It’s finally over and so for the second time in four years, fans are mourning the end of the Harry Potter series. The final film instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has been released worldwide and already box office revenue records are being broken left, right and centre, that of course was inevitable. But does the film live up to its hype and expectations and is it an adequate goodbye for a franchise that has spanned the last 14 years?
For those of you that have been living in a cave (or prefer to go out and socialise) the final film instalment picks up where the last left off. Harry, Ron and Hermione are in search of the final horcruxes, in order to destroy them and therefore the split parts of Voldemort’s soul. This mammoth task ends in a massive battle on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle, where Harry and Voldemort must battle each other for the final time.
If you are a fan of the Harry Potter films this is an epic, action-packed and nail biting finale to the films, that perfectly ties up all the loose ends that the other seven movies have built up to. The action sequences are strung together so fluently that there is never a moment that the film feels as though it is dragging and the 2 hours 10 minutes running time feels like half an hour. The film continues in the same vein as the previous part in terms of emotional depth; there are some incredibly sad themes throughout the story as well as many frightening and truly funny moments that fans of the films have come to expect.
However, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter books and have followed Harry since before the films began to spoil the books, you may come out of your cinema feeling a little short changed. Once again the film has managed to cut out key plot points and trivialised other moments in the story that made the final book such a momentous journey. Without giving any spoilers away two of the key characters deaths are given such little attention that you wouldn’t blame some for forgetting they even happened after the film has finished. Snape’s final scene is short and his back story is glanced over so briefly that to those that aren’t familiar with the original story, it becomes vague and confusing. Worse of all is the way in which the final fight between Harry and Voldemort is portrayed in a way that looks so over-Americanised that the reasons behind the action seem unimportant.
Director, David Yates has managed to capture the tempo and urgency of the protagonists’ quest brilliantly. The constant change in scenery and landscape really gives a feel of longevity to their journey that is sadly somewhat lost in terms of scene content. The usual suspects played their roles well; Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith gave their usual stand-out performances. The film was never going to receive a low rating from me or any other critic at that, but it does need to be said that behind the emotional end and behind the massive film franchise is a story that has been chopped and altered to the point that die-hard fans may get in a Huff-lepuff (how embarrassing).
7/10
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