A satisfying end to a mixed series.

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2011)

At long last the end is here. After 10 years and billions at the box office, the final Harry Potter film arrives with a big bang and wallop, followed by sighs of relief from the filmmakers, and big groans from Warner Bros (will they ever find another franchise that makes this much money?). I personally have never truly loved the Harry Potter films. I mean I like them, they are entertaining flicks no doubt about that, but they haven't held the special place in my heart that the sublime "The Lord of the Rings" and the original "Star Wars" trilogy have done. However upon seeing this film, I have to say I was genuinely impressed. "Deathly Hallows Part 2" raises the quality level of the Harry Potter films to an all new high, and truly finishes off the series in a very good way. Maybe not perfect but certainly good.
Splitting the book into two films, disservices part 1 which was a muddled and directionless fare, but benefits part 2 hugely, which has all the boring stuff out the way and is just a gripping and exciting film all the way through. They couldn't have picked a better place to split, just after Voldemort claims the Elder Wand and right before the Gringott's bank raid. The Gringott's sequence gives the film an exciting opening, which involves a room that contains items that multiply endlessly, and a hair-raising escape on a dragon. About 80% of the film takes place at the battle of Hogwarts, and this is certainly not a bad thing. The sense of doom before the battle, where the soldiers (who are mostly kids!) get ready to fight is unnerving. One of the films highlights is the teachers creating a defensive force field around the school, which is somehow both serene and beautiful. However unlike Peter Jackson's LOTR, which focused greatly on the epic battle scenes, the focus on this film is very much on Harry and not the battles, which is slightly disappointing for those who want to see some serious on screen carnage. When the two armies charge at each other going, "ahhhhh!!", I braced myself for some epic fighting, but then it cuts to Harry in a quiet room looking for the next Horcrux, which I found to be disconnecting from what's going on. When Harry finally does join the battle, it is mostly from his perspective, and we don't really get the sense of scale for the whole thing.
Does it improve on the book? I think mostly yes. To be honest I found Rowling's last 3 books disappointing, with 5 being depressing, 6 being boring, and 7 being a bit anti-climatic. However the film does correct a lot of what I didn't like in the book, which mostly concerns the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. In the book all they did was point wands at each other and talk for ages, whereas in the film it has been transformed into a grueling slug match that rages throughout the castle, exactly how I wanted it in the book. It is a credit to screenwriter Steve Kloves who has the balls to create these changes and make them work. Also I felt improved was Snape's memories, which reveals many of the story's secrets, and delivered it on such an emotional high, I don't think there was a dry eye in the cinema, including me. However the film does some things the same as the book, such as killing off side characters with no proper send off, Lupin and Tonks's death immediately springs to mind.
As the two leads Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) are both exceptional. Being the series' two main characters can't be easy, but both carry the weight of the whole saga well, and we truly get the scale of the epic struggle between them. Radcliffe has been very iffy on the acting front, but here he really comes into his own. He crafts a brave and iron willed young hero, who no longer shies from his immense task but now takes it head on. I wasn't overly impressed with Fiennes' performance as Voldemort in the previous films, I thought he over-acted it and didn't really come across as intimidating. However in this film both Fiennes and director David Yates have created something truly dark and terrible. One scene which is guaranteed to stay with you long after the film, is in Voldemort's first appearance where he casually walks barefooted over a room filled with dead bodies he has just murdered. The floor is soaked in blood and he speaks in a creepy language to his pet snake. It is a very short scene but is highly disturbing (especially for a fantasy family film), and you truly feel that this is one guy you don't want to mess with. Voldemort is also portrayed in a surprisingly tragic light, as each Horcrux is destroyed it cuts back to Voldemort who looks heartbroken and nearly in tears. It is Ralph Fiennes incredible talent that makes us feel sympathy for such a horrific monster. I will also give a special mention to Alan Rickman as Snape, whose story arc is the most interesting in the whole series, and his performance in Snape's flashback is Oscar worthy alone.
"Deathly Hallows part 2" is my personal favorite of the HP films, and delivers a satisfying if flawed end. While faltering slightly in the battle scenes, the movie does deliver on the emotional front, with Snape's memories and Harry's walk to his doom being guaranteed tear jerkers. Another 20 minutes could have possibly made this a masterpiece, but I'm sure everyone on board the production just wanted the marathon over with, and my god what a marathon it has been. You have to be brainless to not be in awe that everyone stuck with it to the end. It will surely go down as one of the greatest movie feats of all time.