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Mischief Managed

Originally posted at LiveJournal on July 16, 2011.

Brace yourselves for the obligatory Potter fan moment.  SQUEEEEE OMG OMG LAST MOVIE OMG SQUEEEE LAST MOVIE WAS AWESOME OMG OMG SQUEEEEE!!!

So yeah, I just saw Deathly Hallows part 2 and it was as epic as it should have been, and left me feeling all fuzzy and nostalgic.  Sure, there were a few plot holes (I'll have to revisit the book to remember if those holes were at least smaller and less noticeable), some things left out, some things unnecessarily added, but it didn't irk me as much as the 5th and 6th movies.  Mostly.
The awesomeness:
  • It. Was. Epic.  The Harry-Voldemort battle, duh, was brilliant (except for the falling-off-the-tower bit, but more on that in a sec) .... The Ron/Hermione kiss was as dramatic as the Harry/Ginny kiss from movie 6 should've been. ....  The part with all the professors building up Hogwarts' defenses was one of those wonderful We're- not-going-down-without-a-fight-dammit! scenes -- even tiny Professor Flitwick looked badass!  ....    The emotion in the Prince's Tale scene was perfectly emphasized -- especially when Snape was holding the dead Lily as baby Harry looked on from his crib, tears rolling down his little face (which made Snape's non-reaction to Harry calling him a coward in movie 6 all the more ridiculous.  For audiences not familiar with the books, the revelations in the pensieve scene probably came out of left field).  ....  Of course I clapped when Mrs. Weasley said her famous line.  ....  And the way they showed Voldemort dying was so fantastically creepy -- even better than in the book!.
  • And the music.  Nerdy observation time!  I loved those solo vocal melodies that emphasized the eerie/emo scenes, and it was great to hear the old stuff from the first movie (Hedwig's Theme and the intro/finale theme especially).
The issues:
  • Plot holes.  Were people really not tipped off by the fact that "Madame Lestrange's" voice sounded like a 17-year-old's?  .... Why weren't the police swarming in when that red alarm started blaring in the Gringotts caverns?  ....  Why didn't the Room of Requirement pop up as soon as Harry realized that's where Ravenclaw's diadem would be?  .... If Voldemort could sense each time Harry killed a horcrux, why couldn't he sense when Harry was hiding Right. On. The. Other. Side. Of. The. Wall (just before the Prince's Tale scene)?  .... And most importantly, if Voldemort was so freakin' obsessed with killing Harry, when he actually "did it," why didn't he himself check the body to make sure Harry was really dead? Instead, he trusted Narcissa Malfoy, even though the Malfoys have constantly dropped the ball whenever he'd send them on a mission.  That particular plot hole was definitely a book issue, and not just a matter of clumsy film editing.  The others I don't remember as clearly.
  • Missing stuff.  I wish they'd elaborated more on the Arianna Dumbledore story, and the scandal alluded to in DH part 1.  They made such a point of it then, but it's pretty much forgotten in part 2.  They could've at least added a few extra lines of exposition, if not a brief flashback. 
  • Added stuff.  Yeah, the "Let's finish this together" scene, in which Harry grabs Voldemort and they both fall off a tower, was completely unnecessary.  All they do is clutch each other's faces, fall for a while, and then poof! They're safe on the ground and go back to hurling spells at each other.  It's like the extended dragon scene in movie 4.  Just an unnecessary action sequence.
  • Modified stuff.  Ok, I'm going to be a bit of a Douchey McNitpick* here.  I was a bit miffed that Neville didn't kill the snake as soon as he did his rallying speech, but I guess it made sense for the movie's sake to have him kill Nagini just before Harry kills Voldemort.  That works.  But Ron and Hermione were not supposed to know that Harry was going to give himself up -- in the book, he leaves without telling anyone, because it would've been too painful (and they probably would've tried to stop him).  The way the movie shows it, Ron and Hermione don't even put up much of a fight, so it wasn't even a poignant goodbye scene. 

Maybe I've just been desensitized to these moments of directorial license in the Potter movies.  Or maybe the epic scenes made up for those irksome moments.  Whatever it is, I'm definitely seeing it again!

P.S.  Apparently the Twilight saga will also have a two-part finale.  *snerk*

* "Douchey McNitpick" is a character invented by the Nostalgia Critic in this episode.
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