Harry Potter 7

[cellio]

Spoilers in this post are few and marked; for comments you're on your own.

I had expected a movie this close to the end of the series, and one derived from the final book, to not feel so much like the middle book of a trilogy. I don't know what's coming in the second part, not having read the book, but it felt like the film-makers were just filling time in this movie, same as in the last one. Did the final book need two movies, or is that just the business arm of the franchise speaking? It wasn't a bad movie and it definitely had some nice touches (I've wanted a bag like that for a while; for that I'd actually carry one :-) ), but it felt slow to me for where it was in the series. $5 was a fair price to pay.

I particularly noticed the sound this time -- effective placement, so it sounded like things were coming from the right parts of the room. The visual effects were well-done (not the best we've seen from this series), and I could see some of the places where they were presumably planning 3D enhancements before they ditched 3D. I counted five visual-effects companies in the closing credits, but there was no indication of how the work was divided up. (They all had pretty much the same job descriptions.)

Spoiler warning:

Spoiler comment #1: What do they mean, "three left"? They've gotten two, right? Even if we presume that #7 is V himself, that leaves four others. Did I miss one?

Spoiler comment #2: Hedwig deserved better. That wasn't valiant or glorious or plot-changing; that was just pointless. :-(

Trailers:

• Kung-Fu Panda II: presumably targeted for the kids?
• Yogi Bear: definitely targeted for the kids.
• Voyage of the Dawn-Treader: maybe. I didn't recognize a lot of the trailer from the book; hmm.
• Green Hornet: looks like it could be entertaining if you like that sort of thing, but I'm not sure I do. Netflix, maybe.
• Red Riding Hood: um, what?
• Green Lantern: looks like they're having fun with it, which is promising. Does it at all resemble the comic book, out of curiosity? And did I hear someone in the trailer refer to the job of being a green lantern? He's not a singleton?

Comments

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

An interview with Rowling when Book 7 came out said that Hedwig's fate was to mark the end of Harry's childhood...I agree it felt pointless to me. Otoh, it also kind of "warns" the younger reader that this book will be more of a tough go.

I am seeing it on Wednesday, but figured having read the books, you won't spoil me too badly. Glad it was mostly good!

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

And did I hear someone in the trailer refer to the job of being a green lantern? He's not a singleton?

My knowledge is based mostly on the Silver Age GL, but I believe this remains part of the canon: there's a whole interstellar Green Lantern Corps. The hero of the comic is their agent on Earth, but yeah, there's more than one.

Horcruxes destroyed so far

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

1. The diary.

2. The ring.

3. The locket.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

The books mention a couple of horcruxes destroyed in off-screen ways.

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

I saw the same trailers, and every single one of them looked uninteresting, which was surprising because usually I like at least half of the trailers I see. Though I agree on the Red Riding Hood one - that left me... perplexed.

[richardf8]

Hedwig was better served by the film than the book. In the book she was in her cage when she took that curse.

Very weak spoiler

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Hedwig deserved better. That wasn't valiant or glorious or plot-changing; that was just pointless. :-(

Get used to it. Rowling isn't done quite yet.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

We got the trailer for Burlesque in addition to the ones you mentioned.

I don't know what audience they're hoping for with that particular combination. Burlesque, Green Lantern, and Yogi Bear.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I've read all the books; haven't seen any of the movies since Prisoner of Azkaban. So I can't really speak for whether this book actually *needed* two movies. I will point out, however, that Lord of the Rings really *did* need more than three movies if you ask me, so perhaps the seventh HP book rates two movies -- or at least a movie and a half, which is always awkward. Or maybe it is strictly a case of milking the cash cow as much as possible before it is slated to die. I don't know.

Just from the book, I understand why the movie may feel slow; the *book* moves kinda slowly. Sometimes, for this book, God is in the details; that necessitates the slow pace at those times.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

HP7 was intended to be 3D, but the post-production mill couldn't get the quality up to snuff before the release deadline, so they decided to not do the 3D, but left a lot of the scenes in that would have been 3D. We might see a special DVD release version once it goes to video, though.

Yes, the books progressively get darker, and the movies do, too. Everything is interconnected, but the movies aren't quite revealing it as well as the books do.

Two movies? Yep. The final volume of the book series is longer than any of the previous 6.

Trailers? ealdthryth has an overdeveloped sense of camp, so we'll probably be seeing the Green Hornet. We saw the other trailers, to, but not the Kung Fu Panda II. The first one was great, and I think it doesn't need a sequel, but that's just my opinion.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

To be fair, at times the seventh book also seemed like it was about twice as long as it needed to be...