Yates Does It Again! Another Disappointment for Fans of the Books!

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2011)

So, like all the David Yates films, Deathly Hallows, part 2 is an action film, but Harry Potter is about more than action. I blame both David Yates and Steve Kloves. I think Kloves lost sight of the fact that the books are character driven, not action driven. The Snape memories could have been and should have been more robust, allowing us to really see Snape's love for Lilly Potter and also his loyalty to Dumbledore, his distaste for Dumbledore's seeming willingness to offer Harry as a sacrifice for the greater good and not to mention his own conflict with having agreed to kill Dumbledore.
Which brings me to Dumbledore's back-story...there was nothing mentioned about Gellert Grindelwald and his relationship with Dumbledore. The back-story between Grindelwald and Dumbledore would have explained the conflict between Aberforth, Albus, and Ariana, as well as how Dumbledore came to possess the Elder Wand. Which had any of that been included, it would have explained the lore and lure of the Elder Wand." Yates/Kloves left out the significance all together of the Deathly Hallows which is the title! They left out that Harry was a descendant of Ignotus Peverell , one of the three brothers that created the Deathly Hallows.
Because Yates/Kloves had not shown anything about the developing relationship in DH part 1 between Kreecher the House Elf and Harry, (Harry gave the replica of the necklace to Kreecher, which then endeared Kreecher to Harry, so much so that the house had been cleaned and Kreecher was making meals for our three heroes), there was no moment depicting how the House Elves of Hogwarts, lead by Kreecher also came together to fight against Voldemort.
The final battle where Molly Weasely goes after Bellatrix - I was so looking forward to that and we were only shown the one line "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!" But what about the rest of the duel when a few students were coming to her aid and she said, "Get back! Get back! She's Mine!" And Bellatrix retorted taunting "What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" and "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?" And Molly yells back, "You - will - never - touch - our -children - again." There were many powerful moments during the final battle in the book with other characters besides Harry. What about the final dance between Harry and Voldemort as they circled each other in the Great Hall with the others pausing to watch, when Harry lays it all out for Tom Riddle Harry: "You won't be killing anyone else tonight. You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people - " Voldemort: "But you did not!" Harry: "-I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?" Voldemort :"You dare - " Harry replying "Yes I dare!" And going on....Harry whispers, "So it all comes down to this, doesn't it? Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does...I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
That would have been great to see...seeing Voldemort realize just how much he had gotten wrong and how he had been defeated. The final curses yelled (in the book) were "Avada Kedavra" from Voldemort and "Expelliarmus" from Harry, and because of the Elder Wand's true loyalty, the spell backfires on Voldemort and he essentially kills himself as the Elder Wand is driven from his hand into the hands of its rightful master, Harry. Instead we got a twenty second explanation on the bridge and the Elder Wand snapped in half.
The epilogue was reduced to smiles and nods from "older" looking Harry and friends, but made no mention of Teddy Lupin, of Harry having been made his Godfather, of Harry and Jinny deciding to take Teddy on full-time, as he and little James were best friends. Malfoy looked over at Harry with a smile? No, no, no...Malfoy and his family shrank away from the final battle and in the book, he demonstrated more contrition when nodding at Harry on the platform. They had also left out that during the final battle, Ron and Harry had saved Draco's life twice...which added to the meaning of the look he gave Harry on the platform as described by Rowling in the book. Yates and Kloves really dropped the ball.
It really was disappointing that Fred's death was handled so dismissively. He deserved better.
Where was Grawp, Hagrid's brother? He helped in the final battle.
The final conversation that Harry had with Dumbledore's portrait, in the headmaster's office, where he tells Dumbledore that he dropped the stone in the forest, and asked about the power of the wand dying with him if he put it back where it came from and then he repaired his own wand. Oddly, there was a moment when Draco alluded to how using his mother's wand wasn't the same as using his own...which is why Harry held on to the broken pieces of his own wand and used the Elder Wand to repair it. That was all left out.
There were so many parts left out and replaced with scenes that were never part of the book and it needn't have been that way. I wonder if J.K. Rowling is happy with the movies, seeing how they were all (with the exception of the first two directed by Christopher Columbus) butcheries of her great fantastic words. If I'd have been the author, I'd be upset. Perhaps, if you've never read the books, you might have enjoyed the movies more. But to me, we were cheated.