Things I should be doing:
-Writing journals for my college-level English class (2 or 3)
-Writing a research paper for the same class
-Finishing math homework
-Writing my college essay
-Figuring out the rest of my college applications
-Practicing my flute for tomorrow's lesson
-Sleeping
Things I did instead:
-Plan my birthday party for an hour with a friend.
-Discuss the swimming drama going on with another friend
-Type this blog
Yes, I am a productive child! Yes I am a successful child! Bleh.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Help
I didn't mention before, but I finished the book about half a week ago; I really enjoyed it. I won't discuss the whole thing with the premise being that the black side hadn't been told and yet it was in fact written by a white woman, because I'm still not sure how I feel about that fact. I will, however, say that it is a good book, and if I had to wager, I would guess it's at least decently accurate.Anyway, that's not what I was going to write about. I was going ot write about how I saw the movie with my mother and my sister tonight.
As always, we must first discuss the previews: I won't lie, I wanted to see most of the movies that had previews, including One Day, which I've heard got panned, but I don't even care, I still want to see it. I also really want to see whatever the movie involving Anton Yelchin was, becuase Anton Yelchin is awesome, and I totally managed to correctly identify the girl in the movie as the one girl from Northanger Abbey, which makes me feel proud (god my life is maybe a little pathetic).
On to the movie: for me, the start was rocky. I think there were times when things were edited a bit oddly, and maybe it's just my recent reading of the book that's making me think this, but parts just seemed like they weren't flowing/weren't connecting in a way that made sense. Like, Treelore's story seemed like it didn't quite...fit. And Skeeter's random demand to know what happened to Constantine during dinner was just odd (also, I'm sorry, they should've done something else for that flashback. Emma Stone just looked like she was wearing weird clothes, not like she was truly younger). In addition, I have to say: there were some inconsistencies in characters that really bothered me. Minnie was a big one; she sometimes seemed like the badass/funny woman she was supposed to be, and sometimes she just...wasn't. Mrs. Phelan was another one; the whole, "suddenly not racist" thing was weird. I don't know, it just felt wrong.
To be honest, the Minnie issue, and some of the other ones, sprung from the fact that the movie was weird in how it played the funny-serious line. It didn't feel quite right; the funny parts were funny, and the touching parts were truly touching (definitely cried a couple times), but they were awkwardly put together. Like, I feel like Up did this great job of leading off with the terribly sad and moving, and then getting to funny really successfully, and going back and forth beautifully, and I felt like this movie managed to kind of do this most of the time, but then other times just...lost it. I also think that maybe the other part was that the movie lacked the fear: I didn't ever feel like these characters were truly risking things, not even when Medgar Evans was shot. And that lack of fear really makes the entire thing just a little bit flatter; it lacks that extra oomph.
Anyway, enough complaining: now for things that were done really well: Aibileen. She was amazing, especially in her scenes with Mae Mobley. Elizabeth, who had just enough of that subtle, passive-aggressive racism. The Stuart-Skeeter relationship: it actually felt real, and wrong, and it was kind of wonderful that you could just tell they were wrong, without it being necessary to show all these different moments when there was a disconnect. Celia Foote, and the Benefit were also great, and pretty funny. Um...the soundtrack?? Thomas Newman is AWESOME, and his scores always have this hopeful-yet-sad sound, and their so subtle you don't even realize they're there (I'm a little in love with his Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack. I can just listen to it and start crying; it's that good.)
So yeah. I would probably recommend reading the book after seeing the movie on this one; I tried to avoid comparing them in this post, because that seldom really goes well, but the book has such a strong voice to it, it's a little like a movie playing in your head - and so seeing the movie afterwards is just really disconcerting. But do see the movie; just make sure you read the book too.
