*SPOILERS*
Outside a crowded movie theater in San Diego, California with temperatures a little low for the my liking, my tears started welling as soon I saw people of all ages and races standing in line hours before midnight wearing funny cloaks and hats with more than a few In-N-Out wrappers in their hands.
People love Harry Potter for all sorts of reasons, whether it's for the magic, or the battle between heroes and villains, or mysteries, or friendship, or epic adventures. But the crux of Harry Potter is in that first movie and those first few pages. It's when Harry, living a rather miserable to normal life, is told that he is a wizard--that he is special and magical and destined for great things.
Standing together in our funny robes and Gryffindor ties, we too are special and magical, if only for a few collective moments. For 10 magical years of film and 13 years of readings, Harry Potter created a family between strangers and imagination in those still willing to believe. Today we said goodbye to our hero, to our shared childhoods, and in a way, a collective reckoning that it's time for us to graduate from Hogwarts too.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 started off slightly jumpy than the last one, as it ended mid-action last November. The story was quickly refreshed that Harry and his best friends Ron and Hermione are on the hunt for horcuxes, objects in which darkest of evil Voldemort has stored pieces of his soul. Kill all of the horcruxes, kill Voldemort. In the meantime there is the issue of the Deathly Hollows which are (1) the invisibility cloak (2) the resurrection stone and (3) the elder wand, the most powerful wand ever created. Whoever owns all three can concur death. Harry possess the cloak, Voldemort is now in possession of the wand.
Other reviewers will give a more polished view on the plot and the like, but here is mine at 5am Friday morning after a 1am showtime.
I'll admit that the trip to Gringotts to destroy one of the horcruxes in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault seemed overplayed. Compared to the rest of the movie, the pacing seemed off and more fitting for Part 1. But I wonder if it was done more as an homage to the first few scenes of the very first Harry Potter movie back in 2001, and a last deep breathe before the manic race to the end.
Very quickly Harry and the gang are off to Hogwarts find the last known remaining horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and get a Basilisk fang to destroy the Cup of Hufflepuff. That shining moment of hope when Harry enters Hogwarts one more time with the Potter theme songs cuing up left me with salty tears falling at rapid speed. Much has been written about Daniel Radcliff's transformation as an actor from his age 11 to now 22, and I heartily agree. He plays Harry as a grown-up leader still capable of humor and faults, but with utmost dignity to do what is expected of him. He is ready.
Can I say that I'm Team McGonagall? I loved how the magic crackled around her as she summoned the whole castle to prepare itself for Voldemort's attack. For me, the most poignant scene of the film happened then as the professors lifted their wands together to build a ward around the school. It felt like they were protecting all of us from the attack of the real world to come as their last offers as teachers. It was a last hug from your mom, the last handshake from a professor, the last part of the hero's journey when the elders do what they can for you before you must rise above and fend for yourself as a new adult.
Kudos for the sheer chaos of war that director Yates created inside and outside of Hogwarts as the students prepared to fight as Harry, Ron, and Hermione hunted the horcruxes from within the chambers of the school.
I have never been a fan of Ron and Hermione's romantic relationship but even I wanted to join the claps for their first kiss perfectly timed between the crazy and the calm.
For the life of me, I cannot remember the Gray Lady from the books, and she pretty much pissed me off her whole scene. There's a goddamn war outside, ghost lady, tell Harry where the horcrux is and get on with it. I have to say though, I fucking love Luna Lovegood for her perfect stoner logic, "If no ones alive has seen it, shouldn't you ask someone who's dead?". My boyfriend is convinced she has a grow closet in Hogwarts.
The battle of Hogwarts was shot in a way I never would have expected. I liked that it was outside amongst giants, students, spiders, and death eaters. It was a clusterfuck of everything you remember in the past 7 movies. I was pleasantly surprised with Snape's big reveal as well. It was little too packaged and slightly out of character, but overall I thought it answered all questions neatly. No one else could have played slippery Severus Snape as well as Alan Rickman has all these years, and his last moments of grace were his finest. He kept us guessing until the very end.
I was afraid of two scenes in this movie, (1) the epilogue, and (2) Harry's sacrifice. Harry, through looking through Snape's memories, learns that Snape in love with his mother, that Snape was a good man all along, that Dumbledore was more manipulative than he ever thought, and that Harry himself is a horcrux and must die to finally kill all parts of Voldemort's soul.
