Harry Potter and the Solid Hour of Crying

[lizbee]

Well, I knew this movie was going to leave me a wreck, and frankly, I'm just glad that they cut down the Prince's Tale, or else I might have started sobbing, instead of just making awkward snuffling noises.

(I don't cry much about my own personal things, but I'm totally susceptible to both the sight of other people crying, and sad scenes in movies. Or TV. Sometimes books, but not as much. I think it's the music that does it for me. Suffice to say, for this movie I planned an outfit that required no make-up.)

Anyway, a random list of bits I loved:

- Helena Bonham Carter as Hermione. Perfect body language mimicry. I loved it.
- Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in their Death Eater costumes. I kind of wish they had spent the whole movie dressed like that. For science. Yes. Science.
- I was relieved there were no flashbacks to Dumbledore's youth, because that, too, would have killed me dead. OTOH, I was also sorry there were no flashbacks to Dumbledore's youth.
- NEVILLE MOTHERFUCKING LONGBOTTOM.
- I really liked the way they set up the Neville/Luna.
- MINERVA MOTHERFUCKING MCGONAGALL.
- I've always felt that the movies overlooked McGonagall and Snape. That was more than rectified here. I kind of want to cosplay McGonagall, but I don't think I could make her costume. The shoulder bits look complicated.
- I regret going to the bathroom during the scene where Ron and Hermione go down into the Chamber of Secrets. I really should have consulted RunPee, although even they agree it's difficult to find a good moment for a bathroom break in this film.
- UNEXPECTED KELLY MACDONALD.
- I really dig dishevelled!Lucius. And his costume.
- Draco Malfoy, his friend with a name, and an unnamed black guy we've never seen before walk into danger. And ... the unnamed black guy walks out again. That shouldn't be so strikingly unexpected.
- I liked the girl they had playing young!Lily. Still, after all these years, WTFing at the way they aged up the Marauders generation for the film. I like Geraldine Somerville in ANY ROLE THAT'S NOT LILY.
- Even my girly Snape/Lily shipping heart was kind of O_O at the "holding Lily's body and crying" scene. I can't even remember if that was in the book, but it made me think of thingswithwings's manpain meta, and the fetishisation of a dead woman's body. OTOH, it's Severus Snape, who has never been the poster-child for healthy emotional expression.
- Am I going to make an icon of young Snape and Lily lying on the grass together? YOU BET I AM.
- In the afterlife, Sirius has a handlebar moustache. COOL.
- I am sincerely disappointed that the Kings Cross station didn't involve nudity, as in the book.
- On the other hand, the Voldemort homunculus was truly horrifying.
- NEVILLE MOTHERFUCKING LONGBOTTOM, YOU GUYS.
- Tom Felton's not actually a good actor, but I did enjoy his body language during the Awkward Voldehug.
- And also Voldemort's Comedy Hour.
- I have to admit that all the stuff between Harry waking up and Neville killing the snake was basically just marking time. On the other hand, usually long action sequences make me bored, and I'd lasted this long!
- THE EPILOGUE! I didn't think the aging make-up was convincing, but having seen paparazzi shots of the original, heavier version (which was better in theory, but looked more make-up-like) I figure it was a compromise. Maybe in 19 years' time, they can get the actors back to refilm it all for the cinema release? I'M JUST SAYING!
- Oh, I cried. I CRIED A WHOLE LOT.

Comments

[silverhare]

Draco Malfoy, his friend with a name, and an unnamed black guy we've never seen before walk into danger. And ... the unnamed black guy walks out again. That shouldn't be so strikingly unexpected.

Agreed! (And wasn't it Blaise Zabini?)

[lizbee]

Oh, it must have been! It's been so long since I saw HBP, I can't remember what the actor looked like!

[onomatopoetry]

Even my girly Snape/Lily shipping heart was kind of O_O at the "holding Lily's body and crying" scene. I can't even remember if that was in the book...

It wasn't in the book, but I do admit I think it worked - *because* Snape is so emotionally creepy and messed up. And it broke my heart a million times. All of Snape's scenes did. Oh Severus.

re: HBC: YES a million times. I forget that she can actually act, and then this happens.

I am kind of surprised I didn't cry - everyone I talked to did, but I only teared up when the dragon took flight and when the camera was panning over all the dead after the first half of the battle (Remus! Tonks! Fred!)

I did not know Runpee existed. Bookmarked, thanks!

[xwingace]

- Helena Bonham Carter as Hermione. Perfect body language mimicry.

That was so well done, for the first few seconds I actually thought that was still Emma Watson...

NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM, HERO EXTRAORDINAIRE.

I want McGonnagall's coat. Possibly without the shoulders. But everything else. And I loved the way she was giddy as a little girl when she got to summon those statues. And then got back to business.

I also really loved the fire effects in the Room of Requirement. Pretty fiery animals.

XWA

[ase]

OTOH, it's Severus Snape, who has never been the poster-child for healthy emotional expression.

I saw the new movie with my nonfannish (male) roommate, and I was torn between the manpain and wondering what my roommate was making of it.

NEVILLE MOTHERFUCKING LONGBOTTOM, YOU GUYS.

I WISH TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS COMMENT. Neville and McGonagall made the movie for me. Also Alan Rickman, but that was expected. Neville was unexpectedly awesome!

[infiniteviking]

EVERYTHING YOU SAID ABOUT MCGONAGALL, YES. And Snape too. They pretty much stole the show. From what I heard, McGonagall had been downplayed because Smith had been fighting cancer, but she survived and came back and hit the last movie with all she had and gah how is she so awesome.

Awkward Voldehug
/DED

Pretty sure the other guy with Malfoy was Blaize Zabini. (The wiki agrees.)

The whole manpain thing... much as it irks me, yeah. Rickman made it believable, but he'd have made anything believable. But I am very, very sorry to report that I cannot watch a lying-in-the-grass scene without horrid Twilight flashbacks. */flips desk*

And I cried at the flashbacks, at Fred, at Colin Creevy, at the Resurrection Stone, even at freakin' Obi-Wanbledore. Darnit.~