It's interesting to me how the world of Harry Potter and the world of Pirates of the Caribbean seem to be similar, and maybe someday I'll get around to writing that fanfiction where Lord Voldemort apparates through time at the last second to find the Fountain of Youth. Actually, I'm supposed to be writing MageBoy about now, but I've taken a time out to browse through a few things on MuggleNet, a fan site the caliber of which every series should have. In doing so, I've decided to write down my thoughts on something I couldn't help but notice while watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight on Blu Ray. Consider this my review.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a great film, full of adventure and enough action to ensure that it will never grow boring. Walking into the theatre to see it however, was a bit different than going in to see any other movie. This was the end of a journey that spanned ten years and would serve as the final film in a series that was destined to be one of those things synonmyous with my generation. As such, expectations ran high, and part of that was due to the fact that this movie was a huge sandbox for the filmmakers. The battle of Hogwarts must have been a special effects designer's dream job once Star Wars had run its course. When you read the book, you just know that this is the kind of thing that is just meant to impress you with its visuals, and movies have the advantage of being able to show every single little detail, and adding quick things in that books will leave out for pacing (as George Lucas once said of the script for Revenge of the Sith "There's a lot of 'they fight.'"). Naturally, this was going to be one epic battle to close out the series.
Of course, this concept seemed a little familiar to me. The most epic, large scale, effects driven battle I'd seen up to that point had to be the one in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I'd drawn parallels between the two series since they started coming out together (you can only imagine how much fun I have with Rufus Scrimgeour every second he's on screen in DH1), but this one was huge. In theory, it was very much the same scenario: one huge ass final battle. You can look at the reviews all you want, Pirates 3 had one epic finale.
I first began to wonder about how the last Harry Potter film would run when I listened to its soundtrack. On it, there were no sweeping battle themes, no scenes that screamed "something huge and fast is happening here" and no 11 minute suite that carried the most potent themes from the entire series. The soundtrack itself was kind of disappointing in that way, and while I understand that Alexandre Desplat had to try and leave his own mark on the series, it was a shame to see that only a few themes were used from older films. It's a huge missed opportunity that there was no theme for Voldemort. There are moments in the film, such as when he's punishing his underlings for their failures at Gringotts and when he's taunting his enemies over Harry's dead body, that could have intensely benefitted from Emperor Palpatine's ominous and evil theme. Interestingly enough, Voldemort had a bit of a theme in the first movie...and with Desplat doing his best John Williams impression in a lot of places in this score, you'd think some semblance of it would be remembered.
The soundtrack alerted me to something about the movie that caused some unrest in me beyond the lack of revisited themes. There were no battle themes. There was nothing that screamed "Maelstrom." I had a hard time imagining a battle like the one at Hogwarts taking place to this music. There seemed to be an emphasis on drama over the action itself, and that worried me a little bit. How serious and dark was this film going to be? Is it really going to give me that same final battle feel that I got from At World's End?
It turns out these convictions were absolutely correct. There was a lot more going on in terms of drama in the movie, rather than fast paced action. I remember very vividly placing "Battlefield" into the movie when it appeared. I never imagined it would be accompanied by the images that went along with it. There was so much action going on...and it was happening to music going in slow motion. This of course, was one of the few glimpses of the scale of the battle that we actually got. In the book, the battle was meticulously crafted to include every character it could, and more than a few of them got a line or two. Here it didn't come together quite so well. We didn't see Hagrid at all until later, and an important bit of banter between some of the Weasley boys was infamously cut.
It was things like that that made the battle of Hogwarts seem rather impersonal. I mean, look at Arthur Weasley's face when he's spell-locked with an oncoming Death Eater. He looks like a ghost. We got plenty of nice lines and expressions from characters before the battle, but in it, they all seemed to become stiff and serious. In the book you couldn't help but smile when someone like Trelawney shows up and starts kicking ass, and you knew that Kreacher leading the house-elves into battle in the name of Harry Potter would be a cheer worthy moment. I mean, Fred's death means nothing without him getting his last laugh. Some of these funnier, quirkier moments seem out of place in a movie as dark and serious as this one, but as the drama was amped up, some of the characters were lost.
This continues into Round 2, where a large account of battles in the Great Hall are forgone for a duel between Voldemort and Harry. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved that they allowed Harry and Voldemort to show off their wizarding chops, but the only other characters we got to see besides the rest of the trio and Neville were Molly and Bellatrix, in a moment that the fans would have mutinied over were it not included. One of my favorite parts of this battle in the book was that Slughorn went from having his whole house led out of the castle to duelling with the big bad himself alongside Kingsley and the newly redefined Professor McGonagall (who was another character we didn't get to see quite enough of after her chain of Crowing Moments of Awesome).
