Intense sequences ensure it goes out on a high even if I "felt" less than in some of the other recent Potters (one very mild spoiler)

Rating: Null/10 (7 December 2011)

I'm not a particularly big fan of this franchise if I'm honest, so for me when the final films came out I was more than happy to let the crowds come and go and I'd watch it at my leisure. It's not that I was apathetic but I've never bothered with the books beyond reading a few chapters of one to a child many moons ago and the film series took quite some time to really engage me. It did this as it got darker and, although the last film felt like it was stuck in a holding pattern, I did still enjoy it because it was very dark throughout. With this final film I had hoping that this brooding would continue but, being unfamiliar with the books, unlike many viewers I wasn't sure what was going to happen (despite Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's consistent best efforts to give me spoilers).
Understandably the brooding aspect of the last few films doesn't really make it far into this one because, although it keeps its dark tone and scary, the film is really all about the epic confrontation that the previous film had been leading up to. And it is pretty epic – the effects are tremendous and it really did engage me. This surprised me because previously a lot of the magic-driven action hadn't really done much for me and, although all the lights and effects had been pretty, they had sort of kept what was happening in a fantasy realm in regards my feelings. Here though the action had real impact and a real sense of violence to it and as sheer spectacle, it did work.
In terms of the plotting and feeling, I have to say that the sheer scale of the set pieces really made me struggle to find something to feel about in the story. I was quite excited by the final battle but I didn't really feel invested it in, it was only occasionally intimate enough to make me care. As a result the "nineteen years later" conclusion didn't do anything for me other than make me wonder if they couldn't have at least spared some of their special effects budget to convincingly age the three stars. I'm pretty sure that fans and particularly those fans that grew up with the franchise will be much more impacted by the conclusion and this flash-forward, but for me the film almost did the epic spectacle too well, because it hadn't left me too much room for emotional focus on the three children at the heart of the tale (and, ignoring their multimillion nest-eggs, these characters are children in terms of age).
Their performances are not to blame because Radcliffe, Watson and Grint have all grown into fine actors and kudos to whoever manage to see that potential all those years ago. They (and their children) may never need to work again but they do good work here and it was their performances that stopped me totally losing sight of their characters in the middle of the special effects. Of course the quality of the rest of the cast (featuring every living British actor) is deep and even though none have much to work with they are good – credit to Fiennes that he manages to be a presence despite this really not being a project that ever interested him or engaged him as much as it did others involved.
This final film is a fine spectacle though and it brings about a suitably intense finale to this (mostly) dark series. In my opinion the characters get a little bit lost in this specific film but it is understandable and those that already have lived formative years at the same pace as Harry et al, will not need this film to do anything to keep them involved – and given this is film 8, there probably aren't too many "casual" viewers left.