Prestige Potter

As the movie poster states - it ends here. After 10 years of enchanting audiences with their magic, Daniel Radcliff and co. say goodbye with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. The film offers up fans a satisfying conclusion to this decade long ride, though like most of the adaptations this one also does not quite hit perfection.

When we left things off, things looked bleak for The Boy Who Lived and his Hogwarts pals. They were losing friends left and right while Voldemort was continuing to grow stronger. This film picks up with Harry, Ron and and Hermione on the search for horcruxes (random objects which contain a piece of Voldemort's soul), while the rest of the school tries to stave off an attack from an army of Death Eaters. Unlike Part 1, this film is mostly all action leaving you little time to catch your breath as you go along for the ride.

There are a lot of terrific scenes here, particularly the action sequences where everyone has wands a-firing. An early scene involving dragons and a bank heist is also top notch. What I appreciate the most about this film, even more than many of the recent films, is the way they were able to bring this expansive cast together and give them each their moment. I suppose that is more of a credit to author J.K. Rowling who had enough foresight to work all of these characters into the end game, but to also give all of the key characters who we have loved throughout the series their moment of triumph. While characters will often frame it as such, this is not just about Harry. This is a group effort to defeat evil and I enjoyed watching each of them find a way to utilize their talents to help the cause.

Since this is the end, it's important I point out one of the series' lesser-praised stars. Once again Alan Rickman shines as Professor Severus Snape. While he's been a delight to watch in each of these films in the various ways he's found to torment Harry and his friends, here he gets his moment of redemption through a series of flashbacks chronicling his life and his actions behind the scenes. Rickman is terrific in these scenes and it goes a long way to explaining the internal struggle Snape had to deal with throughout this whole ordeal. By noting his work, this is not meant to take away from the efforts of everyone else in his cast, but I truly feel that in a different actor's hands the complexities of the Snape character that are so well developed in the books would not have come across on the screen.

As I noted above, for as much of a enjoyable success as this film is, it does not quite hit every note exactly right. In the past, my minor quibbles have mostly surrounding the omissions or changes that the writer/director made in relation to the book. This time, I really didn't see any glaring changes that upset me. Instead, my minor complaints are associated with the emotional impact with some scenes. Reading the book, Rowling did such an amazing job of evoking pathos, sometimes with just a few words. In recalling those scenes, I anticipated having those emotions heightened as I saw them visually represented on the screen. Unfortunately, that didn't always happen. Without spoiling the actual events, I'll just say that some scenes that I expected to be quick and impactful were drug out to far and ones that I felt needed more time were rushed. I was disappointed, but that is the burden of the book reader who chooses to also see the film.

One important aside that I want to mention - this is the first of the Potter films to be done in 3D. I saw it in 2D and enjoyed it just the same. It certainly was clear though which scenes were intended for 3D though. Whether or not that extra dimension is worth it will likely depend on your general views of the technology. It seems like the filmmakers did enough to justify the conversion, but if you typically don't see films in 3D, I don't see any reason why you would change here.

Overall, no matter how large of a Potter fan you are, you'll likely be satisfied by the concluding tale. It provides a stark contrast to the overly talky Part 1 and wraps up all of the loose ends (there's even an epilogue which shows what happens to certain characters several year later - a fact you already know if you read the book). This film has already made a bajillion dollars, so it doesn't need my stamp of approval, but I shall praise it nonethess. Most film franchises peter out by the third or fourth movie, so credit to everyone involved for keeping the quality of the films consistent throughout. Simply put, their success was movie magic. Grade: A-