Director: David Yates
Written by: Steve Kloves and J.K. Rowling
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Warner Bros.
Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, is the final adventure in the Harry Potter film series. The much-anticipated motion picture event is the second of two full-length parts. In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort. It all ends here. -- (C) Warner Bros
Review:
I've expressed my love for the movie multiple times before, so I'm not going to go into that now. (Here's my first reaction if you want to read it.) Instead I want to focus on the awesome special features.
The only special features on the disc with the movie were deleted scenes. And I of course have to go through every single one. The first one took place in Shell Cottage. It was basically Bill telling Harry, Ron, and Hermione to be careful around Griphook. It's was almost exactly what was said in the book I think. It was a nice scene, but I can see why it was cut I guess.
The next was Harry and Luna talking in front of Dobby's grave. Luna tells Harry that she's going back to Hogwarts, something I definitely think should have been kept in the movie. I've mentioned several times before that it's weird that Luna just randomly shows back up at Hogwarts in the movie, so I would have appreciated that. It still doesn't explain how she got in when there were Death Eaters there who had to know she'd escaped from Malfoy Manor, but it would have been better than nothing. There was also a bit of extra dialog between Ron and Harry before Hermione shows up as Bellatrix. There was a great line from Ron about Luna that I loved. It was something like, "Always good value. I'll miss her."
The next deleted scene takes place at the Hog's Head while the trio is talking to Aberforth. I'm pretty sure it's just a slightly different version of a scene that was in the movie, so it wasn't that exciting. Still nice to see though.
The fourth was the Hogwarts students marching down the staircase to the Great Hall before the battle. Harry kind of makes his way through the crowd to Ginny's side, and they hold hands. It's extremely short but really cute.
The fifth was Neville, Seamus, and other students setting the bridge up with explosives. I love the fact that you can see green screen everywhere, and when the camera goes up to Neville who's standing on the bridge you can see the lights. I was kind of wondering how they had time to do all of that. It seemed to be taking a while. I also wondered why Neville was standing up on the bridge instead of being down there helping. I guess he was looking out for anyone coming or something.
The sixth was Tonks running up and finding Remus. As I'm a huge Remus/Tonks shipper this scene made me extremely happy, and I would have been so extremely happy to have seen it in the movie. They even mentioned Teddy, so that wouldn't have been too out of place later during the scene with the Resurrection Stone. Plus, it just made me happy to have another mention of Teddy.
The seventh was the Slytherins breaking out of the dungeons. It was good to see that they got out and fought, even though it was kind of implied that they went to fight for Voldemort. I'm sure there were some fighting against him as well.
The eighth and last scene was Ron and Hermione being chased by Nagini. Their exchange is so cute! Ron says he has something to tell Hermione, and she tells him not to say it because it'll ruin it. I loved it!
The rest of the special features were on the other disc. The first I watched was the conversation Jo and Dan had with each other. It was almost an hour long, and I was scribbling down notes the entire time because I knew I was going to do this post. I don't want to bore you with the massive amounts of notes I took though, so I'll try to cut it down.
I loved this. It's just Jo and Dan talking to each other, and all of it was really interesting. Jo mentions that she's always though Dan, Rupert, and Emma were to good-looking to play "geeky" Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which is something I'm pretty sure everyone thinks. She also said it was a good thing she talked to Emma on the phone and realized she was a perfect Hermione before seeing her.
Jo also mentions that it was extremely hard for her to kill Remus, and Dan says the thought it was one of the saddest deaths. I definitely agree with that. I also love how Dan's laughing when Jo says she considered killing Ron off. (I'm so glad she didn't!)
I also love how they talk about the fandom. It just makes me happy. Dan mentions that he had a brief filling at one of the premieres that he could have formed a dictatorship at that moment because the fans would have done whatever he said. It was probably true.
The also make a comment about Rupert spending his money the way everyone else would have when they were seven. From the sounds of it he's bought some pretty crazy stuff. It'd be interesting to see what kinds of things he's got sitting around his house.
I love what Jo says about peope burning their books. She basically says they should feel free, and Dan says they have to buy them anyway. Jo also says something about parents keeping their children from having an imagination that I just thought was great.
I also loved what Jo said about the epilogue. She wanted it to be a snapshot of their life, and it showed that Harry got to live a life full of love and family.
There was so many other amazing moments. If you have a chance to watch it, I'd definitely recommend it.
They next special feature I watched was on the goblins. It was really neat. It showed how they cast them and how the makeup was done. I never knew Warwick Davis represented actors under five feet, and all of the actors cast were represented by him. It was also cool to find out his wife and kids played goblins as well. This was much shorter than the Jo and Dan conversation (10 minutes), and it was interesting.
The last special feature was on the women of Harry Potter. It was a bit longer at 22 minutes, and it involves Jo and some of the female actors talking about the female characters in Harry Potter. It was extremely interesting. The discussed Lily, Mrs. Weasley, McGonagall, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Umbridge, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna mainly. There was some interesting insight into some of the characters. It wasn't necessarily new information, but it was a neat look at them.
I really enjoyed the special features (and the movie). I love this DVD so much!
Rating: PG
