Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ HBP Movie, SPOILER!!!!!! Like or Dislike, tell why.

[Malchior]

SPOILER!!!

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I just got back from the midnight showing (it's around 3:30 AM here in Alaska land) and wondered what others thought. Personally, I like the movie overall, but there were quite a few aspects I didn't like.

For instance, the kiss scene pushed this movie into my third favorite. I thought it was hillarious though, many times I found myself laughing out loud, something I didn't do very often (if at all!) with the other movies. I really disliked the ending, I wanted to see the White Tomb, but I did think they did an excellent job on the emotion of Dumbledore's death.

One of the things I disliked the most was how trashy Ginny came off. The Twins mention how Ginny doesn't need love potions because she has no problem with boys, then she shows up at Slughorn's party in a black, sparkly dress while everyone else is wearing plain, but still nice clothing (for wizards). Then, next thing you know, she's kissing Harry in the RoR and yet, unless I missed it, there is no mention of Ginny and Dean breaking up.

The action was pretty good, though not as much as I thought there would be, and I liked the Bathroom Battle scene too.

Overall, very good movie, but I think they hyped it up a little too much and showed a bit too much in the previews.

[Kamalia]

I felt cheated out of my Quidditch Cup winning kiss in the common room...but overall I felt the movie was pretty good. There were a lot of funny parts (loved Ron under the love potion!) but I felt that if I were less well-acquainted with the series, I would not have only been lost, I wouldn't have understood anything.

[Kelleypen]

HATED their idea of Narcissa . . . not pretty enough, not young enough, not blonde enough, not blue eyed . . .

Overall, I liked it, but yeah, not amazing. None of the movies have been amazing however.

[Malchior]

I just got back from the second showing and the place is still packed. I recognized one guy from the midnight showing as an employee and he was still there because he had no chance to go home, it was too busy.

[Kamalia]

Haha - poor guy.
And, here be spoilers for the movie.
I've been doing some reading, and I've found that some of the things left out of this film will be in the next. Rumors of the funeral, Rufus Scrimgeour, etc are saying they're in part one of DH. That I can understand, as having two movies to this last book gives them a lot more time to play with things. Bill should be there too, and his attack will have to happen at some point, I imagine. I get why they cut most of the attack on Hogwarts - to avoid repetition and have the full blown attack much more meaningful - but I was wondering about Bill.

[Sherylyn]

For the attack on Hogwarts... I know, too, that they said they didn't want to have both HBP and DH end in a similar fashion, with the big fight there, etc. Since they didn't know DH would be two movies when they were doing HBP, that makes complete sense, really... if DH had been one movie, it'd have been difficult to make things not be toooo similar between the two, etc.

I know the pix we've had of Bill from DH show that he has scars... but it may end up happening off-screen or something -- no telling in one sense, I suppose. We just have to wait another 16 months for DH 1, and two years for DH 2

[lucyjekyll]

I don't even know what to say. I have been disappointed by the movies before, what with useless talking shrunken heads and Ron's character assassination, but this was just too much. The plot of this movie in no way resembled the plot of the book. The characters in this movie in no way resembled the characters in the book. The kids are all better actors now, and I loved love-potion-drunk Ron, but the script was atrocious. At least the other movies served as vague summaries of the other books. This one rewrote so much that it made no sense. I have no idea how they're going to manage the next one when they've written themselves into several plot holes. I'm so sad about this.

[ladybug]

I have only seen the film once (so far) but have discussed it extensively with my sister (as you must!) and she thought she spotted something ... I was wondering if anyone else had the same impression ...

Later in the film (but before the lake scene I think), in Dumbledore's office Harry touches the broken ring and gets all these flashes of images and does his funny neck crink - my sister's theory is that all the horcruxes and their locations are included in that fast flash of images. I certainly remember seeing the photograph of the cave that we had seen earlier in Dumbledore's memory of orphanage Tom, but it was too quick for me to identify any others.

Has anyone else noticed that, or seen the film enough times to give any credence to that idea? Initially I wondered how on earth the films would enable Harry to start locating Horcruxes (as vital scenes such as Hepzibah Smith) were omitted) but if he just has to touch the ring (or another Horcrux) to discover their whereabouts, perhaps this is the way around it.

[Malchior]

No, I don't think so, if you noticed, Dumbledore trailed off in talking after Harry did that, because Harry also did the neck-crick-thing in OotP to indicate Voldemort's presence. I think this was more like the director foreshadowing Harry's horcrux. It's likely it was to indicate the horcrux in Harry responding to the lingering essence of the former horcrux in the ring.

[Sherylyn]

I agree with you, Malchior. I've only seen it 3 times (I think it is?), but that's the way I took that bit, too -- that it's a foreshadowing of Harry's Horcrux, and not the other possibility.

I'm not sure what/how they'll get the Horcrux info in to films 7 & 8, but they've got to somehow, that's for sure. Maybe they'll have it somehow in a letter or a memory from Dumbledore -- who knows? At this point, Movie*!Harry is still thinking Horcruxes can be anything anywhere, which Book!Harry knows isn't true, b/c Dumbledore corrected him about "no, you're thinking of Portkeys" type of thing.

I do enjoy the movies very much, but I won't deny that they've still got some questions to sort through for the last ones

[Kamalia]

Well, I'm hoping they can straighten everything out in the next one...two, I mean. Maybe they'll have Harry receiving Dumbledore's pensieve? At any rate, I certainly hope we get the next film on schedule!

[LisaK]

I just saw it this afternoon, and I thought it was interesting how they added stuff they knew from the seventh book - like the fact that Harry's a Horcrux, or showing that really, Snape's on Dumbledore's side (that whole thing with Snape finding Harry just confused me - not too well written as far as character).

PS - by interesting, I mean more on the "odd" side.

And I just finished re-reading HBP this afternoon as well. There are a lot of things that Book-Harry is thinking, as far as secrets from Dumbledore, that Movie-Harry is not.

[Malchior]

I think they may make Harry smarter than cannon in the movie, like with Draco. For instance, Dumbledore mentions in the movie stealing is not allowed at Hogwarts, and from there, Harry could gather that Voldemort steals from his victims, then have a flash back to CoS with Tom Riddle wanting to stay at Hogwarts. Or they could just have Hermione solve all the problems.

[Kamalia]

Well, upon my reread of the series a few weeks ago, I found that Harry is a lot smarter than we often give him credit for in canon. He puts things together on his own, especially regarding the horcruxes (although I will give that part of that is inborn in him because he is one, too). Ron and Hermione give him credit for "getting into Voldemort's/Death Eaters' head(s) really well".

I must wonder, too, if we're going to get a better resolution in the final film after the battle. As much as I love canon, I wanted a little bit more of a conclusion before the epilogue.

[LisaK]

One thing that I've done when re-reading lately is profile some of the characters - or really, the way in which they are written into the story. I found one thing very interesting about Ginny - count how many lines she has in the HBP book (I'll give you a hint - there aren't many occasions). Then consider how many lines she had in the movie. Definitely a different type of character development!

[Kamalia]

I really just wish she had smiled a bit more!