thetao

I haven't read any of the book, but hope to eventually. I left the theater totally happy, but have had second thoughts since. Part 1 was very character-driven, while part 2 was just the opposite, very plot-driven. We go through many of the scenes without a connection to what the characters must be feeling: nervousness, peril, mystery, sorrow, etc., and in the end...elation! Again, I don't know the book, but it seemed to lack a longer "my god, it's over" moment. What happened at the various funeral services? What happened at the Ministry of Magic? It felt like lots of little stories were left untold. Even a short scene with good look at the headlines in a Daily Prophet newspaper might have been enough.

Given the same director and same production period, but very different styles, I wonder if the producers could have intervened and asked for an "action cut" of the film, to better benefit the 3D effects? (Meaning that we'll see a Director's Cut eventually...?)

CloverClover

this one and the third one are the only ones in the series i actually liked. this was one so good it felt on the level of the original star wars films. part of it is that I was actually involved in the action and characters, as opposed to giant digital armies charging at each other.

Scotts35

Checked this out again in IMAX tonight. Things flowed a lot better and I was able to appreciate scenes, especially Snape's flashback, a lot more.

Though the Molly/Bellatrix confrontation seemed even more abrupt somehow, they must have trimmed that scene down.

Spottedfeather

This one was alright, though I didn't like seeing Snape turn pussified at the end. The book seemed a bit more exciting than the movie. The movie was good with a lot of fighting and effects and a ton of great lines, and then....ploop. It was over. It's been a couple of years since I read the book, but I remember the story ending with a lot more excitement. Maybe it's just me. I did love the Bellatrix death scene. I don't think I've ever seen a death scene quite like that before. What I didn't like, and what I didn't like about the book as well, was that they killed off so many of my favourite characters. Who were we left with ? Ron, Hermione, and Harry. We did have Ginny and Luna (I love english and Irish girls !) but aside from them and Hagrid, there wasn't anyone left that I really cared about. I just don't buy Daniel Radcliff as the hero type. Ron is annoying and Hermione's smarty-pants-ness gets tiring after a while. I did like that they made Draco a sort of mini hero. In 7 part 1, he knew that it was Harry (when Harry had the ugly spell cast on him), but didn't say anything. I think my favourite part of the movie (one of my main favourites, anyways) was when all of the Death Eaters could see that Voldemort was on the verge of defeat and whooshed away, leaving him to die. That was great.

GradVT06

It's been years since I've read the book. Could someone clear that up for me?

I for one thought the movie was excellent. There were a few nitpicks, like the fact that nobody witnessed Voldemort's death and the way it was handled with his skin disintegrating into flakes or something.

IIRC with the epilogue they filmed it and then re-filmed it because they weren't happy with it. Obviously for some reason it was tougher to film. However I liked with the recall of the original Harry Potter theme music. I liked some of the music from some of the recent movies like Harry/Ginny, Journey to the Cave, and Harry/Hermione from Half-Blood-Prince, but wasn't too happy with the music in most of of the recent films. Good to see some the original Hedwig theme.

GenPion

I just added my review if anyone is interested in reading it:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/51052...allows-part-2/

orangecrush

It was essence of ditenty (sp?) the stuff that re-grew ron's skin in pt. 1.

Another thing that my wife pointed out that was a pretty glaring omission from the book:It seems like that was a pretty big reveal in the book and gave a lot of insight into Dumbledore.

riley_dude

I read they refilmed it because the first time, they were made up to look older. It looked fake so they re filmed it and aged them in the computer later.

Was reading this today about 2-D vs 3-D:
Deathly Hallows Part 2 marked Harry Potter's first foray into 3D, and it made a splash with the broadest 3D launch ever (3,100-plus locations, including 274 in IMAX). However, the majority of moviegoers still opted to see the movie in the standard ("2D") format.

bunkaroo

So the movie is out and this is the Reviews thread, so I'm not sure why there are spoiler tags, but anywho...

There was a couple posts referring to the mention of Snape in the epilogue. Can someone refresh my memory please?

