Hallows 2 - fumbles at the goal line.

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2011)

While following the advice of professional critics I went to the 2D viewing Of Deathly Hallows part 2. Some of the recent installments had been pretty dark and the 3D glasses were supposed to make this worse.
The film seemed a little unlike the previous Potter films. Most Potter films have us seeing the story through the eyes of Harry, Hermione and Ron. Hallows 2 was a little impersonal toward our Heroes. The film seemed rushed and shortcuts were taken that eliminated the dialogue we needed to really feel the leading characters pain. Harry in the film can now 'feel' the Horcruxes when near, and sees their location through Voldemort's mind. Hard to imagine Voldemort making such a mistake, but this technique allowed the filmmakers to shorten the dialogue. This was probably a result of the story being delivered in two parts. The last real character development of Harry, Hermione and Ron was in Hallows 1. Hallows 2 it seems, was meant to be an action film. Also new to the film were efforts to create humor by throwing in one-liners from time to time.
I thought the film stayed fairly close to Rowling's story, until the end at least. After the Kings Cross scene, the film began to diverge greatly from the book. I wondered if this was because better 3D possibilities were attained with these changes. I watched the movie again in 3D. It wasn't darker than the 2D version and the 3D seemed to help the film. However, I'm completely puzzled why the ending was changed the way it was. After waiting for more than a decade for the final showdown, it's unfortunate we got shorted here. The original ending by Rowling was much cleaner and presented more cinematic possibilities, and simply made a better ending for the series. The CGI for the early dragon scene was very good and I'm left wondering if they just ran out time to finish the thing correctly.
I've come to believe most of the professional critics are clueless about this film. It's surely the readers and serious Potter fans that contain real insight into the series. However most people I've talked to that didn't read the book were completely happy with the film and loved all the action scenes in this movie. Many book readers of the series will be disappointed.
That all being said - it was a difficult story to tell. Most of the loose ends in the series were tied up. Not too much of Dumbledore's personality was revealed, and that's probably a good thing. The final fleshing out of Snape's enigmatic character were revealed. Will Rowling pick up the pen once more to give us more Harry Potter? A lot could happen in 19 years! I certainly hope so - but not enough to give this film a rating it doesn't deserve.