A satisfactory and very entertaining conclusion of the saga

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2011)

I am going to explain my general posture about the cultural phenomenon Harry Potter, in order to give some context to this review, which will be positive; but maybe not as positive as the opinion of the fans who grew up with this saga, and who are acclaiming this last movie as a milestone of universal cinema. Anyway...I found the first three Harry Potter books to be moderately good inside the parameters of juvenile literature, but as the saga advanced, I noticed some loss of in the control of the narrative, which introduced characters and "ret-con" without rhyme or reason, trusting the reader not to ask for any explanations nor an adequate development of those elements. Nevertheless, author J.K. Rowling could conclude the saga on an emotionally satisfactory and dramatically consistent note. As for the film adaptations of the books, my reactions for every one of them were also irregular, because there were occasions in which the movies tried to very faithfully follow the books...something which duplicated the missteps, "deus-ex-machina" and forced "suprises" from their literary counterparts. So, my big doubt was...Would Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 minimize the cons from the book and maximize the pros? Fortunately, the answer ended up being positive, even though I do not consider it to be perfect.
The basic premise from this film starts simple in order to later become more complicated with multiple adventures, action sequences, romance and the obligatory visits to the past which generate new narrative tangents or try to justify some characters' behaviors. Some of those digressions genuinely enrich the story and tie loose ends which had been crawling from a decade ago. Other ones look like simple excuses to introduce more extraordinary special effects, or to visit some popular actor from the supporting cast, or in the worst of the cases, to create forced dramatic moments which were difficult for me to digest, even though some of them are better raised in here than in the book. However, screenwriter Steve Kloves knew how to "tighten the nuts" from the story, and he abandons any filling during the final 45 minutes in order to fully explore the darkest passages from the entire saga. I have to say that the general result Kloves achieved in here is pretty good.
The technical aspects from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 are brilliant. Eduardo Serra's cinematography is excellent, and I think that he could achieve an adequate balance between the "fairy tale" visuals we saw in the first films, and the colder and more severe atmosphere which started to be employed when the "dark side" of the saga appeared. As I previously said, the special effects are magnificent. And finally, John Williams' music fulfills with its purpose of accentuating the emotions deployed in every scene.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson show that they have not only grown up on the physical aspect, but also on the histrionic one. They are totally credible in their roles, and they have a very good chemistry with each other. As for the adult cast, my favorite performances in here are the ones from Maggie Smith and the great Alan Rickman, who both bring excellent works.
8 months ago, I found Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 to be so slow and dramatically inert that it bored me very much, and that it considerably reduced my expectations for the final chapter. After all, I do not care very much if a movie is faithful to the book it is based on, provided that it finds its own "voice" and becomes into a solid experience which does not require any comparisons nor cooperation to its written version. After 7 movies of a variable level of quality, I think that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is the one which could most achieve that, and even though it will definitely be more appreciated by the fans of this saga, I can recommend it also to those ones who do not memorize every book, nor saw the previous films more than once, because it is a satisfactory and very entertaining movie by itself.