Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2

After reading enough reviews opening with some variant of “eight films and 10 years–what a journey it has been,” I told myself that I would not be overly sentimental in my analysis of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the series closer. But sticking to this resolution is simply impossible, for even though I have never been a Potter fanatic, I have certainly grown up with these characters, not only as a person, but as a moviegoer. While Daniel Radcliffe, a mere four months my junior, was busy cranking the films out, I was busy watching them. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was one of the very first movies I reviewed on this website (read the atrocity here, if you must) and, for whatever it may have lacked from a cultural perspective, it compensated, many times over, by inspiring me to become more interested in cinema. Since then, the Harry Potter franchise has managed a miraculous feat — despite numerous director changes and many years, it has remained consistently good. I only disliked one entry (The Half-Blood Prince), a stellar record for a series this long.

This second ‘part’ of the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s final Potter novel spares no time refreshing the audience’s memory, jumping right back into the story, which we left last November just as Ralph Fiennes’ evil Voldemort seized the powerful wand. Knowledge of all prior story details is assumed (you remember what a horcrux is, right?), but it should be noted that these details, which have long been a staple of the series, take the backseat here. Instead of becoming overly consumed by the intricacies of Rowling’s world–they are definitely there for diehard fans to observe, but will likely be lost on casual viewers, without any detriment–director David Yates aptly makes the finale more about the emotions. Cranking up the volume on Alexandre Desplat’s score and John Williams’ original series theme, Yates conducts a fitfully epic final showdown between Harry and Voldemort’s respective wizard armies, the culmination of the weight of the entire saga. As was the case with 2003’s Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, nearly every frame is filled with cutting-edge CGI, especially during the battle sequences–somehow raising the bar set by the already dazzling previous films–but the meat remains in the story and the characters. We have grown to really care for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and their friends and families over the years, and this strong sense of feeling is what drives Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 to its thunderous conclusion.

Given how impassioned the climactic scenes in The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 are, Yates directs with a stunning level of filmmaking economy. (This entry is, needless to say, his finest contribution to the franchise.) Not only is the film perfectly paced on the whole, resisting the usual Hollywood temptation to overindulge in action set-pieces, it also boasts some masterful standalone sequences. The one that everyone will be talking about is a string of flashbacks in which Harry discovers shocking truths about Snape and Dumbledore’s respective plans for him as the powerful “boy who lived.” This passage is not only a big shock within the narrative–at least for those of us who haven’t read the book–but it has the tonal gravitas of classic filmmaking. Also memorable is a sequence in which Voldemort viciously addresses the Hogwarts community, Yates allowing actor Fiennes the ideal last-minute opportunity to transform what was once simply an effectively creepy caricature into a real monster of a character.

While often trivialized by cynics as passing artifacts of popular culture due to their blockbuster status (along with that of the source novels), it is hard to fathom a future in which the Harry Potter films do not go down as one of the better New Millennium Hollywood sagas. This finale is good enough to make you think back on all the great moments that you’ve had with these characters; their first train ride to Hogwarts in The Sorcerer’s Stone, the dark tonal shift they inhabited in Alfonso Cuarón’s deeply ambitious Prisoner of Azkaban, and that downright transfixing shot of Hermione at the ball in The Goblet of Fire rank among my personal favorites. No, the films may not make any all-time best lists (outside of those of the diehard fans), but just as vital to the film industry as great movies, I think, are good movies that take hold of the popular imagination. Over the past decade, our collective experience watching Harry and company has demonstrated the power of traditional moviegoing more than perhaps any other cinema experience.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011, USA). Produced by David Barron, Debbi Bossi, David Heyman, Tim Lewis, J.K. Rowling, John Trehy, and Lionel Wigram. Directed by David Yates. Written for the screen by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Kelly Macdonald, Tom Felton, Ciarán Hinds, Maggie Smith, and Jim Broadbent. Distributed by Warner Bros. Rated PG-13, with a running time of 130 minutes.