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Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 was the shortest 2.5 hours film I have ever seen. When it ended it felt like I had spent about 45 minutes in the theater. I guess it is probably because in my head I was treating the story as one full length film and this movie only covers half of the story.

The ending felt like they literally opened the 7th book and cut it in half. Unlike the other movies which can each stand on their own as an independent film, this one absolutely cannot. For anyone who plans to see it, it is very good, but it is half of a movie.

I guess I can understand that for monetary reasons, it makes sense to divide it up and split it over half a year, but I really wish that they had pushed the two release dates much closer together or done a tandem release.

Also, for what it is worth, this movie didn't have special effects that made it worth seeing in a theater. Knowing what I know now, I might have been happier renting it just before going out to see Part 2.

Posted: Nov 21 2010 05:59 pm

It would have been funny if they cut it off in mid-sentence.

Posted: Nov 21 2010 08:37 pm

this looks dumb

Posted: Nov 21 2010 10:08 pm

I enjoyed it. I'm still not really liking them making it into two movies considering every other book was made into a singe movie. It feels like a cash grab to me. Still I liked it and am looking forward to the second part. To bad it is a good six or seven months away though.

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

When it ended I definitely felt like it was just getting started Smile

The story of the Three Brothers was done really well.

It's been a long time since I read the book but I was very pleased with it. Didn't hold back on the darkness or the sex(You know EXACTLY what part I mean Wink

)

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 21 2010 11:12 pm

I thought it was really good. To be honest, I'd rather they make 2 movies than butcher everything down into a single one like they did with some other films, where it didn't work so well.

And they picked a good break point, actually.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

UsaSatsui wrote:

I thought it was really good. To be honest, I'd rather they make 2 movies than butcher everything down into a single one like they did with some other films, where it didn't work so well.

And they picked a good break point, actually.

It's like finally spying a lighthouse when I'm at sea. I've been itching to see it.

Posted: Nov 22 2010 01:17 am

UsaSatsui wrote:

I thought it was really good. To be honest, I'd rather they make 2 movies than butcher everything down into a single one like they did with some other films, where it didn't work so well.

And they picked a good break point, actually.

I agree that they picked a good point to stop the movie. I'm glad they didn't stop it Matrix Reloaded style or use the words "To Be Continued."

Posted: Nov 22 2010 02:43 am

UsaSatsui wrote:

I thought it was really good. To be honest, I'd rather they make 2 movies than butcher everything down into a single one like they did with some other films, where it didn't work so well.

And they picked a good break point, actually.

This, and this.

I will agree that, since the Part 2 is already done, I wish they would release it sooner. Especially with the way it cuts off, there's NO reason to wait half a year.

But, considering the amazing accomplishment that is this movie series, one blatant cash grab like this I can deal with.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Do you guys agree that this movie required the most from each of the three primary cast members as far as acting?

I felt it really hung on them to both move the plot as well as to serve up the drama and tension in the story. I suppose for those who read the book, it was already known that this would be how it must be, but none the less, I thought the acting was damn good and was the reason why the movie felt like it moved quickly even with limited action.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

GPFontaine wrote:

Do you guys agree that this movie required the most from each of the three primary cast members as far as acting?

I felt it really hung on them to both move the plot as well as to serve up the drama and tension in the story. I suppose for those who read the book, it was already known that this would be how it must be, but none the less, I thought the acting was damn good and was the reason why the movie felt like it moved quickly even with limited action.

Still haven't seen it. But yeah, I suspected this would happen, considering the majority of the first half is..

Well, I shouldn't say. Spoilers and all that jizz.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 23 2010 12:32 am

Drew Linky wrote:

Well, I shouldn't say. Spoilers and all that jizz.

If someone who intends on watching this movie has not read half of the book yet, and yet are still in this thread, fuck them. They deserve to be spoiled.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

UsaSatsui wrote:

Drew Linky wrote:

Well, I shouldn't say. Spoilers and all that jizz.

If someone who intends on watching this movie has not read half of the book yet, and yet are still in this thread, fuck them. They deserve to be spoiled.

Sometimes you sound very angry. None the less, your point is correct. The story has been known for years and the title of the movie clearly states what the topic is. To be kind, I have updated the subject to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 (SPOILERS)". Hopefully there will be no confusion and no the thread can be as open as people would like to get.

Posted: Nov 23 2010 02:25 pm

I hate to be the dissenting opinion, but, well... lol.

My friends have often used my reactions to the Harry Potter movies as a "case study" of someone who has never read the books and genuinely has no idea what is going to happen when I sit down to watch one of the movies. As a result I often have completely different reactions than my friends. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree.

This time, I'm disagreeing. I thought this movie was boring as all get-out. I started checking my watch about an hour into it, which is weird because I have been looking forward to this movie for a while now. I did greatly enjoy the animated sequence of Hermione telling the story of the three brothers; i thought it was really well done and it got me focused back on the movie when my attention was really flagging.

