#3: The Cave

Remember the Agrocrag from Global Guts on Nickelodeon? Yea? So did David Yates. On par with and perhaps surpassing Dumbledore's death, this is one of the two most important sections of the book. What Harry and Dumbledore accomplish on this journey is significant for several reasons. The two most important are: first, this task represents the culmination of an entire year of work for Harry in getting the memory from Slughorn and his lessons with Dumbledore and perhaps several years worth of work for Dumbledore independently; second, this maiden process of searching for, gaining access to, and ultimately destroying a horcrux lays the foundation for Harry's quest in the coming years. This is the first time that Harry knowingly obtains what he believes to be a horcrux and this experience in conjunction with Dumbledore's death undoubtedly strengthens Harry's resolve regarding the mission endowed to him. It is worth noting, however, that it is an important plot point that the horcrux is in fact a fake because it prevents the plot from falling into a formulaic trap of Goal-Action-Success type writing (Courtesy of troutmonkey).

Now, if the devil is in the details, this scene has gone straight to Hell, do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Let's work from outside to inside. So I guess it was kind of cool to have these huge waves breaking against the rocks and a jutting crag to land on. But uhhh, they swim... So that might've been a little tough. I can get over this one. Next, they're in the cave and the deep dark magic protecting the door doesn't cause Dumbledore to falter even a little bit... Greatest wizard of all time, probably, but JKR sees fit to have him spend a little bit more than three seconds discovering the blood token required for entrance. Then, once he does, there's supposed to be a door outlined, not just rocks falling like someone pulled the wrong Jenga piece.

So finally they're in the same room as the horcrux and we've piled up all these mistakes already, but it gets better. First of all, the island holding the basin emanates a dull green light, Dumbledore does not throw out a portable Lumos and see it. Then, the chain is not in the water, it's in the air and he has to find it, before they're able to pull. They did a nice job with the boat I thought, though I thought the sound of it coming up from beneath the water took away from the creepiness invoked by the silence of a boat floating towards you and chains slowly clinking. Ahhh the island. Back to the agrocrag. This pixellated, boxy overdone piece of rock looked like something out of a Nintendo 64 video game. I'm of the opinion that a jet black crag of particularly sinister looking rock is far more threatening or intimidating than this silvery lego creation. Then, what pissed me off probably more than anything in this scene: it clearly states that Dumbledore, after discovering that the potion must be drunk, conjures a goblet out of nothing. Cool little bit of magic I thought. How hard is that to put in the movie? Not hard at all. Instead there's some fucking seashell sitting atop the basin like it was a kid's sand castle on the beach. And what was done with this seashell should have been much better. Imagine that your Bartender is Voldemort and he's making you a magical drink intended to cause as much emotional, perhaps physical, and psychological pain as possible... It's probably not gonna be too pleasant. I don't think that Dumbledore's struggle was near what it should have been. Alas, I am utterly unsatisfied by these movies, per usual.