Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Dec. 16th, 2010 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morneaI finally saw Deathly Hallows the other night. It is a very faithful adaptation of the book (from what I recall of it-- I read it once when it came out, and we discussed it quite a bit as a family back then). But I think it fails as a movie.
The camera work is beautiful. The acting is good-- the young actors (now young adults!) do an excellent job. It has some good character moments.
But if I had not read the book I'd have been lost. I understand it's one of a series of movies, and I could understand if you needed to see the other films to 'get it'. But I think anyone who was not up on the book would not 'get it'.
It's also not for the kids, but then again, the later books are not for the kids either. I've always felt Harry Potter is a good story-- not a children's story-- a good story. I think mature kids and adults (at least adults who never lost the child inside) are the real audience for the books, especially the later ones. There is some heavy material here.
Disappointment: we did not really get to see Harry discover Dumbledore was a flawed man. That, to me, is a vitally important part of the story. In the end, everyone failed except Harry, and Harry had to "die" to himself before he could make the choices that both Dumbledore and Snape could not (though Snape came a lot closer than Dumbledore).
The camera work is beautiful. The acting is good-- the young actors (now young adults!) do an excellent job. It has some good character moments.
But if I had not read the book I'd have been lost. I understand it's one of a series of movies, and I could understand if you needed to see the other films to 'get it'. But I think anyone who was not up on the book would not 'get it'.
It's also not for the kids, but then again, the later books are not for the kids either. I've always felt Harry Potter is a good story-- not a children's story-- a good story. I think mature kids and adults (at least adults who never lost the child inside) are the real audience for the books, especially the later ones. There is some heavy material here.
Disappointment: we did not really get to see Harry discover Dumbledore was a flawed man. That, to me, is a vitally important part of the story. In the end, everyone failed except Harry, and Harry had to "die" to himself before he could make the choices that both Dumbledore and Snape could not (though Snape came a lot closer than Dumbledore).
