oselle | While I'm Here... (Reply)

Haven't been around much lately. Caught Deathly Hallows last week when my sister was in town for the holiday and I don't know. It was a fairly pleasant way to spend the day after Thanksgiving (much better than enduring all that "Black Friday" bullshit) but I was disappointed. I thought the last two HP films were great, in no small part because they really tightened up Rowling's sprawling story-telling but in this case they just gave in to it. I know that's because they had to make this one book into two movies, but man, there was a whole lotta nothing going on there for most of the pic. Sort of like the entire first half of the book.

It was a beautiful movie though, and an excellent tourism pitch for the U.K. What it reminded me of more than anything was this PBS series called Over (Some Scenic Destination), that was basically an hour of video shot from a low-flying aircraft, with nice music and minimal narration. There was an Over Ireland and an Over Britain and an Over Italy...you get the picture. That's what this was like. Just one beautiful panorama after another. But if I hadn't read the book I would have been sitting there wondering when the hell something -- anything -- was going to happen. Fortunately I read the book so I knew nothing was going to happen.

The Deathly Hallows animation scene was breathtaking and to be honest, I thought that was not only one of the best parts of the book but some of Rowling's finest writing. But oh, I could so have lived without naked Harry and Hermione macking on each other. These two still look like such little kids to me that I was just like...OMG kiddieporn. Not to mention that the blue lighting reminded me of nothing more than those unsettling Theban Band photo-manips of Frodo and Sam from back in my LoTR fan days. Egads, that was so uncalled for. Bad, bad director.