HP DH Pt. Two All-Encompassing Analysis Part Four

McGonagall was an absolute BAMF in this movie.  She just absolutely owns everything that crosses her path.  Nice job, Maggie Smith.  I do like the visual we get of the school being protected, and the way Voldemort later, enraged with the destruction of another horcrux, breaks through.  I happen to like Scabior as a doofy and less threatening villain, so I'm glad he got a quick moment in this film before the bridge exploded.  On that note, I liked, the intimidating quality of Voldemort's vast army, Neville’s bravado on the bridge scene, and how they referenced Seamus's "proclivity for pyrotechnics."  Both were very Rowling things to do.  Brownie points.

They skipped some details in the Grey Lady's tale.  They weren't significant but they were nice details to know and fit well into the biography of Tom Riddle's life we began to compile during Half Blood Prince (book).  Although I wasn't crazy about the way the Grey Lady appeared more opaque than other ghosts in the movies, I loved her personality and her demonic qualities when she got worked up.  Very well done.

I understand how and why they had Harry find the diadem the way he did in the movie, but the story in the book was infinitely better.  We know he himself placed the tiara on a "stone effigy" one year before trying to locate it as a horcrux.  He himself realizes this in a stream of conscious thought.  I understand that Kloves couldn't write this into the script because there is no mention of a diadem in Half Blood Prince.  (I'd like to point out that Harry and Ginny's kiss got in the way of that, and that the movie kiss was creepy and entirely unfulfilling.  That movie created no chemistry between Harry and Ginny, just a series of awkward encounters in which we know they are each thinking about each other.  J.K. is exponentially more successful at seamlessly stitching their budding relationship into the story.  If they'd have done it her way--flirting and chemistry and a kiss in a crowded common room--they would have been able to do the tiara thing properly.)  It's just so much more climactic when Harry realizes he knows what and where the final horcrux is than when he listens to the nails-on-chalkboard sound that he alone can hear to find the diadem.  

On the note of finding/destroying horcruxes, I'm glad they showed Ron and Hermione taking on Hufflepuff's Cup even though we only hear about it in the book.  (My mac thinks I'm mental right now with all the words that are not in the English language.)  The way Voldemort himself is evident in the aftermath of every horcrux's destruction is a chilling effect as well.  I do take issue with the much anticipated kiss between Ron and Hermione.  In the book, Ron realizes they've got to get the house elves out before they perish in the battle, indirectly telling Hermione that after all her years of lecturing them about Spew and equal rights, he has been listening after all.  She runs at him and is the first to kiss him.  I love that because it reveals just how well Ron's been paying attention to Hermione, highlights both their political consciousnesses, and shows Hermione's nerve in being the one to kiss him.  Going by J.K.'s characterization, that's the way it would have gone down.  (Click to zoom in.)  I also adore when Harry has to yell to get their attention, saying, "OI! There's a war going on!" to which Ron replies, "I know mate, so it's now or never, isn't it?"  However, considering elf rights never came into the movie (Half the elves never even made it in.  WINKY never even made it in.  I take personal offense to this since my car is named after the poor darling.) and it may not have translated well to the screen to have Harry watch awkwardly, it was done well enough.  On a related note, this is cute.

I liked the scene in the Room of Requirement very much.  I like how Draco faltered and confirmed the audience's suspicion that he's not all bad after all.  Ron's shouting about Hermione being his girlfriend was a good touch.  I'm none too bothered that they swapped out Crabbe (arrested for possession of drugs and drug use paraphernalia) for Blaise Zabini. Giving Goyle the role of especially evil best friend instead of Crabbe was fine.  For a necessary change, it was pretty graceful.  Goyle's being unable to put out the fire was shown with humor and clarity.  His death was cruel but warranted.  I definitely cheered when they pulled the direct line, "IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'LL KILL YOU, HARRY." (<--LOL) Malfoy and Blaise are saved because Harry is being the bigger person, though rightly so, for Malfoy isn't a real villain after all.  The fiendfyre was super cool and pretty much exactly as I envisioned it.  The diadem was destroyed, and I generally loved the scene, besides the previously mentioned glitch about how Harry knew where the horcrux was.

As I mentioned, I like the visible protection around the school.  Similarly, I like how we see Voldemort's efforts to destroy it.  The image we see on posters and in clips in the film of the castle--the first place Harry felt he belonged, where we learned the spectrum of beautiful and terrible magic, where our heroes grew up, and where we ourselves grew up in our mind's eye--being annihilated breaks my heart in a way I didn't know the movies were capable of.  Watching these scenes, I become a student of Hogwarts, out there fighting Death Eaters for the sake of all things worth living for, seeing my childhood and adolescence crash down around me, burning and collapsing and crying out in pain.  Very emotionally charged images.