More considered thoughts

[tree_and_leaf]

Pretty film, well acted, not enough McGonnagal. Harry is horribly out of character in the first five minutes (flirting and near enough picking up a waitress? Pre-chest-monster Harry?). Emma Watson's performance was much improved, though she couldn't save the awfulness of her line to Harry just before the attack canaries, 'What does it feel like when you seen Dean kissing Ginny?' Sadly, cutting out the subplot about Tonks' depression meant we lost the 'emotional range of a teaspoon' line... The scene with the attack on the Burrow seemed to have little to do with the rest of the film, and I was sorry we didn't get any Greyback creepiness. And I hate Helena Bonham Carter's Bella - she's got the loopiness, but she doesn't have the malevolence or the flashes of power. She might as well be Luna. The loss of the House of Gaunt is a big, big miss, and it takes a lot away from the force of the theme of different kinds of love, and the varying prices they exact.

That said, there's a lot to like about the film, starting with the visuals, which are extremely well done - a very subdued palette, most of the time, which throws the occasional bursts of colour into stark relief. Tom Felton was extremely good as Draco - for the first time, I cared about film! Draco. Rickman gave a nicely subtle performance, with some well timed infinitesimal hesitation in the Unbreakable Vow scene, and a wonderful micro-expression of anger and self-loathing just before he killed Dumbledore.

I also very much liked the scene just after that, where the assembled pupils gather round the headmasters body, holding up sparks from their wands. Admittedly my first thought was 'cigarette lighters at pop concert', but the moment when the light dispersed the Dark Mark was quite powerful - 'and the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.'

There wasn't enough Slughorn, and Jim Broadbent was too thin - but at lest we got the scene with the drunken singing at Aragog's wake (who seems to have shrunk since the second film!), and I liked Lily's magical goldfish.

ninveh_uk commented that Tom Felton continues to strongly resemble Stuart Broad, and we agreed that someone needs to write a Draco fic where he is, in fact, Stuart Broad, seeking redemption and an honest living through cricket....

ETA: on reflection, I think the teaspoon like was actually with reference to Cho, and appeared in the previous film. Hey ho. *bad fan*




I ought to be able to find something sensible to say about the Daemons, rather than just Anglican sarcasm, or endless speculation about Canon Smallwood, because I liked the story a lot. Genuinely creepy in places, particularly the scene where the Doctor is attacked by the Morris dancers (from the Headington Quarry side! I have seen their successors in real life!) The Master's mind control seemed more shaky than usual; I was interested by the ambivalent attitude to progress in the story - if the Daemons are to be believed, much of it's down to their inspiration, both good and bad. Hence, presumably, the ambivalent spelling, hesitating between 'daimon', which can be positive (Socrates' daimon, and all that) and the English-Christian 'demon.'


Two comments: why did Torchwood have to wait so long to get this good? It was, dare I say it... grown up.

Also, I see John Barrowman managed to get his pants off /Rickman.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

I dunno about Draco growing up to be Broad, though there's definitely a resemblance - I always thought he moved to Australia and became a snooker player...

[tree_and_leaf]

Goodness, you may be right!

[twistedchick]

I think you mean a subdued palette (of colors), rather than a subdued palate (of mouth). Though, it is Harry Potter, so such might be possible somewhere along the line. In a universe of attack sparrows and trees that bash flying cars, very little can be assumed not to exist.

[tree_and_leaf]

Right enough....