Wizard ending

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2012)

Knowing in advance both how the story goes (and with J K Rowling on board as a co- producer, that it wasn't going to be changed much) and naturally how it ends, it was incumbent on Peter Yates to nonetheless deliver the big finish to Harry's adventures and in particular his final showdown with Voldemort. I wasn't disappointed and in the end had only minor quibbles about the resolution.
The dark atmosphere from Part 1 is continued with the action mostly played out in scenes of brooding darkness and to the background of weighty soundtrack music. There is noticeably less of Hermione and Ron, which is only right given the necessary one-on-one fight with Voldemort at the conclusion. While that duel, with shades of Holmes and Moriarty, was always going to be the climax here, I enjoyed the build-up to it, with the escape from Gringotts, Snape's revelatory Pensieve memories, Harry's supernatural interviews with Rowena Ravenclaw (and Dumbledore), plus of course the blowing-up of Hogwarts all contributing to the excitement and anticipation.
Rowling herself has stated that from the first, she had a clear vision of Harry and Voldemort's final reckoning with both of them circling each other in a blasted landscape and this was exactly what was delivered. I did however feel confused if not cheated as to how the Elder wand reverted to Harry, when all along Voldemort had made such a strong claim for it, but still the Evil Lord's demise was spectacularly satisfying when it came.
My only other carps were the pointless inclusion of the 19-years-on epilogue, which added nothing and detracted from the high point achieved with the death of Voldemort (I know it's in the book, but it told us nothing important - as if we didn't know they were all going to live happily ever), the abbreviated round-up afforded different characters from previous episodes, especially Hagrid, the Weasley parents and Jim Broadbent's character, plus it can't be denied that the three main characters by now seem too a little old for their parts (although it's not their fault that the time needed to create such large-scale movies by- passed their characters' natural time-lines) and my old caveat that too many of the supporting parts were played by too-familiar faces from British acting royalty (it's a wonder Judi Dench didn't get a look in).
But in the whole this was fantastic entertainment and a worthy finish to the saga, which I hope they don't spoil by rebooting sometime in the future.