I wouldn't want to play poker against Alan Rickman

Before going to see HP7 Pt.2, Dave, Vince, and I went to Toro, a local fusion Japanese-Chinese restaurant, for dinner. Because I hadn't gotten enough Asian food the day before. Apparently neither had they, though they both went to Flushing for dim sum on the same day. So I got to enjoy a nice plate of vegetable chow fun (ho fan = Vince noodles = one of my favorite Chinese dishes ever), Vince had vegetable tempura with udon, and Dave had General Tsao's.

And then came time for HP7 Pt.2. Fortunately, the first part of the last movie had been better than the movies depicting the earlier books, but my general attitude towards books turned into movies is my "Movies: Ruining the Book Since 1920" Threadless shirt. Which is why I've always been a big fan of the Harry Potter series but had only lackluster enthusiasm towards watching the movies. (For the sixth movie, I think it took me a whole year to finally get around to seeing it.) In fact, no disrespect intended, I may have rolled my eyes a little when my Facebook newsfeed was flooded on Friday with teary-eyed statuses lamenting the end of a magnificent era--because to me, the HP era was over when the last book came out.

So watching the movie was, to be honest, nothing special. In fact, I was even a little bored. It's not like the movie itself was necessarily bad, but with all the hype and relative to the book, I feel like I expected something much better.

(**********NOTE: IMMINENT SPOILERS. None of what I'm talking about will give away much if you've read the books before, but be warned that I am referencing specific scenes in the movie.**********)

I wasn't a fan of their use of humor in parts of the movie that were supposed to be serious. And there were too many awkward moments that just didn't flow smoothly or follow logically with the way people would behave, like when Ron and Hermione were in the Chamber of Secrets, the water that had been sitting stagnant rushed up around them, and when they emerged dripping but alive, they immediately started making out....What.

Also, the epilogue final scene...unintentionally comedic for me? I'd completely forgotten about that segment and was gathering up my purse to leave the theater when the "19 years later" flashed onto the screen. And then Harry and Ginny came into view...except that they definitely didn't look 19 years older. It was a little confusing to me because in some shots, they looked into their 50s with their fake wrinkles. And in some shots, they looked the same as when they were in their 20s (except that Harry had a 5 o'clock shadow and a terrible comb-over and Ginny just had a terrible haircut). I understand that it's difficult to convincingly make an actor two decades older, and hiring older actors and actresses to play them could have backfired too. But when "19 years later" Harry and Ginny came on the screen with their children, I burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter and couldn't stop for the rest of the scene. (I did make a valiant effort to laugh silently after the first couple seconds--because I would be a terrible person to ruin the ending for others in the theater who might think it was a touching moment.) But every time my laughter would begin to subside, Ginny and her voluminous hair would pop back onto the screen, and I couldn't take anything seriously.

Two parts I loved: (a) Voldemort and Draco really did have the best hug of all time, and (b) Snape's memories. While I wish they had played out the real reason why Snape hated James (not only that he married Lily, but that he was a jerk and a bully too), I had a discussion with Keith about this, who pointed out that it'd be ruining Harry's conception of his father right at the end of the last movie. And I wish we'd had some real closure on the friendship; in the book, one of the memories Snape has is where Lily tells him that she can't be friends with him if he continues being a Death Eater. Other than that, the scenes were beautiful, and I thought both the actor and actress who played young Lily and young Snape did a great job.

I can't help but think of Snape as such a tragic character. One of my favorite lines is when Snape makes Dumbledore promise not to give away his secret love for Lily and what he's doing for Lily's child, and Dumbledore questions why Snape wants to hide "the better part of himself." Given Snape's devotion to Lily, I'm curious what would have happened with the story had Voldemort not killed him.