Radcliff's silent horror and humble stoicism was brilliantly acted. He collects himself, and begins his humble march towards death. I've always loved Emma Watson's protrayal of Hermione and her goodbye to Harry was a true testament of the bond they share on screen and as friends in real life. Ron's look to Harry wasn't quite enough for me. As best friends shouldn't they nod or shake hands or something?
My tears started falling again as Harry bravely walked to the forest to die for the greater good. I was thoroughly impressed with the ghosts of his parents and godfather speaking to him before his sacrifice. "Does it hurt, dying?" Harry asks. "It's quicker than falling asleep," responded Sirius. In the past 10 years of growing up, almost all of us have experienced death around us for the first time. Maybe we're old enough now to realize that we will die one day too. And Harry's acceptance to live for good and not die afraid might be a lesson we need for the rest of our lives.
I image that Harry's afterlife will be disputed on levels of beauty to absurdity, but I personally liked it. It felt quiet and safe. It felt like a life when you're done with a goal and you're not sure if you're simply done.
On a side note, I'm really proud of JK Rowling, Yates, and Steve Kloves (screenwriter) for what they did with Dumbledore. They all really picked apart that stereotype of the honest wise sage into a man with his own greed and strategies. Dumbledore is a far more complicated man than first thought. Then again, so is Snape, and Harry's own parents. Harry too is reckless and moody at times, Ron is selfish and useless way too often, and Hermione can be bratty on more than one occasion. None of the characters are not perfect heroes, nor should they be.
Voldemort's finale was...odd for me. He's been played so chillingly by Ralph Fiennes these past few years that I expected nothing less for his ending. The audience ended up laughing at him for several scenes when he become more crazy in a funny lunatic way than a sadist way. Nonetheless, his announcement that, "Harry Potter is dead" scared me a little (and the tears came yet again).
I'm curious what people will take away about the Malfoys. I've always had a soft spot for the Draco character and had hoped that he would have been redeemed entirely. The three of them refusing to fight for Voldemort but not fighting against him either shows a strong sense of cowardice that might not sit well with audiences, including myself. It feels unfinished in a way. All in all, all three Malfoys played their conflicted parts well, especially Jason Issac's Lucius character, who transformed from proud lord to beaten man. Maybe it was too late for them to join the light wholeheartedly.
I'm glad that it was Neville that killed the snake. He wasn't the chosen one, or the boy who lived, he was the everyman who earned the moment of glory due to his own bravery of what is right. I hope it is seen this way, and not as an tangent of ironic humor. It ended with action, with humor, with grace, and with friendship, and I can't thank JK Rowling enough for giving me and all of us 13 years of hope and magic.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first and only movie I ever saw with my father, with whom I had a rocky relationship. He passed away in 2006. I saw the second movie with my mother in a dingy movie theater in San Jose, California, during a matinee and it was the first time I felt older than the kids in the theater. I saw the third and fourth one in the Bay during high school with various friends. During that time I formed a tight bond with my friend Rae due largely in part because of lengthy discussion of Harry Potter, Harry Potter fanfiction, and all things British. I saw the 5th one with her, as well as my new boyfriend (whom I'm still dating). I was subletting in San Diego during the 6th one and saw it with my boyfriend who pissed me off when he kept checking his texts. His texter had been broken and somehow during the movie all of his outgoing texts from the past 4 months sent at once--causing many people to text back stuff like, "What? You're asking what kind of sandwich I want at 1am?". I tried seeing the 7th one with a few different people but was flaked on time and again. I didn't see it until last month in this very room and cried my eyes out about Dobby. And tonight I saw the 8th one at midnight in a packed theater in my new home of San Diego with my boyfriend.
On a warm summer day at age 13, my childhood began when Vernon Dursely saw people in funny looking cloaks parading around London. I was sitting in my backyard's wooden table near my dad's BBQ and everything seemed possible then. Tonight at 23 I'm sitting in an office chair in my boyfriend's room. My college diploma is in a moving bag under the night stand and I'll be looking for my first real job come Monday morning.
And so the end. Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing on the edge of Hogwarts, looking out towards peace. I'm glad they did the epilogue, not that I particularly enjoyed it when I read it. I always felt like it was a cop-out so JK Rowling could point to it and say, "Stop asking me if there's a year 8 or Hogwarts College, I wrote an epilogue 19 years into the future, for Merlin's sake!" Still, it felt...nice. Like closure in seeing Harry as a dad.
Magic goes on, Hogwarts goes on, Harry Potter doesn't stay a boy on the edge of school, Harry Potter grows up. And you know what? it's ok for us to grow up too.
