Anne Hathaway Catwoman

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Nat asked we TFE contributors several Harry Potter themed questions this week over at The Film Experience, and we answered them, and you can read both the questions and the answers right here at this link here. I came out the most pro-Potter, and I'm proud as a pickle of it! I don't know how proud pickles are but I got caught up in my alliteration. But there's an amazing In Bruges joke to be had at that link so have at it. God I need to rewatch In Bruges for the 20th time immediately.

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I've obviously got to write something about the final Harry Potter movie here, but it's a hard time to focus these days. Every spare second I have I'm plowing through George R. R. Martin's A Dance of Dragons (I'm on page 738! Only thirteen thousand more pages to go!) and that's where my head is when I'm not completely unable to think due to A/C problems like I spent the second half of yesterday dealing with. NI haven't even written a review of Miranda July's The Future yet, for god's sake! So behind, so behind. Summer just kills my ability to function. Point being, I have no idea what I'm about to write but let's just wing it. This will be very exciting for all parties! Here are five thoughts as they come to me on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Spoilers ahoy.

1. Okay I did do a smidge of preparation for this - EW's got a full-length recap of the movie up and I read though that. And it reminded me of one thing I'd forgotten - Harry Potter's supposed to be completely starkers in that post-Avada Kedavra "afterworld" meeting with Dumbledore at the white-light train station. Cheated! I'd totally forgotten that. I mean sure it was always a little weird, naked Harry hanging out with his elderly homosexual friend. But it was IMPORTANT. That's an even bigger slight then the lack of centaurs and house elves at the Battle of Hogwarts, or the absence of Luna and Neville in the post-script, I says.

2. Even though I started crying about a quarter of the way into the movie and was a blubbering mess by the final reel, I think they missed the mark a little bit with this movie as a whole. There were huge pieces I loved and little pieces I loved but somehow it never really clicked together as a full movie, I guess? It was more a series of periods and exclamation points, with a couple of questions marks tossed in for good/bad measure. Everybody was good, the film looked and sounded gorgeous, but the script could've maybe used some work. It felt a little bit rushed like they turned their eyes to the side of the soundstage and could see the guy swinging the keys ready to close up and they were ready for supper anyway so let's get this thing done already! One of the biggest problems for me is probably how insulated everything felt at this point - I don't think they got across the danger that the entire world was facing here. Everybody was holed up at Hogwarts and we hardly saw a single Muggle - they did give us a sense of this in Half-Blood Prince with the Millenium Bridge collapse, but a reminder was needed, I think. (Maybe I just wish there'd been more Fiona Shaw.)

3. That said, the Snape flashback sequence got me right in the gut. Rickman's youth-ening CG botox job was a little bit distracting - Trent Reznor got stung by a bunch of bees! - but they really managed to slam a lot of emotional bang-for-their-buck into that succinctly-edited sequence; Rickman has always been a stand-out of course but I found myself surprised by just how much I appreciated every second we got with him this time. The way he could draw out a syllable will never be equaled.

4. Also welcome was finally getting to hang out with Ralph Fiennes for awhile. Voldemort makes some abysmally dumb decisions (granted they're written off as a by-product of his soul being murdered piece by piece, and until you've had your soul murdered piece by piece you shouldn't judge, but still - you're really not gonna check Harry's pulse yourself there, V-man?) but Ralph squeezes every ounce of sibilant villainy there is to be had from the slit-nosed cretin. Bonus points go to Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix, who kept bouncing around behind him reminding me of those straight-jacketed monsters that hung out with the Gentleman in the "Hush" episode of Buffy. Her impersonation of Emma Watson's Hermione in the Gringotts bank-robbery scene was kinda mind-blowing.

5. Alright, I made it to five! I guess all that's left is to slather on some of the hearty gratitude we fans feels towards JK Rowling for imagining this world up and to David Yates and the other directors and all the immensely talented craftspeople who created the world over the course of eight films. At a certain point in the film that Twilight-belittling quote of Stephen King's popped into my head:

Snipe if you will, the studios and the publishers and the toy companies have made more money than they'll ever know what to do with, sure, but I do think that the fictional tale of Harry Potter has in its own little way made the world a better place. Personally, when I reflect on it as I did watching it unfold its final grace notes, it made me want to be a better person, to be a better friend. I know I'm not the only one.

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--- Spy's Guys - Naomie Harris, the plucky lass so good in 28 Days Later, is Miss Moneypenny in the next James Bond film, which is great cuz we like her, but even better is word that Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes are pretty much locked in. Anyway I am going to have to demand a three-way between them and Daniel Craig. Demand! Wedge it in the plot somehow. They always find time for sexiness with James Bond somewhere. Maybe they can do it while on a helicopter that's on fire falling towards the ocean. Alright, where's my screenwriter credit?

--- Killa Thrilla - I haven't linked to the new trailer for Final Destination 5 yet because I heard it gives away absolutely everything to the movie from start to finish, and I ain't playin that. But with that in mind, if you don't care, click over and watch it. I'm holding out though. Just a little over a month to go!
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--- Pearl Clutcher - If you missed the first clip of Meryl Streep aping Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady that premiered online yesterday, you can see it over at The Film Experience. Love that I'm not the only one who saw some Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in there! Don't fuck with her, fellas! Anyway people seem generally a little bit skeptical, surprisingly? Which opens the door for Tilda to win her second Oscar, right? Yay Tilda!
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--- Whites Of His Eyes - Huge thanks to Bob Turnbull for cluing me in to this gallery he arranged of some incredible super-subtle gifs from several movies. The one from Full Metal Jacket is the stuff of nightmares. Stare at this for a minute:

--- Barely Bear Jew - Eli Roth says he's still working on the script for Endangered Species, his end-of-the-world movie, yadda yadda, same bullshit for years now. So very tired, Eli. So tired.

--- Big scoop! BD talked to Kit Harington - aka the bastard boy Jon Snow on A Game of Thrones - about his work on the Silent Hill sequel and he called the film "horrific" of all things! That's crazy! Alright I'm being a smart-ass, but this collection of banal quotes from him that they've assembled randomly on a page over there is sloppy enough to warrant my irritation. Yet I link just so's I can post a picture of Kit... so cheap, I am... but look at that pout! I wanna flog his direwolf so bad.

--- And finally, we want to wish Jarett at PopWrap the fondest of farewells. He closed up the site earlier this week and the internet's already been the poorer for it. He's off to the West Coast and we miss him already.

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I have a question! I'm looking into buying my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 tickets (god I need a nap after writing out that full title) and am going back and forth, back and forth, over whether to bother seeing it in 3D or not. I can't decide! I'm leaning towards not - it was converted in post-production, right? - but I do want to EXPERIENCE this movie in capital letters so maybe I should just go for it. It's our last roundabout with the boy wizard, after all. And then they're showing it in IMAX too aren't they? ARGH! But it definitely wasn't shot in IMAX... but still. Oh what to do. I know, I will ask you people. What are you planning on?

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Go watch the new Harry Potter trailer, y'all.
Good god, I want this.

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