There is little doubt that longtime Harry Potter fans will find the resolution of the movie series satisfying.
It has all the elements they’ve consistently enjoyed, and will make them look back at what really is a tremendous achievement for a movie series. The Harry Potter series is not a trilogy, it’s not a trilogy with some prequels tacked on, it’s never been restarted with different actors in an attempt to reach a new audience – it’s a series of EIGHT epic movies following the growth of one young man and his schoolmates. They’ve taken the vision of the unbelievably popular J.K. Rowling books and translated them to film with great commercial and critical success.
And they’ve never dumbed it down for audiences. Like Rowling’s book series, the Potter movies began as family fare about a boy and his school and turned into a dark adventure series about a man facing his destiny. Rowling and the movies could have kept Harry a little kid forever if they’d wanted to – but they had an epic story to tell. The mythology remained dense, and fans have been able to keep up all along.
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off (both movies are based on the final Potter book, but those of us who haven’t followed closely could have benefited from a “Previously on Harry Potter” montage at the beginning). Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are bracing themselves for their inevitable confrontation with Lord Voldemort. They must find the “horcruxes” and destroy them, so they can in turn destroy Voldemort.
We’ll leave it to the diehards to compare all eight movies and tell you whether Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the best. It’s so vastly different from the first film that it’s almost not fair to compare them. It is a considerable improvement over Hallows Part 1, which this critic nicknamed “Harry Potter & the Deathly Long Stretches of Time Where Nothing Happens.” Director David Yates, directing Harry for the fourth time, front-loaded the Hallows story. Part 1 was nearly two and half hours; Part 2 is more reasonable at a little over two.
Part 1 had those deathly silences; Part 2 is largely action. And it’s spectacular action from the raiding of Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault to the attack on Hogwarts. They are detailed scenes that look like violent exchanges between people, wizards and monsters – never looking like a video game as so many special effects films do. You feel like there is real danger. On the other hand, the film is in 3D, which provides a couple of cool moments, but like most films, it didn’t need to be 3D.
The three leads remain as good as ever. Credit again to the series as a whole – when they cast Radcliffe, Watson and Grint for Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, could they possibly have known those little kids would age into fine young actors -- and that they’d stay pretty much scandal free in the age of TMZ? Meanwhile, the seasoned British actors like Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter and especially Ralph Fiennes as the noseless Voldemort (it’s a great look) continue to have fun and make the most of their most popular roles.
But a warning: like the last few movies, Hallows Part 2 should not be your first Harry Potter movie, even if you are kind of curious to see how it all ends. There are people out there who can tell the difference between Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, and Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets and can even put them in the proper order. This critic has reviewed four Potter movies now and goes into every one unable to keep up with the layered mythology. Thick English accents spitting out made-up words like “Hufflepuff” and “Gryffindor”don’t help. There are moments you will be completely lost if you’ve never seen a Potter film before. Even if you watch the whole thing, there are elements of how it all ends that won’t make a lick of sense.
However, you won’t have the frustration a novice felt at those other movies – when after two hours of confusion, you’re left with a cliffhanger. This is truly the end. You’ll be able to say you know how the Harry Potter story ends. Meanwhile, the longtime fans who already knew the ending will be able to sit back and say they enjoyed the whole thing.
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