Review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2012)

The tagline for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is "It all ends." That's right, the ending has finally come to the movie series that started ten years before this movie, the movie adaptation of the classic Harry Potter book series. Like Roger Ebert wrote in his review of this film, we have a big class reunion here, and a great, epic, dark, dramatic one, too. I remember when I first saw the (comparatively) light and innocent Sorcerer's Stone. I was nine years old at the time. Here I am, eighteen, and writing the review for the last film, which I saw on Wednesday. I watched over the years as the movies got progressively deeper, more emotional, more mature, and darker, to the level of darkness at which this film is (tone-wise, and light-wise, in certain scenes). The movie picks up where the last movie left off, and covers the last third of the seventh book. This movie continues with the excellent balance of action, suspense, mystery, character and story development, tone, emotion, etc., and excellent special effects, only it has even more action.
When we last left off, Harry had left the Malfoy Manor, and Dobby had been killed. Now he continues his quest to hunt for the final horcruxes and kill Lord Voldemort once and for all. His quest eventually takes him back to Hogwarts for some epic action and showdown. The film, meanwhile, takes us on a roller coaster ride through thrills, excitements, excellent suspense, and dark magical fantasy, thoroughly entertaining throughout. Although the film is over two hours long, it doesn't fee that long – it seems to zip by relatively quickly. And the film ends well, not just for is film, but for the entire series as well. It was a very well handled, well wrapped-up, strong, and emotional ending, almost as strong as it was in the book.
An epic final installment to a series such as Harry Potter, which requires such a finale, is hard to achieve, and requires a lot of hard work, talent, writing, effort, and thinking. David Yates handled it very well. Granted, it's not perfect and he could have done several things to make it even better, but he does very well nonetheless. Some of the acting could've been better, too, but it was alright, especially since the main actors have gradually improved their performances as the series progressed. I even enjoyed the musical score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, especially in the parts where he references back to the themes from John Williams' old score for the first three films. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is one of the better installments in the Harry Potter franchise. It all ends, and it ends well, very good ending to the series. Harry Potter goes out at full speed and with all wands blazing.
My Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)
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