While I was just a bit too old to grow up reading the Harry Potter books (in fact I’m pretty sure I didn’t even hear about them till after they started making the first movie), I have spent a significant amount of time immersed in the books and movies. And though I am sad to see the end, it was an end I knew was coming and one that I was pleasantly surprised with, especially considering I had some friends that were bemoaning the departure from the book in the final installment from the previews alone.
I definitely had some mixed emotions as I walked out of the theater on Thursday. My initial thought being that I didn’t think I would ever watch any of the movies again, a thought which I quickly dismissed and said, “Of course I’ll watch them again, I’ve already seen the rest a few dozen times”. I still think it is a strong possibility that I won’t, though. I definitely will pick up the last movie when it comes out on DVD so that I can finish off my collection. However, it’s at an end for me. The story has closed. I have seen the end. And for some strange reason, I feel no desire to pop in any of the other movies again. Maybe my thoughts will change in the future, but for right now, I’m happy, pleased, and ready to move on.
Overall, I have been very happy with the movies and how closely they have followed the books compared to many other book-to-film ventures. You can’t deny that they did a good job in that respect and though they often did have to cut scenes, especially scenes that many would have loved to see, they generally weren’t central to the main plots of the books. Now of course, I have only read each book once, something which I do with pretty much every book I have ever read, and I generally read the books either after watching the movie or many years before movie came out. So, in general the links between them were fuzzy and I think it aided in my enjoyment of each format.
And there were definitely added scenes that weren’t in the books that left me feeling weird, but thankfully in movies, scenes don’t generally last more than a few minutes, so you aren’t subjected to them for very long. But to avoid any spoilers at this point, I won’t touch on the one aspect of the final movie that bothered me, but for those of you that have seen it, I’m guessing it bothered most of you, just as that part of the book bothered many people (though I actually wasn’t, but probably because I had very low expectations of it based on what people had told me).
How do you all feel about the final installment and the series as a whole?
Emmie Fisher 