Casual Chat: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

The last Harry Potter film just crossed the billion dollar mark at the box office. So we both thought it was a good time to finally post something on this blog again and so why not talk about what we each thought of the final film of the boy wizard?

Aki: So… Harry Potter 7 or 8 or 7.5?

Ryan: Well, the official name is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which is just all kinds of long

Aki: Seriously.

Ryan: Where to begin?

Aki: Snape was so hot. Like I almost can't believe it.

Ryan: Well, you're very much into suffering men, so that wasn't such a surprise.

Aki: Yeah, but the crying... sexy.

Ryan: I thought the crying was a bit too much myself. Felt a bit forced.

Aki: No way, he was breaking down. He was a person for once... not just a frowning idiot. So sexy!

Ryan: Sure. I just wished they did a better job in previous films setting it up, but I guess that's not REALLY the fault of THIS film.

Aki: They made him a hard-ass in all the previous films and books with a very strange pedophilic obsession with Harry. Now we know why. Because he cries and he’s sexy! Kind of…

Ryan: He's definitely a complicated character, but I rather the reveal had been a bit more organic. Now, I personally think Daniel Radcliffe has never been better.

Aki: He was good. I didn't like how he was smiling at the end walking through a makeshift hospital full of dead and dying people. I was like, okay sure, your 7-8 year ordeal is over, but have some respect!

Ryan: I don't quite remember him smiling. But if he was, then it was probably more to the effect of “HOLY SHIT I ACTUALLY MADE IT OUT ALIVE.”

Aki: Moving on, I AM disturbed that Harry Potter is constantly being called the film (film series) of our generation. Especially when Harry Potter’s world is so dangerous.

Ryan: It’s a series that’s been around for nearly two decades in book or movie form, so it was bound to be called that. Plus I don’t think their world is more dangerous than ours.

Aki: Magic is way more dangerous than terrorists!


Ryan: Magic is like any weapon. At least in their world, good and evil seem to be easy to distinguish with the exception of a few. Our world is a little less black and white. But then again I'm a cynical bastard who thinks humanity is at the brink of their destruction.

Aki: I just think it's strange that the film and books of our generation are fantasies. Our world/generation is so horrible we need fantasy to escape and represent it? What’s up with that?

Ryan: Any movie, unless it's a straight-up documentary, is fantasy one way or another.

Aki: No, there’s a difference between fantasy and the rest of fiction.

Ryan: No matter how far removed they are from our reality, anything can speak to our human condition.

Aki: I don't want wands replacing chemical warfare. I want something that speaks to our condition that is closer to our condition.

Ryan: Well now you're just saying that you can't absolutely relate to these people, their stories, and their struggles, which I vehemently disagree with.

Aki: Look, I like Potter. I just object to it being labeled the film of our generation.

Ryan: I'm not saying Harry Potter is that said film. All I was trying to say was that a fantasy film can be that film.

So... was there any other part you really didn't like? Other than the film's inability to speak to the human condition?

Aki: Bitch.

Ryan: Joking!

Aki: Nothing other than the very end... Jesus Christ, they should’ve just ended it instead of aging them 80 years.

Ryan: Something we agree on! Yes, that epilogue was awful.

Aki: It might also be a fault in the books. I think J.K. was thinking of another ending where Voldemort is frozen in time as a statue because his dead parents protect him from Harry.

Then it fast-forwards a few years. Harry is headmaster of the school. Everyone has forgotten about everything because of a spell and then Harry senses that the statue moves. He senses that a dark time is going to come again. Then the book ends. I think that is a fantastic ending!

Ryan: I think so too, but it's not as final as I would've liked.

Aki: Because you are a horrible person.


Ryan: In any case, the film series had already taken many liberties with what they took or didn't take from the books. They should've just not done the epilogue. Awful aging make-up and Harry’s talk with the sure-to-be-bullied Albus Severus was annoying.

Aki: Agreed. Daniel's old man voice was just not doing it for me. It sounds like Harry Potter is going to become a chain smoker.

Ryan: Which would totally be in keeping which his inevitable bout of PTSD.

Aki: Okay to sum up: What did you think of Harry Potter?

Ryan: I thought it was a gorgeous film with some great set pieces and magnificent performances from Smith, and Radcliffe. As to the end of the 10-year series, it wasn’t flawless, but it was satisfying. I'd give it a B/B+.

Aki: I thought it was a pretty satisfying film as well, save for the ending, both the epilogue and Harry Potter grinning like an idiot among the dead and dying. I am going to give it a solid A-.

Ryan: So after all that, I ended up giving it a lesser grade than you? Hilarious.