As always, we must first discuss the previews: I won't lie, I wanted to see most of the movies that had previews, including One Day, which I've heard got panned, but I don't even care, I still want to see it. I also really want to see whatever the movie involving Anton Yelchin was, becuase Anton Yelchin is awesome, and I totally managed to correctly identify the girl in the movie as the one girl from Northanger Abbey, which makes me feel proud (god my life is maybe a little pathetic).
On to the movie: for me, the start was rocky. I think there were times when things were edited a bit oddly, and maybe it's just my recent reading of the book that's making me think this, but parts just seemed like they weren't flowing/weren't connecting in a way that made sense. Like, Treelore's story seemed like it didn't quite...fit. And Skeeter's random demand to know what happened to Constantine during dinner was just odd (also, I'm sorry, they should've done something else for that flashback. Emma Stone just looked like she was wearing weird clothes, not like she was truly younger). In addition, I have to say: there were some inconsistencies in characters that really bothered me. Minnie was a big one; she sometimes seemed like the badass/funny woman she was supposed to be, and sometimes she just...wasn't. Mrs. Phelan was another one; the whole, "suddenly not racist" thing was weird. I don't know, it just felt wrong.
To be honest, the Minnie issue, and some of the other ones, sprung from the fact that the movie was weird in how it played the funny-serious line. It didn't feel quite right; the funny parts were funny, and the touching parts were truly touching (definitely cried a couple times), but they were awkwardly put together. Like, I feel like Up did this great job of leading off with the terribly sad and moving, and then getting to funny really successfully, and going back and forth beautifully, and I felt like this movie managed to kind of do this most of the time, but then other times just...lost it. I also think that maybe the other part was that the movie lacked the fear: I didn't ever feel like these characters were truly risking things, not even when Medgar Evans was shot. And that lack of fear really makes the entire thing just a little bit flatter; it lacks that extra oomph.
Anyway, enough complaining: now for things that were done really well: Aibileen. She was amazing, especially in her scenes with Mae Mobley. Elizabeth, who had just enough of that subtle, passive-aggressive racism. The Stuart-Skeeter relationship: it actually felt real, and wrong, and it was kind of wonderful that you could just tell they were wrong, without it being necessary to show all these different moments when there was a disconnect. Celia Foote, and the Benefit were also great, and pretty funny. Um...the soundtrack?? Thomas Newman is AWESOME, and his scores always have this hopeful-yet-sad sound, and their so subtle you don't even realize they're there (I'm a little in love with his Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack. I can just listen to it and start crying; it's that good.)
So yeah. I would probably recommend reading the book after seeing the movie on this one; I tried to avoid comparing them in this post, because that seldom really goes well, but the book has such a strong voice to it, it's a little like a movie playing in your head - and so seeing the movie afterwards is just really disconcerting. But do see the movie; just make sure you read the book too.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
...and while I won't drink to that, because I'm a goody-two shoes who doesn't like the taste of alcohol, I will go on a dinner-picnic with friends in celebration.
(okay, so it wasn't actually a "Yay weekend!" celebration, but whatever, I just wanted to mention it so you all know that yes, I actually do have friends. I know, sometimes I sound amazingly addicted to my computer on this little blog, what with all my talk of shows and books and stuff. I dunno, hearing about someone going out with friends usually isn't all that interesting, so I tend to avoid that subject. You understand right?)
SO. Now that we've got that confirmation of my real life existence out of the way, we can move on to the stuff you know you're really interested in: my opinions on television shows.
Oh Pretty Little Liars. How you try my patience sometimes.
First off, we have the whole kidnapped therapist thing, from the previous episode, which I can't get over: she's an adult. An adult who is apparently not an idiot. So explain to me why, exactly, she would reveal that she knew the name of A in her office, which she KNEW was bugged. YOU KNEW IT WAS BUGGED. WHY. EXPLAIN WHY.
However, my biggest issue this episode was the fact that when one of the liars (Emily) was trapped in a barn with a car that is apparently filling the barn with noxious, deadly fumes, she just sort of gave up and passed out. Girl, that barn is big. You'd have at least an hour. Go try and break open the car or something - if it's not running, the fumes won't kill you. That thing has windows. You have shoes. Seriously.
