The End of the Harry Potter Era

I almost didn’t want to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Now that I’ve seen it, there are no more books or movies to anticipate.  Well, there’s Pottermore, but we  don’t even know what that really is.  Here are my thoughts on the last Harry Potter movie (which I’m putting in a bulleted list which gives the impression of a well-thought out piece of writing – which this most decidedly is not).  Warning: spoilers ahead!

• It was loud!  Of course, Wild Man and I were only 2 out of 4 people in the theater, so there weren’t the usual number of bodies around to absorb sound.
• I think they did a pretty good job of deciding what parts of the story were critical and which could be left out.
• Griphook was well-acted.
• The special effects in Gringotts were wonderful!  And I really liked the dragon.
• I LOVED Shell Cottage – very picturesque.
• We could have done without Molly Weasley standing beside Professor McGonagall looking scared and helpless.  Because Molly Weasley is not helpless.  She didn’t seem to belong there.
• I liked Aberforth and I also really liked how they made him more important later on in the battle than he was in the book.
• I’m glad that they kept with the plot of Percy Weasley coming back and Fred Weasley getting killed.  I realize that there wasn’t time to include the whole scenes, but seeing the family together before Harry went into the forest was incredibly moving.
• The shot of Tonks and Lupin was also sad.
• They could have killed Snape without the violence that they chose to use.  I know it was mostly just sounds, but, really, a single snake bite would have been plenty.
• I was concerned that the scenes in the pensieve would either get too long and involved or not be enough to show us about Severus, Lily, and James, but it was actually quite good.  Having Snape at the Potter’s cottage right after Lily and James were killed may not have been necessary, but it was OK.
• Alan Rickman did a wonderful job with Snape, but I could see in this movie that he does look rather older than the Potters.
• Neville’s sweater was amazing!  One of these days I’ll try to make one like it.
• I cried when Harry went to the forest.  It’s a wonderful scene in the book and the movie.
• Voldemort was much better acted (or directed) in this film.  In Part 1, I felt like his evil was more pedestrian.  This time, he was evil incarnate.
• Neville’s speech when Harry is brought back to the castle was unnecessary and entirely too long.
• The battle between Harry and Voldemort was longer than necessary, even for an action film.
• I understand why they put the killing of the snake and the killing of Voldemort so close together, but it didn’t quite feel right.
• I liked that the atmosphere after Voldemort’s death was subdued instead of jubilant.  Yes, they had won, but they had paid a terrible price.
• I do not think that Draco would have gone back to the Death Eaters.  The Malfoy family leaving before the final battle was interesting – was it cowardice or a love for their family?
• The scene on the platform at the end of the movie was just perfect.

So, what did you think?  Did they do a good job?  Was it close enough to the book?