Further thoughts on Potter
I had previously put up some thoughts on the 6th movie, and now that that 7 is done I have a couple more. Major spoilers to follow.
The 3 Deathly Hallows artifacts… did I miss something or is the Deathly Hallows resurrection ring still in Harry’s possession? He broke the wand like a good boy is supposed to do, but kept the cloak, and… kept the resurrection ring? Why would he not destroy them all? If these were D&D artifacts or items similar in power to the One Ring, they’d corrupt the users by their very nature. Also I’m not sure I understand its mechanics. Harry used it to resurrect himself, but wasn’t its power supposed to be limited to bringing back ghosts like those of his family and friends? Maybe this was better explained in the books.
Harry is more hero-like in this movie, making decisions and directing the actions of others. But the finale is still underwhelming. As a Messianic figure he went through the whole dying bit and wasn’t allowed to simply out-power and kill his greatest foe. His foe had to kill him first, but eventually he wins on what amounts to a technicality. I mean, having Voldemort, this ultra genius and powerful wizard, not recognize that the wand hadn’t chosen him is somewhat of an underwhelming path to victory for “the chosen one.” Lets look at other chosen ones:
- Neo: Could not win final duel. Sacrificed his life to save both man and machine.
- Luke Skywalker: Chose not win final duel. Was prepared to die rather than turn to the dark side and in doing so turned his father back to the light side.
- Anakin Skywalker: Corrupted but later sacrificed his life to kill the Emperor.
- Frodo: Corrupted by the artifact at the last second but then lost it to Gollum. This makes some sense as Frodo was one of the physically/magically weakest characters in the story’s cast. He had strength of character though.
- Harry: Sacrificed his life knowing he had resurrection ring. Won final duel due to technicality.
Yeah, I’m not really impressed by Harry.
One of the other things that bugged me was that Harry didn’t really have the traditional outsider status of a Messiah. His father, from the little we see of him, was an arrogant bully. Both he and his father hated Snape, who was the most tragic character in the series. Snape was a more sympathetic character by the end than Harry ever was. Harry was born rich and famous, and then goes on to become the star player of his school team and dates the co-captain. Neo was a hacker geek who loved a fellow geek. Luke was an awkward farm boy who had the hots for a princess, but really his sister. Awkward. Frodo was a pint-sized weakling who never got a girl.
Being the popular rich guy is fine, and Harry did lose his parents, which puts him in the same league as Bruce Wayne. But he never displays acts of badass wizardly power, was never the genius of the group, and didn’t have brooding vengeance laden pathos like Batman. He was a whiny little bitch a lot of the time (thankfully not so much in this last movie). So I’m really supposed to cheer for the popular, rich, whiny, not-especially-powerful jock who wins by dint of a technicality? I think I like my other Messiah’s better.