Beyond PLL, I have an embarassing confession: I started watching Glee again. I know, I know. Santana drew me back in (I think it's possible she's slowly becoming one of my favorite characters). I still hate Will most of the time, and Sue has gotten amazingly old, but to be honest, the rest aren't...horrific. Rachel's pining was annoying, but Kurt and Blaine are cute and Brittany is once again hilarious. So's her cat.
So I watched the available episodes on Hulu, and yeah. I mean, Glee is all over really: sometimes it really hits the mark with certain quips or storylines, and other times it is SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Since the Prom episode was the most recent one I watched, we'll talk about that first: I was almost happy for about two seconds when Jesse returned, because it meant Rachel would stop pining over Finn for an episode. Except she didn't. Stop. Pining. Which made his return both implausible and useless. You flunked out of UCLA? And then came back to Ohio? And now have this idea that you will advise show choirs? I don't remember your character being this stupid; is your character really this stupid? Also, what is going on with your scarf thing? Also also, what high school allows a non-high school student to go to prom? Oh, apparently one where the principal allows write-ins to determine prom queen, and then proceeds to read out that prom queen, despite the fact that apparently it was yet another attempt to bully/tease the gay student (we must address this too: I didn't realize until the whole awkward-lack-of-applause that it was meant as a hurtful thing; I just assumed, you know, support/breaking the crown thing in Mean Girls. You know. Like, maybe people kind of thought he wanted to get the crown because of how he generally acts around school...I dunno. I mean, I understood in the end that it wasn't that, but at first, that's how it seemed.)
Beyond all this stuff: school starts on Tuesday. My last first day ever. Kinda weird, I won't lie.
(okay, so it wasn't actually a "Yay weekend!" celebration, but whatever, I just wanted to mention it so you all know that yes, I actually do have friends. I know, sometimes I sound amazingly addicted to my computer on this little blog, what with all my talk of shows and books and stuff. I dunno, hearing about someone going out with friends usually isn't all that interesting, so I tend to avoid that subject. You understand right?)
SO. Now that we've got that confirmation of my real life existence out of the way, we can move on to the stuff you know you're really interested in: my opinions on television shows.
Oh Pretty Little Liars. How you try my patience sometimes.
First off, we have the whole kidnapped therapist thing, from the previous episode, which I can't get over: she's an adult. An adult who is apparently not an idiot. So explain to me why, exactly, she would reveal that she knew the name of A in her office, which she KNEW was bugged. YOU KNEW IT WAS BUGGED. WHY. EXPLAIN WHY.
However, my biggest issue this episode was the fact that when one of the liars (Emily) was trapped in a barn with a car that is apparently filling the barn with noxious, deadly fumes, she just sort of gave up and passed out. Girl, that barn is big. You'd have at least an hour. Go try and break open the car or something - if it's not running, the fumes won't kill you. That thing has windows. You have shoes. Seriously.
Beyond PLL, I have an embarassing confession: I started watching Glee again. I know, I know. Santana drew me back in (I think it's possible she's slowly becoming one of my favorite characters). I still hate Will most of the time, and Sue has gotten amazingly old, but to be honest, the rest aren't...horrific. Rachel's pining was annoying, but Kurt and Blaine are cute and Brittany is once again hilarious. So's her cat.
