Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011)

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Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 07-15-2011, 07:30 PM:

Cinema: Newtown Theatre, Newtown, PA
Presentation: 35mm/DTS
Presentation Problems: Weak Bass
Rating: ***3/4 (out of 4)

I thought they wrapped the series up nicely. I will probably see this again. 1/4 star off because a few shots had noticeable DNR (to the point where it took me out of the film momentarily).

A lack of low frequencies (particularly bothersome during battle scenes) spoiled an otherwise flawless presentation.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-17-2011, 04:49 PM:

CINEMA: Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons, Sandy, UT
AUDITORIUM: 13
PRESENTATION: Dolby Digital Cinema DLP
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None [Cool]

RATING: Three and one half stars (out of four)

Twenty minutes before showtime and they're not letting us in the auditorium, even though it's the first show of the day. Huh? When they do finally let us in, credits are rolling. Apparently, they were previewing something. Something I'm guessing wasn't Harry Potter.

THE PLOT: Mean people suck. Wackiness ensues.

I still remember seeing the trailer for the first movie the first time. I'd heard of the hype over the books, but hadn't read them. That trailer looked great.

I saw the first movie in this very room. It was my first and last experience with SDDS-8. I've seen every one of the series first in this building. I've planned vacations around release dates.

I couldn't wait to see this one...until I was actually watching it. Then I was sort of sad that it was coming to an end.

It ended well, though. If I were the ghost of Dumbledore, I would have walked out on Harry and his pestering questions too. [Smile]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-17-2011, 07:35 PM:

I have never seen any of the Harry Potter films at a theatre but I have all of the Ultimate Editions on Blu-Ray up until year six. There are only two more in the series to be released- 7A & 7B- the current film that just opened in theatres and the set will be complete. Although all of the movies were excellent, I enjoyed Year 4 the most.

-Claude

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 07-23-2011, 07:48 AM:

After seeing every Harry Potter movie for the first time, I always experience a tad bit of disappointment because I wanted to see something in particular from the book and it wasn't there. Then I see it a second time and it immediately grows on me. The same thing happened here. I really liked this movie. It winds everything up nicely and keeps a lot of the book intact.

Thankfully, they dropped a lot of the Dumbledore back story from the book for the movie. I thought that would just get in the way and confuse people and it was totally unnecessary. I guess the producers agreed. For those who have read the book, the Molly Weasley line is in it - and everyone loves that line. The Ron Weasley line is not in it (where he punches Malfoy in the face - which also isn't in it), which kind of bums me out. I thought that was great. Everything else was pretty well done. I can't think of any major complaints.

I originally saw this in 2D because I didn't want any botched fake 3D crap to take me out of the movie when I was trying to watch it for the first time. Then I went and saw it in 3D since a friend of mine wanted to see it that way. The 3D was ok. It wasn't horrible. But I have to say, for the most part it was really subtle and a lot of times almost non-existent. I guess one way to make fake 3D look good is to not make it look 3D. There were a couple of items that they seem to have mis-placed in space. For example there is a shot where McGonagall points her want towards the camera - the wand looks like it's hovering in space a few inches from her hand. Stuff like that. I didn't bother with IMAX for a number of reasons. Primarily because I would have to drive to either NYC or DC to see it on film now, and I would be paying a lot more to see a presentation that was fake 3D anyway. So what's the point?

All in all, it was a great movie, and a nice way to round out the series.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 07-23-2011, 08:00 AM:

I've never been a fan of the Harry Potter movies primarily because they're not really movies at all, not complete movies anyway. The films in the series thus far have amounted to merely greatest hits compilations of the fans' favourite bits from the books with barely a narrative thread to tie all the setpieces together. The result is that if you haven't read the books, many details in the films simply make no sense at all and if you have read the books then you're forced to fill in the narrative yourself. It doesn't help, of course, that production began before the book series was completed, as the scriptwriters and directors had no idea where the story was going, making the significant inclusions in each entry a bit hit and miss in terms of the overall story arc. But regardless, it all amounts to considerable sloppy film making.

Having caught the The Deathly Hallows Part 1 on bluray a couple of days prior to viewing Part 2 and finding it underwhelming for the most part (I skipped its cinematic release last year) I was fully prepared to be conclusively disappointed in the final installment but felt compelled to see it to, a) keep myself in the pop culture loop and, b) finish what I started back in 2001 with The Philosopher's Stone. How surprised I was, then, to thoroughly enjoy this latest and last film.

Part 2 is better than the other films because it has focus, an attribute its predecessors lack. It takes a specific part of the narrative - it's core narrative - and gives it all it's due attention, indulging (I'm told) in some artistic license to ensure it all works. There's no padding; there's no we-put-this-in-because-we-thought-it-would-be-cool moments; everything means something and contributes to the economy of the narrative.

Unfortunately the performances from its young primary cast are as hit and miss as ever. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have beautiful chemistry together and their passionate embrace following Hermione's triumphant destruction of a horcrux (the couple that destroys horcruxes together, stays together) is one of the films great moments. Watson and Daniel Radcliffe, however, have absolutely zero chemistry, a fact made embarrassingly apparent during that awful dance sequence in the previous film. Similarly, Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright never once look like the lovers they're meant to be - when Harry kisses Ginny, he looks like he's kissing his sister. Likewise when you see them as a married couple in the films coda, you can't help but think to yourself, "I bet they sleep in separate bedrooms". Maybe things would have been better had Ginny destroyed a horcrux?

On the flip side, Helena Bonham-Carter's understated but entirely accurate portrayal of Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix Lestrange is nothing short of superb and is easily the stand-out performance of the film. Maggie Smith manages to incite the warm and fuzzies despite her miniscule screen time and Ralph Fiennes is predictably brilliant as the villain, Voldemort. It's amazing, really, what can be achieved with real actors.

Oh if only the other films were this good, this could have been a very fine series. Perhaps with the benefit hindsight of all seven books, the inevitable future reboot of the franchise will produce overall better results. Until then.....

8 out of 10.

Posted by Tony Gallimore (Member # 5358) on 07-23-2011, 03:35 PM:

My brother and I decided to check this latest and final Potter offering. Unfortunately, there was no 35mm offering, so we had to endure an out of convergence digital fiasco resulting in everyone having a red halo on the right side of their head, plus the same for any other points of focus. But it balanced well with the blue halo on the left side of everything... and of course the whole picture was dark, too... then again, Hogworts was a pretty dark place. Content was pretty much in keeping with the previous Potters. Interesting ending... gee do you think we might just start the whole series again with the kiddies? Wonder what the significance of the train number was? I must have missed that somewhere along the way. Overall I'll give it a 6 out of 10... [Roll Eyes]

but the presentation a flat F.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 07-24-2011, 08:41 AM:

Red and blue halos? Were you watching with anaglyphic glasses on or something?

Posted by Tony Gallimore (Member # 5358) on 07-24-2011, 01:26 PM:

No Mark, the poorly converged projector managed to do that all by itself, without the help of any glasses.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 08-05-2011, 01:30 PM:

saw this in glorious 35mm (no 3D) at the Avalon theater here in DC, and both the picture and aggressive 5.1 soundmix were excellent. Aside from the silly but obligatory epilogue sequence I thought the last film in the series was what I was expecting - thumbs up!