An Incredible finish to a great movie franchise

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2011)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two is soon to be one of the best films of the year. The word epic is used far too liberally nowadays to conjure up any of the grand imagery it used to describe, but the last movie in the Harry Potter octalogy deserves this description in it's purest sense.
As corny as it sounds, I had an experience while watching this film that I haven't had since I watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in the cinemas. Maybe it was the quality of the visuals/sound system of the cinema I was in or maybe it was the sheeple audience I saw it with (who, while I hate them individually, I can't say I don't appreciate when they magnify my reactions to the movie to the nth degree) but it was one of the few movies I've seen which I can wholeheartedly call a "cinema movie".
What with the recent avalanche of possible ways to view our movies and everything, the list of films we'd pay to see in a theatre has become far more selective. What do we want in a "cinema movie"? Filler. And lots of it. Action, explosions, sex, comedy- anything that could be noticeably improved through the hyperbole of a 1.85:1 to 2.35:1 cinema screen and a pounding surround sound system. Does it matter to us if the movie with the computer generated, lens flare obscured, comic relief, shaky-cam photographed robot alien is fresh or not? Not for the average movie-goer.
It's ironic that the same crowd who'd contribute to the $769,304,749 earned for "2012" would see the last Harry Potter film for the same reasons. It has the sweeping battle sequences, the spectacular CG and everything else that Peter Travers would tell you from the DVD blurb, but they are left meaningless without the depth that allow them to exist in the first place. It does not give in to the trappings of exchanging action for character. Actions and emotions are given proper weight through the drama, allowing the action scenes to off-play them perfectly, and crescendo the film through it's final act. I was able to switch off all critical thought and allowed the film to engage me at a personal level. It's what I consider to be a proper "cinema movie".
The closure to the Harry Potter film series so tightly produced that it stands firmly above it's predecessors and elevates it's entire series far above it's "fad" roots. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a fan of this franchise, but I would declare myself as a fan of this movie.