So I watched the available episodes on Hulu, and yeah. I mean, Glee is all over really: sometimes it really hits the mark with certain quips or storylines, and other times it is SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Since the Prom episode was the most recent one I watched, we'll talk about that first: I was almost happy for about two seconds when Jesse returned, because it meant Rachel would stop pining over Finn for an episode. Except she didn't. Stop. Pining. Which made his return both implausible and useless. You flunked out of UCLA? And then came back to Ohio? And now have this idea that you will advise show choirs? I don't remember your character being this stupid; is your character really this stupid? Also, what is going on with your scarf thing? Also also, what high school allows a non-high school student to go to prom? Oh, apparently one where the principal allows write-ins to determine prom queen, and then proceeds to read out that prom queen, despite the fact that apparently it was yet another attempt to bully/tease the gay student (we must address this too: I didn't realize until the whole awkward-lack-of-applause that it was meant as a hurtful thing; I just assumed, you know, support/breaking the crown thing in Mean Girls. You know. Like, maybe people kind of thought he wanted to get the crown because of how he generally acts around school...I dunno. I mean, I understood in the end that it wasn't that, but at first, that's how it seemed.)
Beyond all this stuff: school starts on Tuesday. My last first day ever. Kinda weird, I won't lie.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Hunger Games again.
So I saw the teaser trailer for the VMAs just now.
I kind of went to bed earlier than usual, and apparently 4am is a natural wake-up/non-sleepy time for me (this has happened before), so I've been wasting a couple hours looking up movies. Which eventually, of course, led me to the Hunger Games teaser trailer.
Well, it's like nothing. It's maybe a minute long, and all it has are shots of Katniss running, with some voiceover person telling her she's awesome (if they mess up continuity/plot so that Gale plays a larger part in the movie, simply to play up the love triangle, I may be slightly to very upset. Just saying.) Yeah. Talk about teaser.
This has put me back on the fence about Jennifer Lawrence. The thing is, she just doesn't look intense enough, especially not in this. Like I said, I don't know exactly what Katniss looks like in my head - but I do know it's not this. That said, if she's a good actress (and I'm about 85% certain she is) I should be able to get over that. Also, it's totally possible she just seems less intense because of the music that's playing - I was having some Twilight flashbacks. Like seriously. GET BETTER MUSIC. PLEASE. Don't make me have Twilight flashbacks during The Hunger Games by doing that thing with the music and the panoramic sweep and/or the flashes of running.
(final note: apparently Liam Hemsworth's Australian accent is identifiable to some in this voiceover, but I didn't notice; who knows whether that's because of the quality of the video I watched/the fact that I watched it on my iPhone, or because I'm just not so great at accents. Maybe it's not that bad, and people are just looking for something to judge. We'll see.
I kind of went to bed earlier than usual, and apparently 4am is a natural wake-up/non-sleepy time for me (this has happened before), so I've been wasting a couple hours looking up movies. Which eventually, of course, led me to the Hunger Games teaser trailer.
Well, it's like nothing. It's maybe a minute long, and all it has are shots of Katniss running, with some voiceover person telling her she's awesome (if they mess up continuity/plot so that Gale plays a larger part in the movie, simply to play up the love triangle, I may be slightly to very upset. Just saying.) Yeah. Talk about teaser.
This has put me back on the fence about Jennifer Lawrence. The thing is, she just doesn't look intense enough, especially not in this. Like I said, I don't know exactly what Katniss looks like in my head - but I do know it's not this. That said, if she's a good actress (and I'm about 85% certain she is) I should be able to get over that. Also, it's totally possible she just seems less intense because of the music that's playing - I was having some Twilight flashbacks. Like seriously. GET BETTER MUSIC. PLEASE. Don't make me have Twilight flashbacks during The Hunger Games by doing that thing with the music and the panoramic sweep and/or the flashes of running.
(final note: apparently Liam Hemsworth's Australian accent is identifiable to some in this voiceover, but I didn't notice; who knows whether that's because of the quality of the video I watched/the fact that I watched it on my iPhone, or because I'm just not so great at accents. Maybe it's not that bad, and people are just looking for something to judge. We'll see.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Life update
Yeah, it's one of those boring posts about my life/media again, sorry, but unfortunately for you, these things are sort of important to me, so suck it up.