I thought it was pretty good - gave it 4/5. I don't see why the fate of the Elder Wand had to be changed. Also I think at least Lupin deserved an on-screen demise.

onebyone

Harry's son was worried about being put in Slytherin, and Harry told him something like, "Albus Severus, you were named for the 2 headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

OldBoy

a very satisfying conclusion.

lopper

I saw this last weekend with my wife and was entertained but a little underwhelmed. There were just a few scenes I thought could have been given a little more OOMPH or handled with a little more finess.

I'm still looking forward to seeing this again. I remember feeling lukewarm towards Part 1 after my first viewing, but really appreciating it much more after I saw it for the second time.

hardercore

an excellent finale, despite the audible, collective, dread-filled groan heard throughout my screening as the epilogue title card flashed up.

TheMovieman

The only groans at my screening was hearing the loud ass audio coming from Transformers 3... on both sides of the damn theater.

JimRochester

Saw this today in 2D. Certainly an A. My only problem is that I haven't read the books, so often with the English accents mentioning something unique to Harry's world, I miss the dialogue.

That and someone brought their 4(?) year old daughter who was scared to death. They took her out once, brought her back in later and she just sat on mom's lap not looking at the screen.

whoopdido

Liked it. Good ending to a good series. The entire series pales in comparison to the books but oh well.

So much was left out that it's hard to pick the most glaring omission. However I will say that the Snape/Lily relationship really wasnt handled that well. If you only saw the movie I think it would be hard to know EXACTLY how Snape felt about her and what his motivations were for pretty much Harry's entire life. The books brought so much more depth to the Snape character and especially his relationship with Lily and Harry.

Dan

Saw this with the wife yesterday. The theatre we went to had it on three 2D screens and only one 3D screen. We saw it in 2D.
Overall, I thought the movie was an excellent finale to the series. Having never read the books, I did feel that I was missing something in some scenes, but not enough to ruin the movie for me. I was already aware of Snape's true allegiance, and I found that his 'flashback' spelled it all out pretty well.

There was only one thing that I think should have been handled differently. When Harry finally goes to the forest to confront Voldermort, and he gets zapped almost instantly. I think, instead of cutting to the scene in Harry's mind where he talks to Dumbledore, they should have just shown him get thrown to the ground, presumably dead (all theatrical-like, to make it seem epic and real and all that)
That conversation with Dumbledore should have then been moved to the point right before Harry wakes up when Voldermort is telling all the good guys to join him or die. To me, the scene would have been much more powerful if it happened as soon as Neville Longbottom makes his speech and reveals the sword. That way, for the people who didn't read the books (or spoilers), Harry's death would have seemed entirely real for about 10 minutes, instead of knowing and waiting for the point when he wakes up since the audience was already made aware that Harry was still alive.

pinata242

But Harry was dead, not asleep. He made the decision to come back to the world of the living instead of going "on". He had to be conscious in the forest scene for Narcissa to ask him if Draco was alive and then cover for him while Voldemort assumed he was dead since he should have been and one of his kinda-inner-circle followers lied to him just before abandoning him when she had her family back together. You'll notice that when Harry made himself known to be alive in the courtyard, many of the Death Eaters realized it was a lost cause and fled.

Dan

Good point. Admittedly, I forgot about Narcissa/Draco.

TomOpus

Really really enjoyed this movie. I'd say it's the best of the series. Pretty cool way to end the story line. I never once thought about the time and barely drank my large Coke.

silentbob007

The treasure in Bellatrix's vault had both the Gemino and Flagrante curses on them ... they would multiply as well as become burning hot. The Gemino curse is mentioned in the movie, but the second is not, nor is it "visibly" affecting the characters ... this is what threw me about the dittany scene.

EdTheRipper

Excellent movie. I was never really a fan, having only seen the first couple of movies several years back. My son absolutely loves the series so I promised I'd take him to see this one after it had been out a couple of weeks. That gave me enough time to get through the entire series. While I enjoyed all of the movies, this was the best of the bunch. By far.

orangecrush

I just assumed that their hands were raw from holding onto the dragon.

I saw this again and liked it more on the second viewing. I wasn't thinking about what was omitted nearly as much. However, I was a little bothered by the fact that they never had Harry fix his broken wand.

lamphorn

I enjoyed this, but I thought the first half was much better.

asianxcore

My girlfriend and I caught this while we were in Vegas over the weekend. Both loved it!

The Epilogue was pretty cheesy in the books and it didn't come off too well in the films either.