Are the rumours true, Albus. I'm afraid so, both the good . . .and the bad.

Rating: Null/10 (17 July 2011)

So, in the last chapter Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron, are trying to hunt down Voldemort's horcrux's and in the previous film had managed to destroy one. Big woo! Three left then! While they are doing this they are also trying to avoid said Dark Lord and his followers who, if they find them, will make short shrift of them.
So here it is, the final chapter of Harry Potter is upon is. If you believe the hype then this Harry Potter film sounds not dissimilar to the beginning of a tale of two cities. It is the best of films it is the worst of films, it has included everything but left out more, it is beautiful it is terrible, the cast are wooden the cast are fabulous, and so on and so on.
So Is it any good. Well, yes it is. Is it the best Potter film so far? I'd still have to put Azkaban above it, not necessarily because it is a better film, but because it's when the films started to grow with us, like remembering a first kiss or a first crush, others may come, but memory tends to play around with us like that.
David Yates' again shows us why he for the last for films he has been "The man who would" tie everything together. The performances are excellent from all the cast, particularly from Rickman who has portrayed Snape so well for the last ten years with this film being his big pay-off.
The script, which in a way just features two big scenes from deathly hallows, allows us to really feel the adventure for each character and one of the big problems with the final book, the final finale, is, in the film, handled with much more excitement and power which is really missing in the books, so hats off to Cloves and Yates there.
Of course with anything like this there are going to be bits that we wish there'd been more of and bits that we wish they'd kept in (Like who the headmaster of Hogwarts is at the end) but after spending a few days getting to know our friends from Hogwarts again myself, I feel that this is a very satisfying ending to a saga middle-earthian in scope and yet like those self- same loved books, whose main strength comes from the very human condition that they represent on the smallest scale.
As a film on it's own, very entertaining.
As a film set ...a Triumph for all involved (apart from Mike Newell ...sorry!)