Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 Review

A decade after the boy who lived first hit the silver screen, Harry Potter is finally all grown up, along with a legion of fans who have left their childhood behind with the highly lucrative series.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 picks up where the first film left off, with Harry, Ron and Hermione tracking down and destroying the final Horcruxes – hidden items containing pieces of Lord Voldemort’s soul – to destroy the Dark Lord once and for all after his rise to power.

Part 2 hits the ground running, and is more action packed than its predecessor or any of the previous films. Part 1 was forced to slow down proceedings in an attempt to explain the ever confusing narrative. Part 2 capitalises on the groundwork and engages the audience with a genuine dramatic action film that culminates with a spectacular, destructive, battle in the once majestic grounds of Hogwarts.

Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is essentially a war movie, detailing the long siege of Hogwarts. Despite being split over two films, screenwriter Steve Kloves, who has penned every film except The Order of the Phoenix, and fourth time director David Yates were forced to leave out side-tracking and flashbacks that fans will argue were crucial to the story.

The deaths of some key characters were glossed over, but most of these were more important to the books than the movies. Nevertheless, fans of the series overall might feel short-changed, and fail to realise that the films and books have always placed importance on different side attractions (and characters).

However, they’ve done a great job in selecting the essentials to allow the film to focus on the concluding battle between Harry and the snake-faced Voldy. It’s a battle so epic that it might even be comparable to the grand scale of Peter Jackson’s imagining of The Lord of the Rings.

Rupert Grint and Emma Watson continue to grow and are leaps and bounds improved from their youthful origins. Daniel Radcliffe is always going to be cited as the weak link, but like it or not, he is Harry Potter, and for mine has continued to improve with each instalment. However, with less of the veteran talent around him, some of his shortcomings are more apparent.

Once again, it’s Alan Rickman who steals the show with his final portrayal of the enigmatic Severus Snape. After closely guarding the secret for several years, Rickman was told of Snape’s true intentions long before J.K. Rowling wrote the book, he is finally able to reveal all to Harry on-screen in one of the film’s defining moments.

While there are a few references to Part 1 and the underlying series, Part 2 assumes you’re well versed in the Harry Potter universe. You’re well advised to re-watched the first instalment of The Deathly Hallows, and perhaps even the entire series from its bubbly origins, before attempting to contemplate the final chapter. Then again, it would take some kind of blithering idiot to skip straight to the eight film in the series that was a prerequisite if you were a child (or parent) of the 2000s.

As with the novels, the films have grown in stature with each instalment to culminate on a grand scale. It may have begun as an innocent kids’ film, in the charming landscape of Hogwarts where the biggest problem was winning a match Quidditch, but concludes as an emotional journey for the young adults that grew up with the series.

On that note it does what it sets out to achieve. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 allows us a brilliant opportunity to say goodbye to the series and characters we’ve grown up with.

By Ben Salter

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