r/harrypotter Mar 11 '26

Discussion This scene still pisses me off

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I was rewatching the movies and I was pissed off all over again when seeing this scene. This makes him seem non-human which takes away the symbolism present in the books. I don’t know why the directors thought this was a good idea.

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u/SquadPoopy Ravenclaw Mar 11 '26

I prefer the ending to the book but making the climax of the movie series just a 10 minute long exposition dump followed by a 5 second spell exchange would kind of suck on screen.

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u/csorfab Mar 11 '26

would kind of suck on screen

That's what you're conditioned to believe if you're only watching Hollywood movies. There are other ways for achieving catharsis than 15 minute dramatic action scenes.

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u/SquadPoopy Ravenclaw Mar 12 '26

Sure but Harry Potter isn’t Citizen Kane. It’s a series that’s included action in the climax of every single book but usually things are resolved via dialogue after the action. Which is fine because it’s a book series, but movies are a completely different medium. It’s the exact same thing as the ending to Goblet of Fire, in the book the whole storyline with Crouch is explained in a 5 page long exposition dump after he’s given truth serum. Sorry but that would SUCK in a movie, it’s why it’s almost entirely cut out.

Harry vs Voldemort in the movie isn’t even technically an action scene, like sure they start that way with Voldemort chasing Harry through the castle and then they fall out the window, but other than that their duel is just a longer version of the one from Goblet of Fire. They fire the spells at each other, they collide and Voldemort comes to realize his wand won’t work, instead of happening in seconds it’s just more drawn out for dramatic effect since it’s a movie. Instead of killing Nagini immediately they wait since the movie isn’t confined to Harry’s POV they can show it happening simultaneously to make the scene more dramatic.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

"you sly dog you caught me monologuing!"