It’s been ten years since Harry Potter’s cinematic adventure began with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Over the past decade, we’ve watched the boy wizard discover his hidden talents and tragic past, experience the joy of Quiddich, build everlasting friendships, find romance, and face death repeatedly as he has faced off against the most evil wizard the world has ever known. Now, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Harry’s adventure comes to an end, and a better constructed ending couldn’t possibly be made.
As I said with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, the decision to splice the final novel into two movies is a fantastic one, allowing the movie to spend more time making this feel like a fulfilling conclusion instead of smashing a heap of content and characters into one film. As it is, there are still a lot of events and people who get the short end of the stick, and I must admit there’s a part of me that hopes for a Deathly Hallows extended edition, combining the two chapters and adding in additional goodies for the fans, but what we get here is still golden.
The second chapter takes no time to explain where things stand, which could be frustrating if you’re new to the franchise. At the same time, if you’re new, what are you doing starting with the second half of the final novel? This truly is “Part 2” of the final story, and the assumption is that you’ve seen the first part so very little time is spent on exposition. Literally picking up with the final shots of “Part 1,” this final chapter kicks into high gear as Harry and his buddies attempt to figure out how to locate the titular Deathly Hallows – three items that give the user domination over death – and, more importantly, how to locate the final horcruxes – magical storage devices that house parts of Voldemort’s soul – before they head into the final battle with Voldemort himself.
One of the benefits of splitting the final story into two parts is that it allows this last movie to take place largely at Hogwart’s school, the location for most of Harry’s adventures, but a location the boy wizard didn’t go to in the previous movie. Instead of spending more time roaming the countryside, the adventure comes to a place near and dear to both Harry and the audience, bringing a sense of urgency and closure to the story. It also returns a slew of familiar characters, with just about every major character from the past seven films putting in an appearance somewhere, from Snape (Alan Rickman) and McGonagall (Maggie Smith) who started the series, to Professor Trelawny (Emma Thompson) who had a brief appearance in the middle to Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), the most recent addition to the faculty of Hogwarts. Harry’s friends from the movies take center stage with just as wide a variety of appearances. It really is a testament to everyone involved that they remained involved to the series as a whole, making for some really touching final scenes, both for the characters and the franchise.
In fact, the battle at Hogwarts is so massive and impressive, it almost makes up for the anticlimactic end of Half-Blood Prince, where a bunch of Voldemort’s followers killed the headmaster and then practically danced out of the school with hardly any resistance – a huge departure from the novel that left me disappointed, but was obviously done so the battle here could feel even more epic in scale. I still wish we had gotten a preface to this battle in that chapter, but what we do get here is massive – the Hogwart’s version of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and equally as satisfying in its execution on screen.
The story does divert a little from the source material, but it’s a strong adaptation, making as few changes as possible for the faithful fans, but adapting the material for a different venue as needed. As a result, this is one of the strongest Harry Potter stories to appear on screen with fantastic pacing – the movie is strong when it needs to be and affords the opportunity for reflection and emotional moments as needed. The franchise certainly has come a long way from its weak start as a series of films that relied too heavily on the source material. Director David Yates, who took over the franchise with Order of the Phoenix, continues his powerful streak and I feel like the development of the series as a whole owes a lot to his direction and vision.
While the epic battle of good and evil is impressive to watch, ultimately this is a story about a young boy who has now become a young man, and the story is careful to keep that in mind as well. Daniel Radcliffe was a tremendous find to play the boy wizard and he shows his growth as an actor here as Harry is called upon for one last battle – a fight that Harry is well aware will only see one side walk away from. Harry is pensive, yet driven toward his fate, and as his side suffers losses, Radcliffe covers the sense of loss, dread, and fate incredibly well. Equally solid are performances from co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s buddies Ron and Hermionie. Surprising to me are the strong shows from Harry’s nemesis, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who hadn’t been given much to do over the past few stories, and Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom who has always been relegated to the background but plays an essential part in this story.
Fans of Harry Potter will no doubt find some disappointment as some of their favorite moments don’t appear on screen or aren’t as powerful in the movie as they are in their minds. To them, I remind them that this has to be an adaptation and it certainly doesn’t detract from the story that J.K. Rowling created in the novel. What it does is provide a strong finale for the world created in the movies, as the story takes us to characters and locations from throughout Harry’s time on screen. The books are the books and the movies are the movies, and for the movies, this is the perfect ending for the saga.
-Rafe Telsch