I think the problem, for me at least, was that it didn't follow the general "formula" of a Harry Potter movie, so everything I was "expecting" to see didn't happen (again, I have never read the books). Instead we got two and a half hours of them randomly camping around "hey let's look here" "okay now let's look here"; the movie felt like it just crawled along with no real direction or purpose. In retrospect, you can clearly see that the whole thing was plotty set-up for the final movie, which I'm sure will have more "stuff" happening.

I will say the acting is great, and I enjoyed the humor the three create when they're on screen together. Also enjoyed the whole sequence with the locket and trying to break it (though Ron's bizarre, cheesy, rambling explanation of why he came back genuinely had me laughing at the oddness and absurdity. Was he high?). Like I said before, I loved the story of the three brothers and how they chose to portray it. Dobby's death was unexpected and incredibly sad for me, so it left the movie on a pretty downer note, but I do think they picked a great stopping place to end it.

Final verdict... we went to one of the before-noon showings of the movie, so I only paid $4.50 for my ticket. I'm glad, because paying any more to sit through that would have left me pretty bitter. It was on a whole pretty boring, and I will likely never watch it again, but it did have some great sequences to keep it from being completely unwatchable. It's very clearly just a bridge to get to the final movie. :\

And that is my utterly unpopular view of Part 1 Very Happy

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 23 2010 03:05 pm

aika wrote:

I hate to be the dissenting opinion, but, well... lol.

My friends have often used my reactions to the Harry Potter movies as a "case study" of someone who has never read the books and genuinely has no idea what is going to happen when I sit down to watch one of the movies. As a result I often have completely different reactions than my friends. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree.

This time, I'm disagreeing. I thought this movie was boring as all get-out. I started checking my watch about an hour into it, which is weird because I have been looking forward to this movie for a while now. I did greatly enjoy the animated sequence of Hermione telling the story of the three brothers; i thought it was really well done and it got me focused back on the movie when my attention was really flagging.

I think the problem, for me at least, was that it didn't follow the general "formula" of a Harry Potter movie, so everything I was "expecting" to see didn't happen (again, I have never read the books). Instead we got two and a half hours of them randomly camping around "hey let's look here" "okay now let's look here"; the movie felt like it just crawled along with no real direction or purpose. In retrospect, you can clearly see that the whole thing was plotty set-up for the final movie, which I'm sure will have more "stuff" happening.

I will say the acting is great, and I enjoyed the humor the three create when they're on screen together. Also enjoyed the whole sequence with the locket and trying to break it (though Ron's bizarre, cheesy, rambling explanation of why he came back genuinely had me laughing at the oddness and absurdity. Was he high?). Like I said before, I loved the story of the three brothers and how they chose to portray it. Dobby's death was unexpected and incredibly sad for me, so it left the movie on a pretty downer note, but I do think they picked a great stopping place to end it.

Final verdict... we went to one of the before-noon showings of the movie, so I only paid $4.50 for my ticket. I'm glad, because paying any more to sit through that would have left me pretty bitter. It was on a whole pretty boring, and I will likely never watch it again, but it did have some great sequences to keep it from being completely unwatchable. It's very clearly just a bridge to get to the final movie. :\

And that is my utterly unpopular view of Part 1 Very Happy

I don't think you're wrong. Unlike the other movies, this one had the luxury of being -very- close to the book, and this is kind of what happened in the book. There was this sense of hopelessnes, of "we don't know what the fuck we're doing", of wheel-spinning, up until all of a sudden things start happening at breakneck speed. And I also think things slogged down a bit a while in, but I think this may have been a consequence of that.

And yes, Part 2 is set up to be action packed as hell, it looks like. There are only two real "set pieces" left, after some downtime at Shell Cottage, and they happen one right after another, and both are absolutely nuts, at least in book form.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

Sweet! Spoilers away.

From Aika's view, I think I can get a clear idea of what I'm going to think.

I like movies based on books, but only if they're accurate (I'm looking at you, Eragon, you fucking monster). Even if it's boring, I'm going to like it because I get to see my favorite people up on the screen. So from what you're saying, this is very close to the book, so I should enjoy it immensely.

And yes, part two will be UNBELIEVABLY action packed. And I'm going with the crowd on saying that six months is a ridiculous wait for part two.

By the way, going to see it today. Wish me luck.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 24 2010 09:30 pm

Oh, right, there was one thing that bugged the hell out of me.

Not one time did they use the invisibility cloak.

Posted: Nov 25 2010 11:39 am

aika wrote:

I hate to be the dissenting opinion, but, well... lol.

My friends have often used my reactions to the Harry Potter movies as a "case study" of someone who has never read the books and genuinely has no idea what is going to happen when I sit down to watch one of the movies. As a result I often have completely different reactions than my friends. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree.

This time, I'm disagreeing. I thought this movie was boring as all get-out. I started checking my watch about an hour into it, which is weird because I have been looking forward to this movie for a while now. I did greatly enjoy the animated sequence of Hermione telling the story of the three brothers; i thought it was really well done and it got me focused back on the movie when my attention was really flagging.

