A tangled mess that only confused

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2011)

This is it: the end of a saga, a massive undertaking that has resulted in so much screen-time, some new stars, Harry Potter becoming a household name, and a disgusting amount of money. Part 1 was barely watchable. Part 2 supposedly had more fighting and action, but I am always skeptical.
I had honestly forgotten how the last movie ended. Hint: somebody/thing died. And it's not the last time in the two-parter. While deaths seemed shocking early on in the series of movies, the body count piled up pretty fast as the movie seemed to have no regard for the characters you loved and adored. I'll tell you right now, I didn't like the movie. One of the main reasons was the offhanded manner in which deaths occurred, often as a side note or in the background. If you spend 7 (and a half?) movies molding characters in to either well loved or completely hated, you can give them 2 minutes on-screen to have a proper exit.
The poor pacing that plagued Deathly Hallows, Part 1 continued in Part 2 with mix of frantic scenes that seemed to be trying to keep the runtime down followed by moments that dragged on for eternity. What ever happened to building towards a climax? They do a superb job of setting up tension with the attack on Hogwarts by a huge army, but keep interrupting the action with flashbacks and other, less exciting locations. While those were pivotal to telling a complete story, their placement completely derailed any excitement and flow.
Some high points of the film do include the battle scenes – magic hasn't looked this good since The Covenant! Those battles only accentuated the slow parts and made me wonder why there weren't more scenes like that in the previous 18 hours of movie. Also very good was a lot of the acting from Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, as well as a lot of the more seasoned cast members. Or maybe they just seemed amazing in comparison to Rupert Grint, who has at this point become even more of a bumbling clown that he's lost all dimensions from earlier films.
Overall, the charming, interesting plot lines that started in the first few films has become a tangled mess that only confused me and left me with more questions than the flashbacks and long conversations could explain. I'll completely agree with Queer: this was a pure greed move on the part of the studios. Part 2 could have easily been pared down and shown with a cleaned up Part 1 and not insulted audiences with promises of a better ending this way. At least it's all over, until Rowling decides to write the next big children's hit series that will be successful regardless of its quality.