Harry Potter and the Deathly Pacing II

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2011)

So now we reach the end of Harry Potter and the Tortuously Extended Franchise with the final installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Pacing. Who is at fault? Certainly not the actors young and old who give very serviceable performances despite, in most cases, being given next to nothing to do. Director David Yates can manage some serviceable pacing when he needs to. I rather think that the fault lies less with an unimaginative director than with the author and producers of whom Rowling was one. Ultimately I attribute this film's failings, as I did in Part I, to greed. Deathly Hallows, Parts I & II might make a very good 2 and a half to 3 hour movie. Instead they combine to form a deadly dull 4 hour and 36 minute snoozer. Take just 1 scene as an example. Harry, on his way to confront Voldemort, uses the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows that he obtained in the preceding film. The ensuing scene is utterly superfluous. It does nothing but slow the action. At a moment when we need desperately to get on to the confrontation we are stuck with a convocation that does not include all the people who have been closest to Harry and spends minutes that pass like hours in soulful looks and some babble that we and Harry all knew already. It is a waste of celluloid or disc space or whatever medium is appropriate at the moment. Even Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are given precious little to do in this film but I'm not sure that is a fault as much as I enjoy their acting. This film is, after all the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, the moment toward which we've built over the 7 previous films. It's more than time to focus on Harry and Voldemort to the exclusion of most of the rest of the cast. Still, that's not what we get. We get much tying up of loose ends with interjected back stories that only contribute to the deathly pacing. We learn things that we should have learned in Half-Blood Prince and several other movies. Though those interjections may have been part of the 7th book they simply interfere with action of this film. We also get boxcar loads of exposition to explain plot twists for which no one ever laid the prior groundwork. The movie is a mess that completes the story but becomes a disservice to to the actors and fans. At one point late in the film Maggie Smith's Prof. McGonagall casts a weary, quizzical look in medium close up that seems more to say, "What am I doing here if not for the paycheck and how fast can I get back to the set of Downton Abbey where I actually can display my talent and craft." I feel for her. I do blame the directors to some extent but the producers and J. K. Rowling even more. From the start of the series the money people made great casting decisions and then put their wonderful actors in the hands of hacks like Chris Columbus and David Yates while giving fine directors like Alfonso Cuaron the boot after a single episode. Perhaps, one day once J. K. Rowling passes on to some other worldly Enchanted Forest, someone really competent who loves the stories will hire an elderly Daniel Radcliffe to play Albus Dumbledore in a really good remake of the series. I surely hope Harry Potter gets better treatment one day. He deserves it though he didn't get it here.