Review of HP7 part 1
I've read all the books three times and I'm fairly obsessive about the details.
The Deathly Hallows part 1 movie seemed to rush through things so quickly that people who didn't read the books will have missed many important points -- it ended 2/3 of the way through the final book, leaving only 1/3 for the last movie. Ron's emo fit seems out of place considering it happens like 5 minutes after they escape the Ministry of Magic, in the movie.
Many important things were left out:
Kreacher's Tale was eviscerated. Everything that sort of redeemed Kreacher was redacted. Lupin's visit to Grimmauld Place was redacted.
Goblin's Revenge -- here in the book you learn that Ginny attempted to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Snape's office, and the punishment was rather lax. We also learn from Griphook that Snape transferred a fake sword to Gringotts. This drops keeps Snape's allegiance in doubt despite his killing Dumbledore at the end of the previous movie.
That entire chapter was cut out of the movie. Now Snape's being a good guy will be a totally random deus ex machina in the last movie, because all attempts to foreshadow it were removed from the first part.
Radio -- It was funny in the book, but just dull chatter in the movie. It was associated with the resistance in the book, but just boring in the movie. The whole idea that they have to dig a little deeper to get the truth rather than listening to the official establishment radio -- gone. Other watering-down of the subversiveness consisted of cutting out parts about Fudge and Scrimgeour.
Everything about Phineas Nigellus was redacted, so there's no way for H,H,&R to know that Dumbledore used the sword to break the ring, and no way for Snape to find them in the Silver Doe chapter.
An even more crucial point -- the part where Harry asks Griphook to say the real sword is a fake. That was completely redacted. If they didn't lead Bellatrix to believe the sword was a fake, then Voldemort would know prematurely what they were up to, and the whole plot would fall apart since they wouldn't have time to plan the Gringotts break-in before Voldemort discovered his missing horcruxes.
Also, going to the Wedding and Godric's Hollow without polyjuice potion was really, really stupid. That's not the way it happened in the book.
All references to food during their time in the wilderness were cut. Hermione going to muggle grocery stores in the invisibility cloak, taking stuff, and leaving some money behind, etc. All that was cut. Ron doesn't seem to have any motivation to go emo besides 5 minutes wearing the necklace, in the movie.
Kreacher's Tale and Goblin's Revenge were two of the best parts of the book, so I'm disappointed they got cut out of the movie.
6 Comments
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
Just finished reading the book again to my kid - not really looking forward to the movie - as it's gotten pretty poor reviews overall. I think the best of all the movies was probably Prisoner of Azkaban - had a good director and focused more on character.
Someday, maybe soon - they'll do a huge Harry Potter miniseries, which might have a better chance of doing the books justice. They are just too rich in detail for a movie format.
peggedbeaWe're going to see it on Thursday.
We've read all the books and are a bit of fanatics at my house too. But, realizing that things must be cut from the book to make the movies work, I've always thought they've done a really good job of making a complete and compelling movie while leaving out a lot of good stuff. From Order of the Phoenix on though, the books get deeper and deeper causing more stuff to be left out in the films. I thought it was a mistake not to develop more of Harry's relationship with Sirius in the movies though. I cried when Sirius died in the book, and his death in the movie... it just kind of seemed like a distant uncle he had just recently met and only hung out with a few times was killed. Maybe I just wanted to see more Gary Oldman though.
I think they could easily have broken the 7th book into three movies just because there's so much deep stuff in there. And by now people either are harry potter fan's or they're not and the fans only want more out of the movies and will certainly pay to see them.
A Harry Potter miniseries would be amazing, but I can't imagine watching the series with different actors.
Also, I've read all the books to my kids and they've seen all the movies, my oldest is super excited to see it and I'm definitely taking her, but I also have a 5 year old son. I'm not at all worried about the dark or the scary parts, but do you think it's tooooooooooooo long for a 5 year old to sit through? Should I find a way to sneak off with my daughter and leave him home?
blankfistNeeerrrddds!
gwiz665I liked it. It goes for some easy scares once in a while, involving Nagini the snake for instance. It ends a bit abruptly too. Other than that, it was a fine film.
Sure a bunch of stuff was cut compared with the book, but on its own, the movie seemed just fine.
dystopianfuturetodayThat was one boring movie. A majority of the film features Harry and Co. in a mountain tent wondering (out loud) what to do. You could have trimmed an hour off this thing and not lost anything important. It felt like they were dragging it out so they could justify two films (and double the money). I haven't read the last two books, so I'm not sure if the problems lie with the film or with the source.
Also, Harry Potter is supposedly the most powerful wizard in the universe and evil people are killing his friends. I think it's fair to get lethal in this context. What is this, the A Team?
jwrayNo way. He's not supoposed to be that powerful. He just has a little help from his friends (slash mom).
They could have made the tent part better by making the resistance radio and goblin's revenge be like it was in the book.
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.