Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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MovieWes
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by MovieWes »

Well....... I made a separate bet that if Harry Potter made the NBR top 10, I would watch and review the Twilight movies this weekend. Well, I lost that bet, so I'm going to watch the first 3 and leave the "Breaking Dawn" movies for this bet.

::FACEPALM:: :oops:
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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Ditto.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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It's not gonna happen. But yes, I will uphold my part of the bargain as well.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by MovieWes »

The Oscar talk is starting up once again. I stand behind my previous statements. If this is nominated, I will watch all the Twilight movies and review them (although not on CinemaSight because I'm not contributing there anymore). I just hope that Irvin is willing to keep up his end of the bargain too. :wink:
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by criddic3 »

If they didn't nominate the first movie, they aren't going to nominate the last one. Unlike Lord of the Rings, none of the films were nominated, even in the years where they had 10 slots. That includes last year. If the Academy truly wanted to honor the Harry Potter series, they would have nominated both parts 1 and 2. Not happening. However, I did think Alan Rickman had some lovely moments, and if it's a weak year for the category he could get nominated for supporting. A real long-shot, though. It will get some tech nods, and maybe even win one.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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I saw this on Friday night, as usual months behind everyone else. I am a fan of both the books and the franchise (although my wife is the real fan of the series...seeing the movie was how we spent our anniversary!), but after seeing this film, it is not picking up any Best Picture nomination. Until seeing the film, I had forgotten that it is really one gigantic battle scene, and doesn't have a whole lot of heft on its own. I am not sure how well this would play to non-fans (well, I can see somewhat from here) as most of the power of the film comes not from the film itself but from 7 books and 7 films worth of history for these character and story. To those voters with little invested into this film, and that is most of the voting body I presume, at least from previous nominations, this won't play like a contender at all.

And really, this Alan Rickman talk is ridiculous. I thought he was the weakest part of the film...his Professor Snape was never very original (you feel like Alan Rickman could play this part in his sleep, and is right off the page), but here he is almost like a parody of himself. He has one line, threatening punishing the students, where he takes so many pauses in his line that I felt I was watching a Saturday Night Live sketch. Yes, he has some nice stuff in the flashback showing a different side of his character, but there is nothing near award-worthy going on here.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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Really, what is there to say? I gave up reading HP by book 3 and watching HP by film 5. Because of this, I was fairly clueless as to what was going on and I wasn't particularly interested. That may be why I just sat there waiting for it to end, because there was no entry point for me. I respect the evident care that was put into making the film, but since I lost the narrative thread before the movie even begun, nothing was at stake for me. I was struck, however, by how similar to "Lord of the Rings" this one looked.

I can only surmise that the calls for Oscar from this chapter stem from the catharsis that fans are feeling since I felt nothing particularly special about the filmmaking or performances that would earn it a nomination of any sort, outside of the technical categories. Radcliffe is deepening as an actor and it will be interesting to see what the future holds for him. But calls for Alan Rickman's nomination are ridiculous. He puts on lots of sad faces, mostly in a rushed montage, that I'm sure are very meaningful to Potter-ites in the proper context, but which looked like sad faces to me. The one actor I truly appreciated was Michael Gambon, who communicated a wizened, quietly playful wit in his one and only scene.

If I used my star system, I'd give it 2 stars, which is better than at least two other films in the series. And for those who say "That's not fair, grading a movie like that when you weren't properly prepared for it", my answer is that I'm grading my experience rather than the movie itself. Perhaps it would be different if I stuck with the series all the way through. But that can't be helped now. My experience of the film, under the circumstances that I viewed it under, was a 2 star experience. Sorry.

One more thing. I saw it in Imax 3D. I too prefer to see true 3D films rather than post-production 3D, but I don't always get to choose. It's very curious how the 3D made the images look FLATTER than they would have in 2D. There's added depth to the spaces but the images themselves look like paper cut-outs. What a gyp.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by Franz Ferdinand »

Home from the movie in IMAX 3D. This is quite an amusing topic that I won't venture too deep into, other than to say (as a long time Potter fanatic, a voracious reader of the books and vocal champion of the movies) that I do not want this movie anywhere near the Oscars. Maybe it was the insane anticipation a decade in the making, or a slight bitterness over splitting the movie into two for profits' sake (though, having seen it, I can understand why they needed to prolong the grandeur of it), or the Harry/Voldermort showdown's anticlimactic nature (inevitable after the emotional apex of Snape's flashback), but it didn't inspire passion in me. Sure, I would see it again in conjunction with Part 1 (having watched it last night), and sure I would recommend it to any but the most casual fans (who will have no idea what is going on and why it matters) - but rooting for it for Oscars, despite the critical success and volcanic commercial burst? Misplaced.

