Unsatisfying

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2011)

Taken alone, this is a good, fun, action movie...the action rarely stops (as opposed to Part 1 where it never started).
I gave up on the Harry Potter book series after the second book, but saw all the movies. I read Lord of the Rings 4 times as a child, and watched the films, and felt they did a very faithful job adapting them, despite the need to leave out huge pieces of the story. As such, at the end, I felt a great deal of satisfaction when Gollum finally steals the ring and jumps into the fire at the end.
No such deal here. Haven't we been waiting for six films for Harry to destroy Voldemort? Unless I missed something, after Voldemort is destroyed, there's not so much as a "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" or "Hooray for Harry" moment. It's like it never happened. Harry goes back and walks through the school, and while there's lot of destruction and obviously important characters have been lost, after all that wouldn't they have given Harry a round of applause for killing Voldemort? Shouldn't someone be happy? There is no moment for the audience to cheer - I clapped when he killed Voldemort but the audience in my theater was silent. They did not program in a moment to rejoice. Is rejoicing a bad thing these days? It was underwhelming.
There was at least some cheering when Bellatrix died, but again, she is so powerful and then Mrs. Weasly just got mad and called her a bitch then it was so easy to kill her?
Also unsatisfying was when Harry casually snaps the Elder Wand, the most powerful one in half (if it's so powerful, how do you just snap it in half even if you are it's owner?) and toss it aside? Couldn't Harry have used the power of the Elder Wand to rebuild Hogwarts or do something good? Wouldn't he have been tempted for a minute to keep it and been conflicted - it was Dumbledore's after all! Having read some of the reviews here from those better informed, I learned that Harry reflected back the death spell on Voldemort since he realized he actually controlled the wand. Big point, totally lost in the special effects.
Also can someone explain Draco Malfoy to me? Why does Harry save him at the end? He chose his side, and in the end leaves with his parents (not clear why) from everything.
I felt like some of these issues could have been addressed at the expense of cutting some time off the roller coaster ride at the beginning at Gringotts. 20% less action and 20% more emotionally satisfying time spent explaining the motives behind what happened, would have made the film not only visually interesting, but also emotionally involving.