*spoilers*

I have now waited for seven midnight releases, between books and films, and have spent the past seven years feeling like Harry Potter's closest friend, and now there's no denying that he's all grown up. Blah blah blah sentiments...my favorite part of a Harry Potter release, aside from the costumes, is the analysis that follows! Since I read most of the last book in the last 24 hours, I have a lot of critique to give.

• Percy had no apology/reconciliation scene whatsoever which was to be expected, but I was disappointed. He used to be my favorite character (mostly because I like being weird, but also he's a prefect) and I was sad to see that he was present with the Weasleys and Chris Rankin was recast but they didn't even touch that storyline.
• Ok, what on earth, why did Voldemort even make that announcement that they had one hour, and then McGonagall put up the enchantments and then Harry learned about the diadem...this was completely backwards and I did not approve, and then he made the one hour announcement again, so that was pointless. Also, they didn't evacuate the students, this seems really dumb.
• Ollivander was not supposed to believe in the hallows since that indicates that he told Voldemort about them which is contrary to the book - because if he knew about them he'd totally be after them, so I found this a little bit discomforting.
• Voldemort was not supposed to feel when the horcruxes were destroyed, that race against his discovery was half the fun of the end of the book. And Harry wasn't supposed to hear them, I thought that was just dumb.
• Ok, Snape's last memories in the book are tear-jerking every time, Snape's last memories in the movie were ok except for when he goes into the Potter's home. That directly contradicts the part that they even show in the movie when Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry has Lily's eyes (I assume that this was supposed to be after she died, since Dumbledore's talking to him, but then he would have already seen him so it's just dumb). I've always been disappointed at the way they show memories, so this wasn't really surprising, but it was one of the best parts of the entire series so I was sad it wasn't perfect. And then, he's all crying and that makes me uncomfortable because it's Alan Rickman and he can't cry.
• Did I miss the part where they say Teddy was born, because Harry mentions him to Lupin but that was all I saw. So, they completely glossed over the way him being orphaned was supposed to mirror Harry and made Lupin/Tonks' deaths seem pointless and yet not even that sad. Also, I was sad we didn't see Fred die.
• I understood taking out all of Harry's angst about Dumbledore lying to him and uncovering his past, but that was kind of the heart of the book - Harry found himself in lies and secrets and decided not to continue, making him better than Dumbledore, and certainly a good user of the hallows. When he died, he didn't even talk to Dumbledore about the hallows and never got an explanation as to why Dumbledore did what he did and why it was important that he be a willing sacrifice, and they left out how his sacrifice protected everyone else. Whatever. In general, King's Cross disappointed me since I could imagine everything that they showed pretty easily and at least the dialog wasn't all cut short and not well explained in the version in my head from reading the book.
• There was no hallows/horcruxes debate!
• What on earth was going on with giving people other lines...it was Harry's idea to get on the dragon, Hermione was supposed to tell Harry to see where Voldemort was, etc. These just seemed like little things that could easily have been accommodated without any need to change them.
• What was that little boat house supposed to be? Shrieking Shack not good enough?
• Along with the not evacuating students, there was no fight with Ginny about her staying behind and I rather liked that in the book.
• They never explained Harry repairing his wand and that was like the best part ever about him being so noble.
• Inference of Parvati's death seemed weird considering we already have the emotional grief of a twin dying, and she was overage anyway so I don't see why they couldn't have just done Colin Creevey like they were supposed to.
• The Gray Lady bit seemed weird and I feel like they just didn't explain that properly - it was supposed to take some persuasion, which we've learned from HBP that Harry is good at, as he's so like Voldemort (I still would have liked the scene in HBP with Hepzibah, but this is not the place for general movie complaints).

On a more positive note,

• I liked everything about McGonagall, and they added some great quips.
• The beginning scenes were spot on with the book, and everything up through Gringotts was perfect. The fake Bellatrix was awesome. I didn't like that we didn't understand why Griphook wanted the sword and the whole idea of goblin ownership, but I suppose this is one of those deeper philosophical things that just doesn't have space in the movie.
• I'm glad they cut out Travers since he was just unnecessary.
• Good work cutting out Hagrid and giant stuff, but actually.
• I would normally not like Neville and Luna together, but seriously, they are awesome together and I was sad to hear from Jo that they didn't get married. This is movieland and I am perfectly ok with them pairing off evenly.
• I was skeptical of Ron and Hermione telling Harry where they were going to get the fangs, but it worked out and was really cool and didn't ruin anything plotwise.
• Everything about the Malfoys was perfect. I wished they had explained Fiendfyre, but since Crabbe wasn't there it would have been kind of weird I guess...but I didn't like that Harry used a fang on the diadem...but I did like Voldemort's faces in the fire.
• I liked how they aged for the epilogue and the casting was great.
• I was glad that they included Lavendar being attacked by Greyback and Hermione stopping him; she's so mature.
• Though the enchantments were supposed to happen before the Death Eaters approached, all of the visual effects of the castle protections were really cool.

I still don't know how I feel about:

• Aberforth showing up at the battle...and leaving out all of the Grindelwald/Ariana/Elder Wand business. It wasn't entirely entirely necessary, but again this mystery was central to the book and Harry's frustration with Dumbledore and Dumbledore's plans and so on and I don't think it would have really added to the movie much, just as Winky didn't have to be really important in Goblet of Fire as proved by her absence, but I don't like that in the future it will be deemed unimportant just because it wasn't in the movie.
• All that random stuff with Neville during the battle - like the snatcher and him randomly finding the sorting hat (and not being tortured with it) and his speech. They were ok moments, but not really that epic - and I wish that his epicness had been witnessed by everyone.
• How Ron and Hermione are fighting Nagini while Harry fights Voldemort. Actually, I didn't like it. It was dramatic and ok for a movie, but the point was that he didn't want to be separate from her because, you know, he didn't want to die. But, it was good that Harry ran into Ron and Hermione instead of Neville before sacrificing himself. I was mad at first but then they started crying and I decided it was way more emotionally satisfying this way. BUT, Neville was supposed to kill Nagini in front of everyone and Voldemort was supposed to be defeated in front of everyone, and I don't like that this didn't happen.
• Dean being really really tall.
• Snape calling in all the students and asking them to come forward with info about Harry and whatnot...this did not seem to be something that was protecting any student and knowing he was a good guy this didn't make much sense.
• The whole jumping off the cliff together thing was really weird, but the face meld was really cool and almost worth the departure from the book.
• Lack of house-elves...again, expected but still not cool.

And that's about all I have. All told, a good movie!