Technical categories I would have no problem with: throw it a nomination for Special Effects (if only for Most Copious Use Of), Set Design, Score, and that's about it. Steve Kloves should be commended for his tight narrative arc throughout the entire series, but an Adapted Screenplay nod is not happening. Anything else, and even I would shake my head and knock down AMPAS another notch or two. This is solid entertainment that will bring a largely satisfying closure for its fans - but not for major Oscar consideration.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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I'm largely staying out of this, but there are others out there sharing anonymous' delusions of grandeur:

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-camp ... t-at-oscar
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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I like the brainless spoofs. I've paid to see Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and a couple of others, but only with friends because they are great fun to just watch and find idiotic. The difference between a Michael Bay movie and one of the Movie Movies is that I'm at least entertained by the appalling Movie Movies and Michael Bay just annoys me.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by anonymous1980 »

Sabin wrote:And for some twisted fool out there, it's a treat to watch all the Movie Movies. Just sweeten the pot and we'll all move on with our lives.
What about I'll actually PAY to see Friedberg & Seltzer's next movie (whatever that is) the week it opens here? (Because if I lose, I plan to torrent-dowload those movies and to actually PAY for it would make me feel dirty.)

If not, okay: I will also watch the Twilight movies (in addition to the Movie Movies) and review them here but only if you, Sabin, agree to READ all 7 Harry Potter books and likewise post your review of every one of them here.
Furthermore, if it is nominated, I will watch The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 in the theater. At midnight.
Are you sure? :lol:

Tell you what, if come December and it looks like a major nom or two for Harry Potter became a real possibility, you can back out of that one and just watch it at a regular theater one or two weeks after release. :lol:

Listen, I know the odds are stacked against me. There's more reason to believe that a major nom for the movie is far from a sure thing. I (and quite a few others) was just saying, given the critical reception & the box-office plus the fact that it is the LAST of series & the expanded slots for nominees, that it was maybe possible for it to happen.

Truth be told, I'm rooting harder for The Tree of Life and Terrence Malick to get nominated than The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I find it curious that for me to say that a Harry Potter movie could maybe possibly sneak in Best Picture if the cards are right would be construed as delusional babble from a Potterhead. I never said it was gonna sweep the Oscars. I never said it was shoo-in to get nominated. All I said was, "Hey, it's possible." It isn't totally unreasonable. For some reason, me saying this and even saying that I would like for it happen offended you and was enough to send you off on a rant.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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And for some twisted fool out there, it's a treat to watch all the Movie Movies. Just sweeten the pot and we'll all move on with our lives.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by anonymous1980 »

Sabin wrote:...not like it matters really, but I am talking about watching every Harry Potter movie. What you guys are talking about, you can knock out in a day. I have to clear my weekend. How about all the Movie Movies (which are what? 87 mins a piece?) + I don't know...the first half of Season One of Mike & Molly. Something really horrible.
Watching every Harry Potter movie (even the Chris Columbus ones) is like a freakin' holiday for me. I don't know why you're complaining. :lol: :wink:
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

Post by Sabin »

The Original BJ by...
One thing it's unlikely for many Harry Potter fans to understand is that for those of us who haven't read a page of Potter (i.e. me), good chunks of these movies don't make much narrative sense. And, for me, this final installment made LESS sense than many of the earlier Potter films -- this might rank as my least favorite Potter since Chris Columbus.
I've now seen...let's see...five of the eight (oops, sorry! Five of the seven, seven including the two parts!) Harry Potter movies, and more than The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars (haven't seen a single Twilight), they remind me of The Passion of the Christ. An adaptation of source material I haven't read that is put on the screen without any of the thought or emotion needed to make me care. It just feels...blaaaaah.

The Prisoner of Azkaban was a fun little toy, beautifully shot but ultimately still a Harry Potter film. And The Half-Blood Prince actually amazed me with the amount of nuance in the film, and how for the first time (took 'em fucking long enough) Hogwarts felt like a tactile place, but the plot I couldn't have cared less about. It's a franchise of surface pleasures, I suppose. And like The Passion of the Christ, you have to be a true believer already to really gain anything substantial from it.
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Re: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Film Review

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Furthermore, if it is nominated, I will watch The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 in the theater. At midnight. :shock:
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
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