What a spectacular and spellbinding way to finish the franchise! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 gave us something epic, heartwarming and worth remembering. Let’s discuss. Warning spoilers ahead.
The franchise ends with Harry, Ron and Hermione facing off against Voldemort in spectacular fashion.
IGN: And so the most ambitious and expensive undertaking in film history draws to a close. 14 years on from the first book hitting UK shelves, a decade since the boy wizard made his debut on the silver screen, and over $6 billion in global box office takings later, the franchise finally reaches its conclusion with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
Mercifully, it’s a suitably spectacular finale to this most towering of celluloid achievements; an emotionally draining journey into the heart of wizarding darkness, with battles fought, lives lost, and secrets uncovered that call into question everything that has gone before.
The film hits the ground running, picking up where Part 1 left off, with Harry, Ron and Hermione hunting down the Horcruxes — items into which the Dark Lord Voldemort has embedded pieces of his soul — and the three Deathly Hallows, which “He Who Must Not Be Named” believes will grant mastery over death.
It therefore demands extensive prior knowledge on the part of the audience, but then again, if you are joining the story for the first time at Part 7.5, you must be a pretty strange Muggle.
Their quest initially takes them to Gringotts Bank where, with the help of tricky goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis, under a mountain of impressive make-up), they must pull off the most dangerous of heists.
This spectacular sequence calls for Hermione to knock back the Polyjuice to disguise herself, which in turn allows Helena Bonham Carter to have a ball pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix Lestrange.
This hilarious scene is followed by a rollercoaster set-piece that owes more than a passing debt to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (and feels more like a theme park attraction than a sequence necessary to the plot) before a giant, fire-breathing dragon lights up the screen in one of the film’s many stand-out moments.
It’s then back to Hogwarts for the final time, though it’s no longer the happy, cosy refuge of previous instalments, but rather a Voldemort stronghold, with Death Eaters controlling the school, Dementors patrolling the perimeter, and the dastardly Severus Snape now headmaster.
Harry, Ron and Hermione join the underground resistance at work at the school, and the stage is set for war, with the teachers and pupils preparing to take a last stand against the forces of evil.
The second half of the film is therefore one huge, long battle, the Potter franchise turning into a war movie on an epic scale. Jaw-dropping sequences abound, from a dazzling broomstick escape to a stunning footbridge explosion to a dramatic attack on Hogwarts’ wand-generated force-field. Indeed, the building itself actually comes to life, with Professor McGonagall casting a spell that sends the school’s silent stone sentries into battle.
But while the effects are visually sumptuous, it’s the smaller moments that truly take the breath away, from Neville Longbottom finding his inner warrior when all seems lost to the two central couples stealing kisses as death looms large.
Elsewhere the dramatic revelation of Harry’s destiny gives the film its emotional core, while the disclosure of Snape’s true agenda is delicately handled, with Alan Rickman delivering the film’s stand-out performance as this most ambiguous of characters.
Indeed, Rickman has been the series MVP throughout, savouring each and every line of dialogue as he constantly wrong-foots the viewer. Alongside an actor of his stature, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson initially looked like the amateurs they were, and while the latter two improved as the series progressed, Radcliffe himself continues to struggle with the material.
This final instalment asks a lot of the young actor, and he’s certainly mastered the art of looking pensively into the distance. But when it comes to emotionally-charged back-and-forths he still seems out of his depth, which may go some way to explaining why the film’s finale feels somewhat underwhelming.
The series has been building towards the concluding conflict between Harry and Voldemort for nearly eight films, and yet when the pair finally commence hurling spells at each other in a fight to the death, the moment feels rushed and muted, as if in trying to tie up all the loose ends the filmmakers forgot to give this sequence the emphasis it deserves.
The battle between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange similarly seems hasty, while elsewhere characters from previous instalments are wheeled out in clumsy fashion only to be quickly dispatched or bid farewell.
Director David Yates and his team obviously wanted to bring closure to the series by allowing the majority of the ensemble to have their moment, but the story may have been better served if he and screenwriter Steven Kloves had concentrated on the drama in the foreground rather than the cavalcade of characters backing it up.
The newcomers to the franchise fare better, most notably Kelly Macdonald as Helena Ravenclaw and Ciaran Hinds as Aberforth Dumbledore, though the latter’s chequered past with his brother Albus is hinted at rather than properly explored, which may disappoint fans of the source material.
As for the book’s infamous coda, the film retains the leap forward in time, and it’s handled with aplomb. The ageing effects on the main players are impressive, and the sweetly innocent sequence brings the story full-circle. However, it still seems awkward and unnecessary, a filling-in-of-the-blanks that robs audiences of the opportunity to let their imaginations do the work.
That said, in spite of such relative shortcomings, the film remains a rousing finale to this most incredible franchise. An ode to faith, friendship, loyalty and love, the movies have done justice to J.K. Rowling’s remarkable books, and Deathly Hallows – Part Two may just be the best of the lot.
Its quality somewhat justifies the studio’s decision to split the final book in two, part one meandering and incomplete to allow part two time to breathe, and when watched in conjunction they will doubtless play out as a bona fide epic.
Across the board, this final instalment is the crowning achievement of the series, with direction, script, performance, cinematography, effects, make-up, score, and even post-production 3D combining to make a truly spectacular cinematic achievement.
We will surely miss Harry Potter. And the way the franchise ended, I can say that I am fully satisfied. Kudos HP7!
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