It All Ends!!! That was the tagline for the 8th and final installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise. I didn't see this at Midnight on Thursday as most folks who know me would have expected. The reason I didn't is I wanted to be awake for it for one, second is if you didn't get there the day before to get in line you'd get some horrible seats and all the reserved seat theaters were sold out month and months ago. So I opted to wait until Friday evening after work, got a group of great friends, several of them have been with me on multiple premieres of Harry Potter movies and one has been my "Potter" buddy since book 5 when we would read a few chapters and then call each other up and discuss what just happened. That continued for book 6 and 7. So those were the folks I wanted to finish this series with.
So we met for dinner at Fudruckers and hung out and chatted for a hour or so before heading into the theater. We went to the Arclight which is reserved seats so no lines (which is the best thing ever). The Arclight in Sherman Oaks has this huge wall of posters, normally it's various movies coming out but this time it was all the different Harry Potter posters over the years and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! We got some drinks and snacks and then found our seats inside the theater. I had to do one more bathroom run before the movie started and as I was leaving guess who was coming in, several of the ladies from Team Unicorn, Michele Boyd, Milynn Sarley, Claire Grant and her husband but well known actor Seth Green. I know Michele and Milynn so we said our hellos very quickly as they were going in as the
movie was about to start.
Now for my review.. one word AMAZING!!! *** SPOILERS*** Stop here if you have not seen the movie.
The movie picks up right were the last one left off, it starts with a shorter version of Voldermort breaking into Dumbledore's tomb and taking the wand and shooting a beam of light into the sky. I'm not going to go play by play. I thought the break in to Gringots was very well done. I loved seeing Helena (Bellatrix) playing Emma (Herminone) playing Bellatrix. The Dragon was very well done as well and that entire scene was fantastic. Griphook (Warwick Davis) was wonderful.. he was better then I imagined. The Hogsmead scene with Abbaforth was good but extremely shorten for the movie. We find out very little about the Dumbledores like we did in the books, but again they give you enough to get the idea but don't go in depth. Harry arriving at Hogwarts was great, again shorten but it's there. Here's where the movie starts to change from the books but I really didn't mind. The next hour or so is battle after battle. It was tough watching this place that you have loved for 10 years (Hogwarts) get destroyed. One stand out was McGonagall I've always loved her character in the books and I think Maggie Smith has done a wonderful job with her but she really got to shine in several parts for this movie. Loved her short but cool battle with Snape and her activating of the Hogwarts statues. And speaking of Snape, Alan Rickman was fantastic, again he had some major scenes and pulled them off beautifully. The 3 main actors Daniel, Emma and Rupert were all fantastic but that was expected since they all were wondering in part one. Snapes death scene was beautifully done, he's final words to Harry were great. This for me is where the waterworks stated. Snapes death was tough then the trio go back to the main hall and you see Fred dead and Ron just breaks down, then Harry sees Lupin and Tonks dead and it looks like they were reaching for each other hands. And then we go to Snapes memories and the final shot of Snape holding the dead body of Lily and sobbing was heartbreaking (I'm tearing up just typing this out). Then there is Harry's death and his visit with Dumbledore, which was very well done but as before shorten and not as much info given out as in the books. The scene that was in the books and I was hoping would make it into the movie was Molly Weasley and Bellatrix's final battle.. It was FANTASTIC!!! just as I imagined. The final battle was next and this was changed most from the books but I understand why they did it. It's more exciting to have Harry and Voldermort run all over the castle then it would be for them to be in the great hall talking before the final blow. Neville killed the snake, and Voldermort died and the then we get 19 years later (which btw was very well done).
Among all the changes there were a few things I actually like. I liked that Voldermort and Harry felt when a Horcrux was destroyed. And that killing each Horcrux kind of weakened Voldermort until Neville killed the snake (the final Horcrux) and Voldermort kind of disintegrated. I wasn't too happy on how Voldermorts death happened. We really don't know what happened. Did killing the snake, kill Voldermort.. did the killing curse rebound and kill him like in the books.. at the end of the movie everyone was doing non-verbal spells so I have no idea what happened... which kind of bothered me. I plan on doing a second viewing this week and I hope to pick up on a few more things as maybe I missed something because I was just to excited.
I cried the entire time during the last half of this movie, part of it was what was happening on screen but the other part was that this is it.. this is the final Harry Potter movie that I will ever see. I mean I'll be able to re-watch these movies over and over for the rest of my life but still.. this was it.
But of course this is far from over.. I still have the audio books, books and all the movies to love for many, many more years. and with Pottermore will be getting even more new content and who knows maybe one day will see more books/movies from this magical world.
Harry Potter books and movies may be over but the Universe will live within me for the rest of my life.
