The Life & Times of...

WARNING: I am not here to criticize anyone or point fingers. I’m simply just stating my mind. And I will NOT spoil anything for those who haven’t gotten to see the movie yet, but if you haven’t read the books, it’s probably a spoil.

As everyone in the world knows, last night was the bittersweet premiere of the very last Harry Potter movie ever. It’s over, it’s done. There is never going to be anything new about Harry Potter ever again …or likely so.

Now for years avid HP readers have gone to see the movies and been extremely disappointed because (exact quote) “they cut so much out from the books!” And I will not lie, I definitely have said that many times. Yes, it sucked in the first movie when they didn’t have the Potions Room during the trio’s tasks to get the stone. In the second movie, they cut out the Death Day party which Peeves played a huge role in and he has never even been mentioned. The third movie cut quidditch out completely and never mentioned who created the Marauder’s Map, which links why it is so important to Harry. In the fourth, S.P.E.W. is never mentioned—not even once. In the fifth, Sirius’s death is extremely underplayed, Neville’s whole life story is never mentioned—nothing about how the prophecy spoke to both he and Harry and that his parents were not dead, but in St. Mungo’s insane asylum due to the Cruciatus curse. And the sixth cut out Dumbledore’s funeral for no good reason at all. So obviously, both of the seventh movies were going to do the same.

But imagine how hard it is to put every single small detail from the seven most incredible and popular fiction books in all of history. Just imagine it. It’s physically impossible, unless they want to make 16-hour movies.

Yet the team working on the Deathly Hallows knew how important this book was and split it into two movies. TWO MOVIES! How lucky are we that we get essentially a 5 hour movie of the last book and it’s separated into two parts so we can prolong our joy?! That’s incredible and truly a very generous gesture to the HP fanatics of the world. 

So yes, in Part 2 they changed locations of fights and how Harry’s death walk into the forest went down and the ending scene in Dumbledore’s office and SO many other sequences, BUT think of what an INCREDIBLE job they did otherwise. Like Snape’s memories?! Beautiful. And King’s Cross Station? And Molly Weasley’s most famous line in the world? And Neville’s badassery? And finding all the Horcruxes and how they figured out how to destroy it all? HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART TWO IS AN INCREDIBLE MOVIE. And remember it is a MOVIE. It’s not the book, it’s the movie. So I am so very sorry that this last movie has upset you all so greatly that you can’t stop talking about it, but it’s because you all refuse to open your eyes and accept it as a movie interpretation; not a word-for-word documentary of the book. I vote you love the books with all your heart and soul and reread them as much as you can, but embrace the movies for all the hard work and effort that went into them that made them what they are.

Oh, and P.S. J.K. Rowling was an executive producer and on the screenwriting team. If she felt that it wouldn’t suffice as a movie that represented her books, her babies to be honest, she would have spoken up. So if she’s okay with the movies, you should find it in your heart to embrace them and be okay with them as well.