Enjoyable, but too much focus on action

Rating: 5/10 (25 August 2011)

First of all, let me say this: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is an enjoyable film, it's even a fitting end to the film series. But it's not a great film, in fact it's barely a decent one.
The key problem is that the director, Yates, seems to have gotten bored with story-telling in part 1 and hopped on the action action action bandwagon in part 2 to compensate. Gone are scenes about Tonks and Lupin expecting a child (and this gives rise to an odd scene at the end where Harry suddenly knows all about their son, who in the film comes from nowhere), Dumbledore's back story has been thrown out almost completely, Snape's back story is as thin as tissue paper (which only undermines his turning to Dumbledore's side: without fully establishing his love for Lily, his move seems foolish, since Voldemort was winning), Fred's death - what do you mean, you missed it? So did Yates, apparently.
The biggest flaws though, lie in the final confrontation. Part of me can understand why Yates decided on the Harry/Voldemort battle being an isolated, one on one affair, as it does take the battle full circle. However, this discards several key elements, the biggest of which is psychological: the wizarding community had lived in comfort once before after Voldemort had been "destroyed" and no one witnessed it, only for him to return and wreak havoc once more. By having hundreds of witnesses, the wizarding world can at last live in true peace. But by removing ALL witnesses and having Voldemort turn to confetti (seriously, I was astonished by that), so there is no body, Yates has created a world where everyone will doubt that the villain is truly gone. They will live in fear, no matter what Harry says, because he came back from the dead once before.
Also, the scene with witnesses establishes how much Harry has learnt and how it is knowledge, not strength, that is truly powerful. He shows this in front of everyone and thus shows them that if they have knowledge, they need not fear someone who has only strength.
Yates also abandoned Harry's wand completely - yes, a sub-plot, but given how it ties to the Elder Wand and Harry himself, a ten second scene of "I preferred my old wand, they say this one can do anything..." would have sufficed and made all the fans a lot happier - and made sense.
This film probably swayed the furthest from the books of any of the adaptations but is still enjoyable, if only for the incredible battle sequences; however it's let down by lots of small problems, from half references (Tonks and Lupins son) that make no sense, to glossing over the death of a major character (Fred). But as I said at the start, the big flaw lies in making this mainly an action film and not a story film with action in it. It's a solid end to the movie franchise, but as a Harry Potter adaptation it's very very sub-par. I recommend watching it only if you haven't read the book for at least 10 months, otherwise the holes and omissions with drive you up the wall.