Hopefully Formed Thoughts On Deathly Hallows part 1

If you're expecting me to be spoiler free, you are sadly mistaken. I have opinions, you know. So yeah, this is pretty SPOILERIFIC. Proceed with caution.

To preface this, and it's not entirely unrelated--just mostly, it's been snowing on and off here for the last week. It started on the way to the Deathly Hallows midnight release at about 7:30. Then it seemed to go away. Then I went camping (yes, in a tent) and it snowed some more. That time it stayed and now it's snowing more. Yay?

Now, I know I live in Canada and we're supposed to live in igloos and ride polar bears to school. And I know I lived in Ontario until I was 8 and this weather is normal there but in Vancouver, BC... it's not. Normal. Its weird. We maybe get snow once or twice a winter and it usually turns to slush the next day, killing snowmen and making drivers everywhere breath a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it's supposed to rain tonight and maybe this situation will be resolved.

But seriously, these highs of -2°C (I did the math for you Americans, that's 28° F) and lows of -8 (17° F)? Not cool. I'm so cold and I hate going outside. Except maybe today when my mom tells me it's less freezing and the snow is coming down all prettily. Maybe I'll go outside today...

***In the time of these stars, I went outside, came back inside, went outside again and shoveled people's sidewalk. I like shovelling.***

I really liked DH part 1. I thought it was beautifully done and probably the most true to the book movie save for the first two. Regardless, I have to start with the PROBLEMS I had with it. I have narrowed down my discrepancies to just three major ones. Who is proud of me?

1. I felt like in the movie, they really ignore Harry's faltering relationship with Dumbledore. I find that a huge theme in the book is him really losing trust in the one man that has always been a sense of certainty to him. He always believed in Dumbledore and thought he knew what he was doing. In J.K.'s book, you really see Harry struggling with this trust as he finds out that Dumbledore isn't the perfect man Harry thought he was. He's flawed and had a past that he never shared with Harry as well as a whole bunch of Voldemort-killing details that he didn't feel like letting Harry in on. That really hurts. In the second half of the book, he comes to terms with this and kind of accepts Dumbledore and decides to continue trusting, despite it all. I really enjoyed seeing Harry take a magnificent step forward in his emotional journey, so to speak. And they pretty much glossed over it in the film. I'm hoping they'll reopen it in part 2 but I'm currently learning to live with the disappointment.
2. It seemed too easy. I thought they did a great job of showing how emotionally hard it was on all of the characters, with the fear and straining relationships and such, but physically, it was all brushed over. In the book, it takes them a month to plan their invasion of the Ministry. In the movie? A split second jump cut and here we are. They never touched on what they were eating when camping and how starving they all were. It seemed too easy. And I realize there are time constraints on this but I thought the point of having two parts of the book was so it didn't feel like every other second we were jumping to a new scene. There was such great pacing and I loved how they kept the story moving along every moment but sometimes it felt a bit rushed to me. Lastly for this, where was Voldemort? Voldy was supposed to be on his way to Godric's Hollow and was supposed to see them disappearing out the window. That is dramatic. Why did they cut it? He was also on his way to get Harry in the Malfoy Manor scene but whatever. I guess these things aren't that important but it makes it scarier and more immediate.
3. There were some really interesting continuity issues. I know it's not as big a deal for us book nerds who can fill in the blanks with the knowledge we have from years of pouring over the thick volumes but if I was purely a movie watcher, I would be baffled at times. I'm talking about things like the shard of mirror never being explained, the invisibility cloak never being brought out, Phineas Nigellus's picture frame never being mentioned. I mean, come now, how are they going to explain how Snape knew they were in the forest of Dean? Like... what??!? Also, no taboo? How did the Death Eaters/Snatchers find them? Stuff like that simply bugged me. J.K. gave them such an amazing web of interlocked details and information to follow and I feel like in some areas they just decided to try and strike out on their own, to no avail. There's a lesson here for film makers everywhere. But I am not a filmmaker and I understand how naive it is to simply say "stick to the book," no matter how tempting.

With all of that said, I was minorly upset when Dudley did not get his moment to say his bit about how Harry wasn't a waste of space. I was hoping I'd see that but I guess I'll get over it being cut. I was also sad that Kreacher lost his story but I'm over it, too.

Now for my POSITIVE COMMENTS!!

1. Dobby. I don't really care about his graphics or any of that but I thought his lines were hilarious and touching and sweet. "Dobby, you mean you can apparate in and out of here?" "Of course, Harry Potter, sir. I'm an elf." (or something along those lines) I didn't cry the first time I saw it because I was wearing mascara and it wasn't waterproof. I did cry the second time around.
2. The dancing scene. I can see why some people would have thought it was fluffy, annoying and unnecessary (or is that just my dad) but I thought it was adorable and incredibly important.
3. The trio, especially Ron. I was really impressed with all of them.
4. The Ministry scene. Even though the jump cut that eliminated all their efforts planning it, I thought it was incredibly well acted, as Vita said. I totally believed it.
5. Hedwig. For a minute, I convinced myself they wouldn't kill her in the movie, but I was glad she didn't have to die in a cage.* 
6. Harry seeing his parents graves. It's weird but I never really thought about how hard life is for Harry, being parentless. He's such a good sport and doesn't dwell on it that much so I never really have. And it was sad to watch.

I've been working on this way too long. I need to publish. *hovers mouse over orange button*

p.s. Does anyone find tacking on that 'part 1' awkward? It's so weird to me. I keep seeing these 'Deathly Hallows part 1 reaction' type things and thinking, 'There's going to be a second part to this 10 minute long reaction? What?'Anyway...

*As my sister so eloquently said, "Hedwig got what she deserved.   ... That sounded really terrible. I didn't mean it like that."