And then there's the very end, where Harry and Voldemort go mano a mano. This, I think, was one of the more universally nitpicked things from this movie. No one was watching as Harry finished off (and told off, gloriously) Voldemort. Everyone missed it, and because of that, it seemed, there was no celebration afterward. Really. They needed to befriend the Ewoks here, who play a rousing tune using the heads of their enemies as drums. I wasn't particularly a fan of how Voldemort perished either. It was too quiet, and for whatever reason Lily's Theme played in the background. Was Voldemort actually Lily Potter in disguise? The soundtrack kind of made me think so. Voldemort, in my opinion, deserved no less than an explosion set to background music composed of thundering trumpets and strings and an insane scream of disbelief. Of course, it never gets any louder either, as pretty much no one cracks a smile at Harry in the Great Hall after the battle.
This is the perfect point for me to connect this all to Pirates. One of the larger flaws of the Maelstrom battle was that there a few dozen other ships around that did absolutely nothing. However, at the end, all of these people cheered, creating a very satisyfing sense of victory. In Harry Potter, there's none of that. I mean, not even Harry's girlfriend is with him after the battle. Considering that was the point at which it was determined they could be together again, you'd think they'd be so. Of course, Harry and Ginny's relationship is an essay in and of itself. It makes it clear that the rebels in Harry Potter are the only ones that don't know how to party.
The Battle of Hogwarts, epic though it was, could have learned a thing or two from the battle it stole the title of "most epic final battle" from. One place where the Maelstrom sequence succeeds is that all of the characters have their moments, and each one is spent how we know them best. Marty's handling firepower bigger than he is, Barbossa's having the time of his life, Jack is just looking to run away, and Will is determined to do the right thing until the very end. This battle is serious business too, for if the pirates lose, it means the British government will charge some really nasty taxes on everyone. Oh, and they'll have control of the sea forever...that's a bit more fitting. Our heroes are faced with impossible odds and locked in battle with one of the most legendary ships of all time. You know, it also took two movies to get here.
Maybe Pirates' sense of humor simply stems from the fact that it's a Disney film and I'm giving it credit where something is naturally occuring. Still, At World's End provided us with a spectacle of a battle all the while keeping its realistic special effects intact (and yes, a lot of that water was animated too) and having plenty of PG-13 style things going on. Then there's still the story to consider. You've got Will and Elizabeth getting married and defending each other (Ron and Hermione's kiss need to take a panoramic, mid battle lesson from them), the key to the Dead Man's Chest crawling around all over deck, Bootstrap Bill destined to come into contact with his son, Barbossa defending his keep as captain, Davy Jones filled with rage over his lover's newest betrayal, Jack the monkey helping everyone out, and of course, Captain Jack himself, still deciding whether or not he has the face for tentacles while facing down a heartless captain to whom he owes his soul. It's not like we're not dealing with two people here, there's a whole plethora of characters that need to be and are addressed. They even parallel Harry Potter somewhat by keeping the arguable big bad, Lord Cutler Beckett, out of the majority of the battle.
The action of the Maelstrom sequence doesn't really slow down either, at least not until its most dramatic moment when most of our main characters are facing each other down. It never sacrificed drama for a coral-covered minion stumbling overboard after having been stabbed in the chest, or a witty one liner from Jack Sparrow (oi! my pistol!). No, in the end, all the characters were represented and accounted for (even Murtogg and Mullroy, the two dim-witted naval guards from the first film), they all had a rousing moment of fun, all of the plot points came to a head, and everything felt as intense and as grand as it should, minial slow motion used. Add in an extended version of "I Don't Think Now is the Best Time," and you've got a good looking final battle. Hans Zimmer's score here is excellent and exciting. When listening to it, I knew exactly what to expect, and the movie delivered.
Again, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean are still vastly different series, so there's no way their final battles could have been similar in too many ways. There are quite a few parallels, however, much like how At World's End and Return of the Jedi are very similar (again, another essay in and of itself). It's a big battle that's been built up to over several movies. All the characters are here. Not all of them are going to make it out alive. The future of the world will be altered. That's all stuff we know about any final battle. What makes the difference is the characters, the presentation, and the subplots.
Harry Potter has every right to be different from Pirates of the Caribbean in terms of characters and subplots, but as far as the presentation goes, there was something very very basic missing from its final battle sequence. I think that thing was straight up action, followed by personality. Much of the grandeur and spectacle of the Battle of Hogwarts felt obligatory. If you take away the characters and the relationships they have with one another, it's just a bunch of blue flashes firing all over the place. Which reminds me, it was really odd to see that pretty much all the spells going on seemed to be the same blue flash instead of a variety of colors and effects. That was one of the ways I knew that while the creativity here was strong, it wasn't as strong as it could have been. Certainly there would have been no loss from using a few extra minutes to make sure that the characters in this battle are the ones we know and love.
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