just saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I- Page 2

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 11/15/10 at 11:44pm

I actually really don't care for Helena Bonham Carter's performance in the films. I'm a lot more excited to see Imelda Staunton's return and to see more from Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 12:31am

I admit that when first viewing Order of the Phoenix Helena Bonham Carter's interpretation was wildly different than I had pictured Bellatrix. I always had a very regal ice-queen personality in my head when reading the books. Helena plays her as very unhinged, which, upon repeated viewings (and readings), I've come to appreciate. After all, she did spend a good number of years in Azkaban around the dementors, that's bound to leave even the coldest of people a bit off their rocker.

And I really am looking forward to that battle between her and Julie Walters.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 5:25am

Radcliffe still has his boyish charm, and is always so endearing in interviews. Nice to still see a young man that's a gentleman.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/19/10 at 1:56pm

I'll make the official declaration of spoiler alert from this point on.

I saw it at midnight last night. Lots of people in costume, including Tonks, Lavender Brown, 3 sets of Weasley twins and a Hagrid in my theatre who lead a countdown cheer every 15 minutes. I'm not that nerdy myself, but it's the perfect kind of atmosphere to see the movie in.

I just reread the book Wednesday, so the story was fresh in my mind. There were cuts, but at first viewing, it didn't seem as awkward as Order of the Phoenix felt to me. I thought it helped with the pace to take out some of the extra characters who came in only to drop an important tidbit of information, like Krum at the wedding, or overhearing Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, Dean Thomas and the goblins discuss the sword.

I wasn't expecting the animation for the Tale of the Three Brothers, but I kind of liked it. It did a good job presenting it as a fairytale and separating it from the real life action of the book, and it was stylized enough to keep it from looking cheesy. It kind of reminded me of The Man of La Mancha.

I'm surprised the studios had no qualms about lingering shots of shirtless Harry Potter. I don't care in the slightest, but I can imagine the parental outrage in the media will start Monday.

I'm sure I'll think of more things to post as the days go on, I'm still kind of mulling over the details. I had guessed the other day where the movie would cut-off, because the time at Shell Cottage seemed like a fitting break in the action. I can't wait for the next movie.

[jasonf]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 12:19am

Just came back - we really liked it.

I only read the book when it first came out, so didn't remember it THAT well. Parts of the movie were somewhat confusing (I can only imagine how confusing to someone who never saw it!), but on the whole I really enjoyed it. The three brothers story was VERY well done.

After the scene with the locket, there's no WAY they can justify leaving out Molly's line in the second movie!

[gertiecummings]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 12:58pm

I agree about Bellatrix. When I first read the book I pictured her as an ugly, ugly, old hag (like the witch in Snow White), but I don't know anyone (including me) who doesn't love Helena Bohnam Carter's interpretation.

Xenophelius (sp) Lovegood was also different than I pictured him. I kept picturing him older and more wirey.

[Q]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 1:05pm

This was pretty much what I expected. I'm in the extreme minority who actually liked all the psychological delving of the 'lost in the woods' part of the book, so this played well for me. I think it stands as pure set-up, and should probably not be viewed as a stand-alone piece. I do know that my husband, who has not read the books, is completely lost when it comes to the subject of the horcuxes (between No. 6 and No. 7, part 1.)

A real treat for me was seeing how capable mr. Grint has become.

[Almira]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 1:16pm

A real treat for me was seeing how capable mr. Grint has become.

I was thinking the same thing.

Of the three he is the one I feel read the novel and was using his performance to fill in the gaps the adaptation necessarily skipped over.

Emma Watson is once again the weakest link. Her scene when Ron returns was atrocious.

You sure do see a lot of Harry undressed in the picture. Nice to know that Harry prefers boxer-briefs. Oops.. was that a spoiler?

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 1:54pm

this is a pretty funny article on why the Sorcerer's Stone is the worst Harry Potter movie.. i especially love this guy's comment because I think the same thing every time i see this scene...

"one of the best moments in the movie is when Hedwig drops the package, and it’s clearly a broom wrapped in brown paper, but everyone around the table is like, “What is it?” and “I wonder what it could be?!” What do you think it is? A book? A bicycle?"

hahahaha
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/19/harry-potter-sorcerers-stone/

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 3:33pm

I thought The Chamber of Secrets film was by far the weakest of the films, especially when I was so drawn in by its source material whilst the film completely dropped the ball. There was a reason Chris Columbus did not direct another Potter film again (and why many love the Cuaron directed Prisoner of Azkaban that followed).

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 5:18pm

I think I'll have to preface my review saying that I have been obsessed with the Harry Potter books for years. The first movie was released when I was in kindergarten, so the series has been a huge part of me for such a long time. There is no way I couldn't love anything related to Harry Potter.

I saw the movie last night, and I personally thought it was the best of the series. The only thing I didn't like was the screenplay. For some reason, I have never liked Steve Kloves's Harry Potter screenplays. Another screenwriter was hired for Order of the Phoenix, and I just wished he had written the rest of the series. I've never been able to pinpoint what I don't like about the movies he wrote, but I know that some of it has to do with the humor. In Half-Blood Prince, especially, I felt that the jokes just allowed too much comic relief, and it took too long to get back into the darkness that should have been there. In that movie, he tried to make up for it by adding the scene where the Burrow burns down, but then immediately returning to the humor. This movie had some funny moments I wish weren't there, but it wasn't as bad as the last movie. The one time I thought it worked really well, though, was with Dobby in the Malfoy Manor. I'm not sure if it's just because I knew what was going to happen, but the glee that Dobby had when rescuing Luna and Ollivander just made the next scene so much more heartbreaking. When he died, I was crying, and I have never cried during a movie in my life. The Xenophilius Lovegood scene through the end was almost as perfect as it could be.

