Warning: the following blog post contains massive spoilers for people who a) haven't read the entire HP series, or b) haven't watched the movie. Consider yourself warned.
To give you folks some perspective on my opinions, I think that the entire HP series is pretty lame from a die-hard hard-code sci-fi/fantasy geek. When compared to the Wheel of Time, Dragonlance, even The Lord of the Rings - the HP series absolutely pales in comparison Yes, let's get that out of the way, lest some people start to bash me for picking on "the greatest story ever told." I read the 1st book and about the half of book 2 before I gave up on it entirely - it's a tween-focused series. THEN to give it another shot, I watched the 1st 3 movies. Then I gave up again.
Anyway, I watched the 6th installment with Gail over the weekend and found myself to be pleasantly surprised at certain parts of the movie...only to be completely blown away by the pathetic ending. Absolutely pathetic. Allow me to expound on these 2 seemingly contradicting observations.
Pleasantly surprised since the movie (and the last 2 books as I understand it from reviews) were darker, more "mature," more visceral. Gone (well, almost gone) are the goofy looks on the faces of the 3 protagonists (save maybe for Ron) - instead, you see real human emotion (mostly negative in fact!) brought about by situations that the audience can relate to (for example, the "love triangle" between Hermione, Ron, and that ditzy girl). My favorite though was the actor who played Draco. Absolutely brilliant acting - he was able to convey the impression of the tortured soul who wanted to save himself without so much words (since he barely said anything!) but through his acts and facial expressions.
Absolutely massively disappointed with [MAJOR SPOILER ALERT] the way Dumbledore was killed or, to be more precise, the way Dumbledore staged his entire death. Absolutely pathetic. As I said, I'm looking at this from a die-hard sci-fi/fantasy reader. Let's take a step back and see how things happened in the movie (which app
arently was pretty faithful to the book).
Dumbledore casting a massive Firestorm spell in the dungeons prior to getting killed in Hogwarts
Dumbledore shows off the reason for being acknowledged as "the most powerful wizard living" by casting a massive Firestorm spell to nuke those ~300 undead whatevers that are attacking the island he's on (and incidentally to save Harry as well!). Kudos to the filmmaker for the excellent cinematography in that scene - it really conveyed the impression that Dumbledore was the shiznit. He really showed them who was boss.
Now, we jump to the scene right before his death. He's surrounded by a) 3 deathstrikers, b) Draco Malfoy, a student, and c) Snape, the double agent. Let's see, that's 5 vs the ~300 undead he nuked a while back. Sure, he was hurt by the potion he drank (but he already had ingested the potion when he casted that Firestorm spell, so...) and casting the travel spell was probably draining as well. And of course these 5 enemies were by far more powerful than those 300 undead...so let's take that into account as well.
How does Dumbledore die? ONE SHOT. One bloody shot from Snape that pushes him off the edge to his death. Sure, it COULD happen. Yes, he had to die so Snape would be trusted. But seriously. The most powerful wizard living. Disarmed by a STUDENT. Killed by one shot. Wtf. Allow me to compare him to:
Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance Chronicles. He challenged
the Dark Queen of Krynn herself (goddess of evil) by a) entering her domain, the Abyss, b) literally fighting ALL of her minions, including dark clerics, demons, evil dragons, and the undead, and c) fighting her at the end of it all. AND HE WON! But when he realized through his brother that if he continued with this, the entire world would die (and he would have nothing to rule over), he went back in time and allowed himself to be killed by the Dark Queen - after laying waste to her entire domain.
Lews Therin Telamon of the Wheel of Time. He challenged the Dark One himself PLUS 13 of his greatest generals (aka the Forsaken) and won, BUT he had to sacrifice his sanity to do so.
Gandalf the Grey in his battle vs the BALROG. He sacrificed himself to kill the Balrog but in the end, he DID kill the damn thing.
...and in comes Dumbledore, the most powerful living wizard, killed with one shot. I'm sorry, but whatever gains the movie/book made with being made more dark was utterly ruined by the absolute pathetic way they killed him off. Make him fight, for crying out loud. Give him some dignity in his death, even if he planned it. Raistlin, Lews Therin, and Gandalf all willingly threw away their lives (as did Dumbledore) for the greater good - but they did it without putting their fellow wizards to shame.
Dumbledore is a pussy.
Rant over. :)
image credits: http://home.earthlink.net/~estwilde/arctic.html and http://hpfvc.co.cc/site/2008/07/new-hbp-photos/
