The other major disappointing omission from these films is the death of Peter Pettigrew, who survives Part 1 and then disappears completely in Part 2. And in the bloodbath of Part 2, we see nothing of certain characters’ final stands, before Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Lavender Brown are all just corpses.
It would have been a hell of a lot more cinematic too. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to give Mad-Eye, and in turn, Brendan Gleeson, an on-screen death. It happens in Part 1, when Bill’s news that Mad-Eye Moody has been killed in battle is translated faithfully from the book. The recent Michael Bay outing, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, ended with an elongated action sequence, but Part 2 excels by doing the same thing with characters and stakes about which we actually give a crap.īut in the course of being a summer blockbuster, there’s no excuse for the way in which the deaths of certain beloved characters are merely skipped over. In that respect, the final film captures the tone of Rowling’s finale perfectly, bringing the chaos of the final battle to life. The story tries to make as much of the exposition as cinematic as possible, precisely because Part 2 is so relentless and frantic. It may seem unnecessary for some, but you couldn’t, say, skip over Part 1 after The Half-Blood Prince. It’s as close to an arthouse Harry Potter movie as you’ll ever see. With cinematographer, Eduardo Serra, joining the crew, the expanse of the English countryside almost seems to swallow our three heroes whole, and arguably justifies the separation of the first part on its own. But given how the greatest special effect in this series, bar none, has been watching these actors grow up as these characters for the last decade, it’s safe to say they deserve the spotlight this time around. If you’re still agnostic about their acting abilities, then fair enough. The upside of this approach is that it provides a showcase for Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, and rests the film firmly on their shoulders. Still, it’s a flagrant exaggeration to call Part 1, as some have, ‘two and a half hours of kids camping in the woods and bitching.’ It’s fully an hour before Harry, Ron and Hermione are forced into hiding in the woods, but it’s safe to say that the next hour drags more than any film in the series since Yates took the reins.
But that’s missing in each of these films. The greatest strength of The Half-Blood Prince was in balancing the fun stuff with the tragedy and the horror of the tale. But both films could stand to have a little more of each. And in Part 2, the emotional crux of the whole series is delivered in the double punch of Snape’s true allegiance and Harry’s acceptance of his destiny.
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