Let's see...in terms of movie media, I've managed to watch (500) Days of Summer, The Sandlot, Hoodwinked, Letters to Juliet, and part of Catch and Release. My Thoughts are as follows:
(500) Days: I was informed, multiple times, that this movie was AMAZING. I thought it was good...but not that good, though maybe all the hype fooled me into having expectations that were waaaay too high. Who knows. In any case, I wanted to strangle Summer by the end/middle of it, and also Tom was SUCH A WHINY LITTLE WIMP.
I've already seen The Sandlot/Hoodwinked. I think the former is hilarious and a perfect summer movie, and the latter is hilarious and I need the soundtrack to it.
Letters to Juliet was painful, but I made it through it; I realized too late, unfortunately, that the main guy was nowhere near hot enough to save the bad acting/plot of the movie. Meanwhile, Catch and Release did have a couple hot guys who might've been enough to carry on the movie, were it not for the weird sex scene in the middle. That was just too much. I couldn't finish it and still feel like a decent human being (okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty bad).
For television: Pretty Little Liars and Covert Affairs. Unfortunately, I've fallen behind on White Collar, though I'll probably just read the episode summaries somewhere and continue watching anyway, and thankfully Hulu is only airing episodes a month after they air, so it's okay that I missed a couple (brb, actually, I'm going to start now. Okay, done, we'll continue).
My book count is now up to 53, but I won't bother to summarize/list all the books I've been reading here, except to mention The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien because I really, really, really enjoyed it - it's sort a collection of short stories, but they're all related to one another, and deal with a platoon of soldiers in the Vietnam War. (If you're like, super duper interested in what books I read (not sure why you would be...) I list them/my reactions here.
Let's see...oh yeah, life! Actually, go-outside-and-see-people life! I forgot about that...
Well, we had a French exchange student for a little over two weeks, something that we also did last year. This year our girl was quieter, and had more difficulty with English - she also seemed a bit...not kinder necessarily, but our girl last year struck me as a bit more of a "popular" girl, whereas this year our girl was more chill. She was also almost 19, so a little more maturity was a given.
Swimming has started, and it's been an eventful two weeks: glass shattered on the pool deck, causing us to have to find a new pool for three days, and to (thankfully) only have one practice a day. Yesterday, a girl hit herself in the forehead with a wrench while trying to undo the lane lines, and had to have four stitches; unfortunately, she did it after practice was over, so no cancellation there.
School will start soon. Senior year, hooray! I have classes that I am actually happy with, and I'm excited to see friends/have a late start some days. Ummm...yeah. That's kind of it for now.
Let's see...in terms of movie media, I've managed to watch (500) Days of Summer, The Sandlot, Hoodwinked, Letters to Juliet, and part of Catch and Release. My Thoughts are as follows:
(500) Days: I was informed, multiple times, that this movie was AMAZING. I thought it was good...but not that good, though maybe all the hype fooled me into having expectations that were waaaay too high. Who knows. In any case, I wanted to strangle Summer by the end/middle of it, and also Tom was SUCH A WHINY LITTLE WIMP.
I've already seen The Sandlot/Hoodwinked. I think the former is hilarious and a perfect summer movie, and the latter is hilarious and I need the soundtrack to it.
Letters to Juliet was painful, but I made it through it; I realized too late, unfortunately, that the main guy was nowhere near hot enough to save the bad acting/plot of the movie. Meanwhile, Catch and Release did have a couple hot guys who might've been enough to carry on the movie, were it not for the weird sex scene in the middle. That was just too much. I couldn't finish it and still feel like a decent human being (okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty bad).
For television: Pretty Little Liars and Covert Affairs. Unfortunately, I've fallen behind on White Collar, though I'll probably just read the episode summaries somewhere and continue watching anyway, and thankfully Hulu is only airing episodes a month after they air, so it's okay that I missed a couple (brb, actually, I'm going to start now. Okay, done, we'll continue).