One particular moment I loved was in the opening when Hermione does the memory charm on her parents, and she disappears from the pictures. There were many little moments like this in the movie that really made you feel for the characters that haven't been in the other movies due to length. I also liked the scene with Hermione teaching Ron to play the piano, but it would have been more enjoyable if the people behind me weren't laughing hysterically. But all of these little moments that you don't normally see just made me love the movie.

There was just one major thing I really wish was kept in the movie, and that was when Harry sees his parents' murders when he visits Godric's Hollow. It just amazed me that they kept the whole Godric's Hollow scene, but they cut the heart of it. The scene is the whole reason anything in the series actually happened, so it makes no sense not to explain what happened.

Make that two major things I wish were kept: ever since I read the part in the book when Pettigrew is forced to fulfill his life debt to Harry, I've been waiting to see it on screen. I was fairly disappointed when it didn't happen. Didn't Dumbledore say in the the third movie (I know he did in the book) that the life debt would come in handy some time? I know this would have just been one more thing to confuse people who haven't read the books, but I really wanted this part.

On Thursday, my mom was trying to calm down my excitement to keep me from being disappointed, saying that many people didn't like this movie because it's just the trio running away from Death Eaters and trying to destroy the Horcruxes. I asked what was wrong with that, and she told me that people were disappointed with the lack of action and special effects the movies are known for. I responded telling her that while gimmicky special effects and fast-paced action sequences can be exciting, they don't make a movie good. That, in my opinion, was Avatar's main flaw. Now, having seen the movie, I think the fact that it didn't have much action really worked to its advantage. The movie wasn't the trio running away from Death Eaters, it was the trio doing what they needed to do to before the final battle, afraid and unsure of what to do next. The fear and hope that apparently didn't come across to others really made this a great movie for me.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 11/20/10 at 9:31pm

The film was amazing! It started off a little slow, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end. This was definetley one of the best in the series. Daniel, Rupert, and Emma have also come such a long way. Helena (Bellatrix) was also so evil when she tortured Hermione.
Updated On: 11/20/10 at 09:31 PM

[BellatrixxLestrangee]

Posted: 11/21/10 at 11:01pm

They left out a lot of my favorite parts including Potterwatch and Lupin coming to visit the trio at Grimmuald Place, Emma Watson completely ruined the scene where Ron comes back for me and I also felt like it moved a little too fast in the beginning. Other than that, I really enjoyed the movie! The three brothers scene was fantastic and definitely my favorite. I thought Dobby was adorable
and since when is Ron hot? Bellatrix was amazing, same with Lucius Malfoy. I'm not sure if I can wait 8 months for the next one!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/22/10 at 10:38pm

Lucius Malfoy was "amazing"? How? In what way?

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 1:10am

I think the repeated presence of the radio suggests Potterwatch will come up in the second part. It seems like a silly thing not to cut if they weren't going to make a point of it later. In the movie, Ron never says he visited Bill and Fleur when he left, so presumably they wouldn't have found out about Potterwatch until now.

[Taryn]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 1:34am

He didn't outright state that he visited Bill and Fleur, but he did tell Dobby exactly where to take them, suggesting he'd been to their house.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/23/10 at 10:39am

FYI - Amazon has Harry Potter years 1-6 collection on Blu Ray on sale for only $40.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/24/10 at 10:22pm

Saw it tonight. I definitely think it was the best since the 3rd movie. I know there has been criticism of the film was too dark but I thought the lighter moments/comic relief worked, always feeling sincere and true to form of the characters. The animation for the story was incredible and surprisingly didn't feel like it was out of sync with the rest of the film. All three leads were great. My only issues were how awkward it still feels with Harry and Ginny on film (luckily their time on screen together was brief) and the constant fade to black Yates did that for what like a good half of the movie.

[BellatrixxLestrangee]

Posted: 11/25/10 at 12:29am

"Lucius Malfoy was "amazing"? How? In what way?"
I just have a little crush on him.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 8:26am

I don't usually have a problem with the Harry Potter films: they've had their ups and downs of course. PRISONER OF AZKABAN is by many light years the best of the series, and this dreadful latest entry is very nearly the worst, in a three-way tie with the unspeakable CHAMBER OF SECRETS and GOBLET OF NYQUIL.

It felt like the filmmakers had finally had enough with the complaints about stuff being left out of the films, and decided to just film every goddamn page of the book, every goddamn last word, every last filthy little comma. But no, if they'd done that I might have found myself giving a damn what was going on, as I did when I read the novel, and there's the real problem: no one connected with the films are anywhere near the brilliantly energetic storytellers that J.K. Rowling is. The last few films have traded Rowling's gloriously energetic storytelling for a grim sobriety that isn't entirely inappropriate but is taken WAY TOO FAR: it eventually leaves the stories just plain dead on arrival. Entirely too much time is spent showing Harry Ron and Hermione wandering around in the wasteland. Even cameos from the magnificent Imelda Staunton as the vile Delores Umbridge couldn't liven up the proceedings.

Ultimately, the film is just an ordeal to sit through, with the occasional bit of life (the little dance between Harry and Hermione, for example) that only throws the grinding tedium of the rest of the film into sharp relief. I got so bored that I started to nitpick the the persistent use of greenscreen in the film. Considering the immense money these films have generated, couldn't they have managed either a) a bit of location filming or b) better, less intrusively obvious greenscreen technology?

[Craww]

Posted: 11/28/10 at 9:55am

I really liked it. But I was really sick when I saw it, so I'm hoping it holds up to a second viewing and it wasn't just the nostalgia and the distraction from the pain that I was loving so much.

I reread the books before viewing them, up to GoF. I hated GoF so much that I decided to stop doing that, and I think that's made the movies much more enjoyable for me. I'd like to reread the books in a few years.