Quickie Harry Potter 7 opinions

[desh]

I'm kind of disappointed.

The non-epilogue ending was too abrupt.

The epilogue was quite unnecessary. (Though to the extent that I care about what fandom would call "pairings" at all, I did want Harry and Ginny to end up together. I didn't much have an opinion beforehand about the future of Ron and Hermione, though they were good together as teenagers.)

There were way too many close escapes throughout the book. Way too many. The ones that could be explained away with in-book magic logic (Harry's wand shooting by itself) were fine, but the other ones (escape from Gringotts) were too numerous for how absurdly unlikely they were.

Jesus? I guess so. More so Neo from The Matrix, I think. But Neo was Jesus too, so I guess I'm just quibbling about details.

I was never too invested in the Tonks/Lupin relationship. Dunno why. The saddest deaths in the book, to me: Fred, then Madeye, then Hedwig, then Dobby.

I wanted more of the Black family.

I did, however, like the overall plot. I also especially liked the final battle and all of the Harry/Ron/Hermione scenes.

Overall, I think that of the latter 5 books (because they're quite different than the first 2), I think #3 is still my favorite, though I've never really reread any of them so that might just be rose-colored hindsight or whatever. Off the top of my head, without putting too much thought into it, my order would be 3-6-4-7-5.

Comments

[desh]

I think I must've been sitting on an uncomfortable couch or something when I read Dobby's death. It just didn't strike me the way it seemed to have hit most of my friendslist.

It's interesting that you think you liked 3 more and 4 less because of the movies...since I haven't seen any of the movies. I think the time turner / Patronus sequence in 3 was the most vivid, magical scene of the 7 books. And to me, the entire middle of 4 was pretty unnecessary; the entire point of the book was to get to the end. And I should read 5 again, especially given how much you liked it. For some reason I just don't remember it much; I'm getting it mixed up with 6 in my head.

Funny how different opinions on these things can be.

[krisispm.livejournal.com]

Re-reading them in order straight-through (well, almost) did a lot for putting them into perspective - previously dull bits turned into important clues, while a few previously thrilling encounters now seem trivial.

I think that's why three has dropped on the list - it's the only book where Harry isn't any any mortal danger at all, so the suspense seems wasted. The film is a little cagier on this front, and holds up to re-watch much better than its counterpart does to re-read. This as opposed to book four, where even on re-read its hard to believe that it's just one person trying to do him in. (Also, he learns almost all of his offensive spells in four, which is pretty significant).

I'm pretty much alone in my love of five, so don't necessarily trust me on that one.

The movies are each an interesting conundrum - or, perhaps, a curate's egg - as they at once emphasize and eliminate so much of Rowling's fine detail. One is nearly verbatim, and two a brisk and faithful adaptation.

Three is the only one so far that not only catches all the important bits, but lightly condenses and embellishes for a more cinematic effect (many fans have the opposite opinion, but it's more difficult to dispute that it's the best-shot and directed of the quintet so far).

Four leaves out more and enhances the wrong details (and is ugly and badly directly). Five is fun film that bears a passing resemblance to the novel (with great performances and soulless effects).