My book count is now up to 53, but I won't bother to summarize/list all the books I've been reading here, except to mention The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien because I really, really, really enjoyed it - it's sort a collection of short stories, but they're all related to one another, and deal with a platoon of soldiers in the Vietnam War. (If you're like, super duper interested in what books I read (not sure why you would be...) I list them/my reactions here.
Let's see...oh yeah, life! Actually, go-outside-and-see-people life! I forgot about that...
Well, we had a French exchange student for a little over two weeks, something that we also did last year. This year our girl was quieter, and had more difficulty with English - she also seemed a bit...not kinder necessarily, but our girl last year struck me as a bit more of a "popular" girl, whereas this year our girl was more chill. She was also almost 19, so a little more maturity was a given.
Swimming has started, and it's been an eventful two weeks: glass shattered on the pool deck, causing us to have to find a new pool for three days, and to (thankfully) only have one practice a day. Yesterday, a girl hit herself in the forehead with a wrench while trying to undo the lane lines, and had to have four stitches; unfortunately, she did it after practice was over, so no cancellation there.
School will start soon. Senior year, hooray! I have classes that I am actually happy with, and I'm excited to see friends/have a late start some days. Ummm...yeah. That's kind of it for now.
Monday, August 22, 2011
An update on The Hunger Games
I feel like I should update my previous thoughts on castin re:The Hunger Games, since, you know, new photos came out and I just noticed and all that.
I can get behind Liam Hemsworth, who looks extremely like my pictured Gale with his now-brown hair, though I still thunk he looks a little like a gorilla when seen from the front. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence/Katniss is looking okay, though to be perfecty honest: I never fully imagine what a character looks like in my head. They're more a vague conglomeration of characteristics, rather than a definite face. So any time a book is made into a movie, getting my head around the characters of the movie as being the same as the books is kind of hard (there exists only one exception to thus that I can think of: Harry Potter.)(Oh wait, I guess The Lord of the Rings, but I feel like that book doesn't really cause me to visualize the characters at all, so it doesn't really count.) So what I'm trying to say is: Jennifer Lawrence doesn't really look like Katniss to me, but then I don't really have the most solid idea of what I think Katniss looks like, so it's all a moot point in the end.
In other news, Rue was cast, and she's the appropriate skin tone so we won't be hearing screams of fury over that on the Interwebz! (This is all sort of a late update, so really those screams of fury would've happened a little while ago). Also, I don't know if I mentioned last time that Stanley Tucci was cast as Caesar Flickerman, but he was! And Stanley Tucci is AMAZING. So, more happiness. Hooray!
Yeah, so those are my thoughts.
I can get behind Liam Hemsworth, who looks extremely like my pictured Gale with his now-brown hair, though I still thunk he looks a little like a gorilla when seen from the front. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence/Katniss is looking okay, though to be perfecty honest: I never fully imagine what a character looks like in my head. They're more a vague conglomeration of characteristics, rather than a definite face. So any time a book is made into a movie, getting my head around the characters of the movie as being the same as the books is kind of hard (there exists only one exception to thus that I can think of: Harry Potter.)(Oh wait, I guess The Lord of the Rings, but I feel like that book doesn't really cause me to visualize the characters at all, so it doesn't really count.) So what I'm trying to say is: Jennifer Lawrence doesn't really look like Katniss to me, but then I don't really have the most solid idea of what I think Katniss looks like, so it's all a moot point in the end.
In other news, Rue was cast, and she's the appropriate skin tone so we won't be hearing screams of fury over that on the Interwebz! (This is all sort of a late update, so really those screams of fury would've happened a little while ago). Also, I don't know if I mentioned last time that Stanley Tucci was cast as Caesar Flickerman, but he was! And Stanley Tucci is AMAZING. So, more happiness. Hooray!
Yeah, so those are my thoughts.
Monday, August 8, 2011
So I saw Harry Potter.
