Excellent with a slight fumble

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2011)

It's not fair to do a book-to-film comparison: the differences between the two media mean that there must be differences. And let me say that this eighth film is a worthy finale to the saga, in terms of action, emotion, performance and epic visual quality. In particular, Alan Rickman is simply - excuse the expression - spellbinding.
Nonetheless, much as I enjoyed the movie - and I did! - there was one area where I felt the film dropped a ball which the book ran with, and that was the matter of Harry's discovery that Voldemort's death was conditional upon his own. When I read the final book, I found myself within 20 pages of the end, totally unsure of whether Harry would survive or not, and I thought this was a spectacular piece of storytelling. Here, that circumstance is discovered and, five minutes later, bingo! Problem solved.
That aside, this final movie contains most of the payoffs we have waited for. Not without other flaws (read other reviews!) it is a hugely satisfying movie for fans of the series.