The (Unforgivable?) Mistakes in Deathly Hallows, Part II

On behalf of Jelly_Chan: SPOILER ALERT.—Sparkitors

Friends, fellow Sparklers, the recent release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II, marked the end of an era. The end of our childhoods. And yet, Harry Potter is still in our hearts (please insert a Neville-esque speech about how his memory shall remain with us forever.)

I faced the final movie as a true Potter fan: getting punched by my friend every time Ron/Bill/Snape/Remus/Fred and George showed up on the screen (I still have the bruises), ending up with some sort of hand injury due gripping her arm too tightly when anyone died, saying all my favorite lines along with the actors, cheering as Molly cursed Bellatrix Lestrange (literally) into oblivion, applauding The Kiss, snorting at Hermione's "Accio Horcrux” (really Hermione? Really?) and crying into my half-eaten popcorn for most of the second half.

So before anyone misunderstands me: I did not think this movie was bad. I thought it was certainly among the better ones in the series (if they'd ruined the end for me, I would not be sitting here writing this article. I would be dressed in black scaling the walls of the houses of the screenwriters/David Yates using my awesome ninja skills).

But there were some things I feel compelled to point out that really took away from the whole experience. Here are my complaints:

1. They didn't show Teddy. THERE WAS NO TEDDY! Remus' only son, the legacy of two beloved characters who probably grew up to be a Metamorphmagus with crazy rock-stair hair and a charming smile (at least in my mind), the one who was snogging (le-gasp!) young Miss Delacour-Weasley. WHY WASN'T TEDDY THERE?! WHY?!

2. Speaking of the ending...did the make-up artists/special effects people get hit by a bus before this scene was shot? Did they crack under the pressure and come to work dressed in their bathrobes trying to hex people with pencils? Did they have an urgent Sailor Moon marathon to catch? I mean, it's the 21st century. We can make actors “age” convincingly. Add a few gray hairs, a wrinkle, some facial hair...SOMETHING. Instead, the entire effect was that of teenagers playing dress-up. They just put the actors in different, more boring clothes and voila! They are middle-aged folks. They just use really good um...anti-aging products. Use your imagination, people! We still have 130 episodes of Sailor Moon to get through here!

3. The lack of information about Dumbledore's past. OK, I realize that the director had to be selective with what he put into the movie because he had a limited amount of time. But with so much fuss being made over “Is Dumbledore really is amazing and good as we thought him to be?” left, right and center, we could at least have SOME mention of his controversial background, which was a fairly important aspect of the books. It would be like me going around for days saying “Can we really trust Dan Bergstein? What if it turns out all his posts were written by his 8-year-old cousin while he is out strangling kittens and getting all the fame?” and then just forgot about it and didn't even bother to turn around and go “Oh yeah, Dan Bergstein is for realz people! And he doesn't strangle kittens.” Maybe they wanted to skirt the whole Dumbledore and Grindelwald issue...in that case, real smooth guys (NOT).

4. There was a logical fallacy. Remember how Dumbledore said Voldemort couldn't feel his Horcruxes being destroyed? Otherwise he would've been onto Dumbledore the second he stabbed the ring with the sword of Gryffindor. The whole plot would've fallen apart. And yet, in the movie they showed Voldemort feeling the diadem and the cup being stabbed and the snake being killed. Which added to the drama but sent Miss Logic and Mr. Consistency flying out of the window.

5. The Lily and Snape part, while so touching it reduced me and my friends to sobbing wrecks, pretty much skipped their interactions as teenagers and young adults, which I bet left the viewers who hadn’t read the books going “Wha—He loved Harry’s mother…? So how did he end up with the Death Eaters?! What? But…but…what’s going on?!”

6. Movie Harry broke the Elder Wand before repairing his own. Which was really really stupid of him.

7. The epic battle of Hogwarts was just a teeny bit of a let-down (ducks behind furniture). Put away the pitchforks, please! I know my expectations were unfairly high, but I just felt there should have been more. We didn't see Percy come back. We didn’t see any of the deaths—we didn't even see Fred die (which was probably better for my sanity and all because I adored Fred, but still). When Harry walked into the Great Hall and saw all the bodies, I just kept thinking “Wait...that's it? Shouldn't there be something MORE?!”

8. Voldemort's death. Dumbledore insists on calling him “Tom” Why? Because he's just another human being. One with a terribly twisted soul that has been broken apart and retains not a single trace of live. Sure, he was an unimaginably dark wizard, but still made of flesh and blood. He's not some kind of otherworldly creature, just a boy who grew up to be a murderer. And in the book the presence of his dead body in the Great Hall clearly serves to bring that point across. But the movie completely missed it, choosing instead a very Japanese-Anime-Villain-esque death.

We agree with almost all of these points! Why couldn't they just make the movie 8 hours long? We totally would have sat through it. How did you feel about the final film?

Related post: My Deathly Hallows Experience

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