As a Movie, It's Spectacular - As a Closure to the Story, It's Horrendous

Rating: 5/10 (15 April 2012)

I left the screening of Deathly Hallows Part 2 in a jubilant mood. As far as I was concerned, it was a satisfying, thrilling conclusion to a long-running series that captivated us all. When I watched it again, however, and subjected it to further scrutiny, there are several ways in which Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a very poor conclusion to Harry Potter's story arc.
The good first. The film looks fantastic, that's for sure. The dragon in the Gringotts scene is nothing short of spectacular. The sight of a Hogwarts under fire is breathtaking. The scenes in the Room of Requirement and with the Grey Lady are memorable and linger with the audience. The performances by the actors are top-notch. Our three leads all deliver solid performances that do their characters justice. Matthew Lewis and Evana Lynch deserve mention as well, playing Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood respectively. It is indeed scandalous that given their vital roles in this film, theirs are names only included in the final cast. Same goes for Emma Thompson, who admittedly has a small role but still, the two-time Academy Award winning actress really needs a better agent if she is not top billing. Most impressive, perhaps, is Alan Rickman. His flashback scene to discovering Lily is heart-rending; an excellent performance.
Unfortunately, what pulls the movie apart is its really quite fetishistic attitude of "look how many special effects we can do", often at the cost of the story. The final battle between Harry and Voldemort is a particular offender in that; to anyone who has read the books, it is a ridiculously over-the-top sequence (with really corny dialogue, might I add: "Let's finish this the way we started - TOGETHER!" Oh please). Voldemort and Bellatrix meet their demise in ways that have no relation to anything that preceded them. Neither does Snape giving Harry his memory in the form of tears (that induced particular groans when we watched it again).
I was under the impression that the reason the story was separated into two films was to do justice to the story. It is extremely ironic, then, that the film leaves out many vital things. Dumbledore's past - everything about Ariana, Aberforth and Grindlewald - is not mentioned at all. And the things the film doesn't leave out, it insults the author J.K. Rowling by feeling the need to rewrite things. Harry snaps the Elder Wand in two - in the book, he used it to heal his old wand and then left it in the headmaster's office. Neville proclaims love for Luna even though nothing warrants that. There is a pointless chase scene with Nagini - in the book, when Neville dragged the sword from the hat, he killed her at that moment. One of the most infamous things is how Fred's demise is kept offhand - we're never even told whether it's Fred or George! The battle at Hogwarts was much more epic in the book, with centaurs and such creatures joining in the fight with the forces of good.
The most disappointing thing is Harry and Voldemort's final battle. It happens in the middle of nowhere, and when it's over, there is no sense of climax at all. In the book, they battled in the Great Hall, in front of all surviving characters. When it was over, there was enormous jubilation, a sense of climax that it was all over. In the movie, nobody even acts as though anything happened when Harry walks back inside. No appreciation, no nothing.
Most aggravating of all is the ironic fact that for those who have not read the books, Voldemort's demise doesn't make sense. The rebounding curse because Voldemort is not the Elder Wand's master is never sufficiently delivered to the audience, so newcomers will not understand what exactly happened to Voldemort.
The flashback scene with Snape's story is then needlessly rushed and skips many points that pinpointed why, exactly, he and Lily fell out with each other and why they couldn't be together. Also, her eyes, would it have been so hard to make Lily's eyes green in post-production? They've only been talking about her eye colour for the entire series. Ron and Hermione's long-awaited kiss is set up much more poorly in the movie than in the book. In the book, it was Hermione seeing how much Ron had grown up - in the film it was "Oh, we both survived, let's kiss".
The way in which the Deathly Hallows themselves - the title of the film - tie into everything? Yup, that's left out too. Everything about being "Master of Death" simply doesn't exist in this film. But who cares about story inconsistencies if we've got loads of special effects to make up for them? Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a good film, but as a conclusion to the story, it is very sloppy work indeed.