A rather odd review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt.2
I’d like to start this post off by saying I’m not a fan of Harry Potter. I read the first book during my school years and just didn’t like it, and it kind of put me off of the whole franchise. I’d also like to point out that I did see the film on Sunday and have taken this long to get the thoughts down so that I wasn’t basically rambling too bad.
As… you know, I can do that from time to time.
The Harry Potter series of films are a bit of a mixed bag in my humble opinion. Given that the only movie that has any bearing for me off of the books is the first one, I can say that I have no preconceptions about going into the majority of the films about what to expect. I have an inkling that the first couple of films weren’t to my taste simply as they were too ‘kiddy’ - aimed at the schoolchildren reading the books at the time. However as the series moved on, as did the cast, it did catch my interest a bit. Given my taste in film, the darker the series got the more interested I became in seeing the films.
I came out of ‘Deathly Hallows’ part 1 seemingly the only person that got it - everyone moaned about the film being too slow and having far too much talking. It was all about the relationships and not enough about finishing off the Horcruxes to get to the climax. However, that was never going to happen off of a book the size of Deathly Hallows, and given that it was part one of a two part film, it was a given what it was - acts 1 and 2, the build up to an epic climax. And everyone I said this to basically laughed in my face.
I got vindication on Sunday when the final credits rolled.
Part 2 was the third act everyone was clamouring for. Part 1 got everyone where they needed to be, and part 2 let them all deliver on an epic scale. Whether it be Ron and Hermione finally giving all the fan boys and girls the service they’ve been waiting on, or the grandiose battle at Hogwarts Castle; the battle of wits between Snape and Voldemort where the personal drama became clear or the battle that everyone knew was on the horizon, Deathly Hallows pt. 2 delivered and then some.
Everyone handled their post beautifully - Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman held the old guard perfectly in their roles (Rickman standing out in particular and finally giving the old snake a brilliant turn of humanity), to Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright and Evanna Lynch bringing to the table the best young blood available. And of course the trio of the hour (at least for British film) in Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson showing exactly why they are the top draw in the film and, indeed, showing the final steps in adulthood that they began back in 2001, ten years ago.
The final denouement, 19 years later is just the little final touch needed to round off a quite frankly epic film series. I may still not be a Harry Potter fan, I may still not think much of the early films, and I may still think that Danny Radcliffe is a bit of a twat, but I still think that Deathly Hallows part 2 was a fitting end to a landmark series.
What else can really be said?