There are many Thoughts I have about this movie, and the whole movie arc in general, but I'll try to keep it short.
1. Something I didn't understand: when they want to get at Bellatrix's vault, and they ask for identification/her wand, um, why exactly don't they just give it to them? They have the wand; they proved that. I just don't get it.
2. I was fine with the epilogue in the book, because it gave a chance to see the future for the characters, but in the movie...well. I would say the two Weasleys aged the best, with Rupert Grint truly looking almost 40; Emma Watson, on the other hand, looked her age, and seeing her with chidren was...unsettling.
3. I'm not sure where the Ariana storyline went, but I missed it; it helped explain so much about Dumbledore, about why he never told Harry he needed to die. (As a matter of fact, I miss all of the storylines that they just completely dropped from the movie. Not that I'm still bitter over HBP. Never.)
4. Speaking of Dumbledore, I really dislike Michael Gambon playing him; he's too angry. And then, in King's Cross - just, not. I don't know.
5. Also, the gleeful McGonagall thing was a bit much in the movies; the "I always wanted to do that" was out of place, and the "Send all of Slytherin to the dungeons" was just wrong - I know you can say what you will about making an "evil" house (which, to be honest, isn't all that evil all the time - I think in times when Voldemort wasn't in power/his followers weren't the parents of the students, Slytherin House wasn't necessarily evil. Look at Slughorn, or Andromeda Tonks, for example) - but seriously, this is the sort of thing that the book would've addressed as something that makes us them, becoming the enemy, etc.
6. I have to say, I actually thought the two Fred deaths were both pretty comparable, in terms of emotional impact; in the book, there's the obvious shock and the fact that you can see/hear what Harry's thinking, but in the movie there's the scene with the whole Weasley family crying over him, which is much more emotionally stirring to see, rather than read about.
7. Neville and Luna are a thing in the movie! It's adorable!
All of this being said: I thought the movie was fairly well done, and I cried at the appropriate moments, but...I don't know. There was something missing. It just didn't...feel right.
1. Something I didn't understand: when they want to get at Bellatrix's vault, and they ask for identification/her wand, um, why exactly don't they just give it to them? They have the wand; they proved that. I just don't get it.
2. I was fine with the epilogue in the book, because it gave a chance to see the future for the characters, but in the movie...well. I would say the two Weasleys aged the best, with Rupert Grint truly looking almost 40; Emma Watson, on the other hand, looked her age, and seeing her with chidren was...unsettling.
3. I'm not sure where the Ariana storyline went, but I missed it; it helped explain so much about Dumbledore, about why he never told Harry he needed to die. (As a matter of fact, I miss all of the storylines that they just completely dropped from the movie. Not that I'm still bitter over HBP. Never.)
4. Speaking of Dumbledore, I really dislike Michael Gambon playing him; he's too angry. And then, in King's Cross - just, not. I don't know.
5. Also, the gleeful McGonagall thing was a bit much in the movies; the "I always wanted to do that" was out of place, and the "Send all of Slytherin to the dungeons" was just wrong - I know you can say what you will about making an "evil" house (which, to be honest, isn't all that evil all the time - I think in times when Voldemort wasn't in power/his followers weren't the parents of the students, Slytherin House wasn't necessarily evil. Look at Slughorn, or Andromeda Tonks, for example) - but seriously, this is the sort of thing that the book would've addressed as something that makes us them, becoming the enemy, etc.
6. I have to say, I actually thought the two Fred deaths were both pretty comparable, in terms of emotional impact; in the book, there's the obvious shock and the fact that you can see/hear what Harry's thinking, but in the movie there's the scene with the whole Weasley family crying over him, which is much more emotionally stirring to see, rather than read about.
7. Neville and Luna are a thing in the movie! It's adorable!
All of this being said: I thought the movie was fairly well done, and I cried at the appropriate moments, but...I don't know. There was something missing. It just didn't...feel right.
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