I think the problem, for me at least, was that it didn't follow the general "formula" of a Harry Potter movie, so everything I was "expecting" to see didn't happen (again, I have never read the books). Instead we got two and a half hours of them randomly camping around "hey let's look here" "okay now let's look here"; the movie felt like it just crawled along with no real direction or purpose. In retrospect, you can clearly see that the whole thing was plotty set-up for the final movie, which I'm sure will have more "stuff" happening.

I will say the acting is great, and I enjoyed the humor the three create when they're on screen together. Also enjoyed the whole sequence with the locket and trying to break it (though Ron's bizarre, cheesy, rambling explanation of why he came back genuinely had me laughing at the oddness and absurdity. Was he high?). Like I said before, I loved the story of the three brothers and how they chose to portray it. Dobby's death was unexpected and incredibly sad for me, so it left the movie on a pretty downer note, but I do think they picked a great stopping place to end it.

Final verdict... we went to one of the before-noon showings of the movie, so I only paid $4.50 for my ticket. I'm glad, because paying any more to sit through that would have left me pretty bitter. It was on a whole pretty boring, and I will likely never watch it again, but it did have some great sequences to keep it from being completely unwatchable. It's very clearly just a bridge to get to the final movie. :\

And that is my utterly unpopular view of Part 1 Very Happy

I just saw it yesterday and this about sums up my feelings.

I too was checking my watch early and often. My girlfriend is a huge fan and has read all the books and her actual comment was "We just wasted the day. We could've gotten some yard work done."

I haven't read the books and I have no idea how the series wraps up but this movie seemed largely unnecessary. There was waaaay too much time spent doing nothing. It felt like if they had only made one movie instead of two, then 75% of this one would have been cut out with no loss to the story.

I get really annoyed when greedy people go for blatant cash-ins and that's exactly what this was... unfortunately there just wasn't enough content to justify two movies.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

My Mom has read none of the books, saw this with me yesterday and we both agreed it was a good movie. They had the slow parts, but that's a majority of the first half--floundering around trying to figure out what to do. And they balanced it nicely with the parts that explained the next step. I don't understand what you guys are all complaining about, it was very well done. If you didn't like it because you think most of it was slow... -shrugs- There's more to a movie than moving the plot along. You need time to think, sometimes. It was easy to follow (like I said, Mom never read any of the books, and contrary to the other movies, she understood everything that happened this time because of the all the slow parts to think things over.

I guess it's just a matter of opinion.

Title: Hugh Joined: Sep 23 2007 Posts: 1591

I saw this last weekend. I didn't think it was boring, just that it didn't really feel satisfying at the end. I thought it actually felt really short, probably for the reason Fontaine stated. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a whole movie. It feels like I'd imagine it would've been like to have stopped watching any of the other movies halfway in. That said, though, I think if they're going to break the movie into two pieces, they shouldn't wait so long before they release the second half, or at the very least, make it so the first half can stand on its own as a film, and not just feel like the first half of the last one.

Posted: Nov 26 2010 02:23 pm

Captain_Pollution wrote:

I saw this last weekend. I didn't think it was boring, just that it didn't really feel satisfying at the end. I thought it actually felt really short, probably for the reason Fontaine stated. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a whole movie. It feels like I'd imagine it would've been like to have stopped watching any of the other movies halfway in. That said, though, I think if they're going to break the movie into two pieces, they shouldn't wait so long before they release the second half, or at the very least, make it so the first half can stand on its own as a film, and not just feel like the first half of the last one.

I feel the exact same way about everything Fig said...damn it, I can't wait, I might just finish the damn book like I should.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 09:27 am

I thought it was a great movie but because I knew it was only going to be half, I kind of had that idea in my mind the entire time like " Alright, are they going to end it now, or now? " so I was kind of just waiting for the cutoff. At least it wasnt Sopranos style.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 10:46 pm

SoldierHawk wrote:

I will agree that, since the Part 2 is already done, I wish they would release it sooner. Especially with the way it cuts off, there's NO reason to wait half a year other than to make more money on a double feature when Part 2 releases.

Fixed. And I'm pretty sure at least some theaters will be doing a double feature, just like some offered the first two LotR movies as a marathon into the third.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

lordsathien wrote:

SoldierHawk wrote:

I will agree that, since the Part 2 is already done, I wish they would release it sooner. Especially with the way it cuts off, there's NO reason to wait half a year other than to make more money on a double feature when Part 2 releases.

Fixed. And I'm pretty sure at least some theaters will be doing a double feature, just like some offered the first two LotR movies as a marathon into the third.

You know what? That doesn't sound too bad.

Posted: Nov 30 2010 04:13 pm

I saw this on opening day because my fiance loves Harry Potter and I decided to surprize her with tickets. I'll be honest with you all though, I really didn't care for it. I was bored out of my skull and I'm sure it was becaues I had no idea what the hell was going on. I've only seen the first HP movie and pretty much more or less hated it. Thank God I snuck in a bottle of wine. It made it much more enjoyable.