the film to get back to the real heart of the story.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I quite liked the Ministry scenes, but I do note that the tone of them is significantly darker in he novel. For instance, the characters ponder afterward that the guy who Ron impersonated and his wife are almost certainly totally screwed.

 

[RoJoHen]

Did not like it very much the first time I saw it theaters, but I managed to get the Blu-Ray on Friday and watched it then. I liked it a lot more the second time, and I kind of want to watch it again.