Harry Potter Thoughts

Today I went and saw Harry Potter 7 Part 2 for a second time, with my Dad and my sister.  Being more awake than I was for the midnight showing, and having seen the movie once before, I was able to give more thought to various parts of the movie, beyond the general plot lines and suspense and excitement and whatnot.

I now give you some of these thoughts, in no particular order.

-Luna's opening statement about the shell chimes ("Muggles think these keep evil away...but they're wrong."):  Love it.  Chilling in its simplicity.

-Helena Bonham Carter acting like Hermione Granger acting like Bellatrix Lestrange: Brilliant.  Simply brilliant.  I'm 99.9% sure she's my favorite actress.

-It really is too bad that child Lily's eyes don't match Harry's.

-The rotating camera / shirt changing scene: Awkward and Unnecessary.  I guess that the director was trying to get a sense of the urgency of the protaganists' task by implying that they don't even have time to change clothes after jumping from a dragon's back into a lake before discussing their next steps to defeating Voldemort, but it really just highlights the pudgy-ness of the male characters' stomachs and kind of distracts from the intensity.

-The Snape flashback sequence: Perfect.  I love how they integrated clips from the other films.  Although, the de-aging (youthifying?) technology they used on Alan Rickman was just a bit strange...it was effectively done for the most part, I thought, but every now and then he had the look of an unfortunate botox patient...

-It's too bad that the kid who played Crabbe got caught growing/smoking/selling/doing illegal things with marijuana so that the kid who plays Blaise had to step in for the Room of Requirement scene...it takes away from the Malfoy/Crabbe/Goyle vs Harry/Ron/Hermione storyline that was sort of a mini introductory version of the good vs evil theme.  Oh well.

-The Gemino Curse: simple, but horrifying, if you think about it...

-Ron's facial hair disguise: a little too Pirate-Sherlock-Holmes.  But an effective disguise, it seems.

Ahoy, Watson.

-Why don't Americans use "brilliant" as a slang term like the British do?  Let's start that...

-Voldemort's laugh is ever-so-slightly reminiscent of a sheep bleeting.  Not as intimidating as it could be.

-The girls screaming in the Great Hall when Voldemort starts speaking in their heads: brilliant.  This is the first time that the rest of the school is coming into direct contact with Voldemort, and I loved the chilling way that that moment was introduced with the solitary and unexpected screams.

-Dean Thomas got over the whole Hogwarts battle thing WAY too quickly...sitting there with his cup of coffee laughing it up just minutes after the battle ends.

-I like how you don't really see any of the main characters die, but just see their dead bodies after the fact (the ones who die, that is)...my Dad pointed it out as a complaint, but I think it's more effective this way, to just happen upon the dead with no warning, like Harry, Ron, and Hermione are experiencing.

-Are there no Hufflepuffs in Dumbledore's Army?  All the kids seemed to be Gryffindors or Ravenclaws.  And I am ALWAYS a Hufflepuff whenever I take those online "Which House Are You" quizzes, no matter how complex or simplistic they are, and so I resent that a bit.  I mean, Hufflepuffs may be somewhat underrepresented and underdescribed in the Harry Potter series, but that does not make them any less present.  Even if all we really know about them is that they're loyal and good at finding things...