Harry Potter 7

Yeah!  Finally got to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, movie 7, part 1a.  The following has NO SPOILERS because to do otherwise is just mean.

J's review: I was very (surprisingly) pleased.  Definitely the best this director and screenwriter has done at getting the feel of the book.  The acting was terrific, and there were lots of very atmospheric scenes full of menace and emotion.  Only a couple places where they substituted an inferior line for one from the book that would have been stronger, and none of the infuriating additions that marred movie 6.  Rupert Grint (Ron) was really strong, and Emma Watson, often berated in our house, was  ... actually good.  There were several difficult-to-film sections of the book where they got across the important bits and the feeling in a quick visual way, like the opening scene in the Malfoys' house or the camping sequence.  They even worked around several omissions and oversights from previous movies in an elegant way.  For me this ranks third in the movies so far, behind only movie 5 and the great movie 3.  Worth a watch or two at the theatre.

So, who would you rather take on?  Bellatrix, of course, has the out of her gourd thing going for her, but if it has any planning to it, I'd take K in a fight.

K's Review:  Overall, the short cuts taken were needed and was perhaps one of the better attempts in the series to bring the books to life.   I liked it enough that I'd like to see it on the big screen.

Thumbs up

• Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour.  Too little screen time, but understandable as they had to move the plot along.
• The gates and Alan Rickman's performance as Severus at Malfoy Mansion.  For those who have read all the HP books and understand the complicated feelings Rickman needed to portray, these few minutes on screen were amazing.
• Emma Watson steps up in this film and gives her most realistic portrayal of Hermione Granger.
• The three actors who gave performances of Harry, Ron and Hermione transformed.  Those folks did an amazing job of making us believe they were really Harry, Ron and Hermione.
• Great job of portraying the Malfoy's distress of having the worst house guest ever.
• The seen with Bathilda Bagshot in the cemetery and walking around her home was like watching the pages of the book come to life.

Thumbs down

• Too little of Luna and omitting the ceiling in her room was missed opportunity that would have cost little time yet had big effect.
• Messed up Ron's and Harry's best lines after the deluminator.
• Omission on the redemption of Harry's relationships with Dudley and Kreacher.

 Looks like  Severus has selected X for a special opportunity.  Concentrate...

X's review:  Do I have to review it?  Can I just say... "I saw Harry Potter part 1 and I loved it. I liked the part where the  Deathly Hallows story was animated.  I also liked when Ron broke the locket horcrux."

Y's review: 7 is much better than 6. It had more details and it was funny. Though some people (oh no, not you, Xavi) say criticizing a movie you like is a horrible and unjust thing to do, I think even good movies have faults, and this one had several. It had a couple parts where you had to have read the book to understand everything. There were also some things they could have fixed by just switching a sentence of lines for another one, but otherwise I would say it is a movie worth watching.

We got all four reviews!  A family first.