The Battle for Hogwarts

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2011)

One of the biggest film franchises has finally come to an end. We have seen around 20 hours of magical fun, way over $6 Billion revenues, made stars out of its three main actors and been a major boost for the British film industry. It was a fitting end to the series.
Picking off where Part 1 left off, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) have destroyed one of Voldermort's Horcruxes and need to find the reminding three. They go to Gringotts Bank to break into Bellatrix Lestrange's (Helena Bonham Carter) vault to retrieve of the Horcluxes. When they get it they know they need to go Hogwarts, now run by Professor Snape (Alan Rickman). Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) defends him Harry search for the last Horcruxes, Ravencroft's Diadem whilst Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes) and his forces plan to attack the school. And whilst this goes on Harry finds out the truth behind his past, his family and Snape's.
All the previous films in the series had a long time scale, normally lasting months, this Harry Potter film takes place over the space of a few days, starting with a bank heist and the majority of the film being a battle. This makes the final Harry Potter a little different to the rest of the series and it was a very quick film with all the events happening at once. The mystery has to be figured quickly and Part 2 is certainly an action packed film. The director David Yates has done a wonderful job with series, able to make the series more darker and mature, making sure the drama and character development is fully realised but also making sure there is plenty of action and comedy. Whilst I think Alfonso Cuaron was the best director overall the series had, Yates clearly did an excellent job, making sure his films are stylist and he has made the transition from TV director to Blockbuster director. The action in excellent and the battle itself reminded me of the Battle for Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It reminds me of that for two reasons, first that it was fought in a tight location, but mainly because it was cut with Harry searching for the Horcrux and seeing how individual fighting in the middle of it all. Yates also made sure there was plenty of drama and emotion throughout the film, mix with moments of humour.
Acting wise Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are solid with what they have to do and obviously improved from the first film. Radcliffe is actor I personally believe will be the most successful after the Harry Potter series. Whilst Part 1 focused on the main three characters, Part 2 was mostly Harry's story focusing mostly on him. Maggie Smith is finally allowed to shine as Professor McGonagall as she leads the defend of Hogwarts. Alan Rickman has always been a great actor and no actor could have done the role better, but with Part 2 he made sure that Snape was not just a cold character but brought out the complicated nature of Snape. Fiennes showed that that Voldermort was becoming scared and more irrational when each part of his soul was destroyed and as Harry said in the film, becoming a wounded animal, making him more dangerous. Many of our favourite characters return to the film, even if it was just for a cameo, like Emma Thompson.
Whilst Part 2 is a very entertaining film, my one major criticism is because the film was made to be in 3D some of the set pieces were very obvious, like the break into the Bank where it looked like a theme park ride. But for the most part it was a very enjoyable film.
With the Harry Potter series we got to see these characters grow, not just the main three, but also people like Neville Longbottom who started as a clumsy and incompetent boy who grew into a brave young man and had skills as a wizard. We were slowly brought into this world, learning the rules, the norms, the society and its history and it is good to see a series has a real end game and not a forced ending like the X-Men 'trilogy'.