Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Alright everyone, the wait is finally over. It’s time to look at the epic conclusion to one of the best franchises out there, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” which came out in 2011, eight months after the first part. After making seven films of the entire series, this film really gives a satisfying conclusion to the series. This finale makes you sit on the edge of the seat, making it the polar opposite of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” from a decade prior to this one.

We see our three heroes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, grown up into mature adults and fighting the forces of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. With all this build-up to the epic finale that came from the previous seven movies, or in the novels, six books, it was a fight that you wanted. There were a bunch of things that they had not included in the movie, but it’s an adaptation. You will never expect them to make it follow the book completely. If they did, it will turn out to be exactly like the adaptation of Hamlet, where everything was put into the movie, and it lasted about almost five hours.

You will be happy to see such familiar faces that you had missed from the last movie. Because in this one, Harry, Ron, and Hermione find another way of getting into Hogwarts, I think thanks to their old friend, Neville, and we see our favorite batch of supporting characters again. Of course, like I had mentioned many times before, with very well-known British actors portraying these characters, you would be dying to see them again. These include: Bellatrix Lestrange, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Ollivander, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Sirius Black, Lupin, and even McGonagall, who uses a spell that she always wanted to shield Hogwarts with.

For a film that gets this dark and becomes a war film, there are a few lighthearted funny moments that make this film enjoyable. One is when David Bradley’s character, Argus Filch (who I have to say is one filthy, evil looking guy), runs in to tell McGonagall, “The students are all out of bed!” and McGonagall replies, “They are supposed to be out of bed you blubbering idiot!” Best McGonagall line, hands down. Another is when she uses the shield spell, she says, “I always wanted to use that.” When the shield is up, Neville is looking down at the Death Eaters, and when they can’t get in, Neville lets out a yelp and says, “You and what army!?” Count on Neville to say things like that. Of course we can't forget the ever classic Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lastrange fight, with Molly defending Ginny and says a line that made the entire theater go nuts when she said it. Check it out right here.

I cannot tell you what happens to Hogwarts in this movie because you just don’t want to know. Many places in there that were once very lighthearted are now in ruins and ashes, making it very apocalyptic. Also, you’ll notice that the location has been changed from where it previously was, making it nowhere in Britain to fit in this geography. Then again, Hogwarts isn’t really in Britain now, is it? It does occupy the imagination of what we would like to see of Britain. Even though the films changed up maybe a lot of things from the books, they still stay true to the original source material. We have to thank Rowling for making such an imaginative world that the sky would be the limit to make the films however the directors thought of it. Like all finales, every loose end was tied up, everything was explained and you leave the theater satisfied.

Now our three main stars are in their early 20s, and they started maybe around the age of 10 or 11, we can say that we have never seen a group of children stick with a film series as long as they did on this series. Normally they would change the main stars, but these kids have stuck with the series from first film to last.

With that said, you can also say that these three also had some really good help with such an amazing supporting cast like the ones in this series. However, Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson play the roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermione like they were in the books. They go around, sneak into places, find information on the task at hand, eavesdrop, get lectured to, and we even saw them go through puberty, which is much like seeing their Middle School Yearbook on screen. We saw Harry struggle with getting his spells mastered, but he did get them down. Other actors, like Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes steal their scenes by just standing there. What are the odds of a young wizard like Harry going up against a very dangerous evil wizard like Voldemort? Watch the movie and you’ll find out.

It is Fiennes who dominates the film as Voldemort, showing everyone how awesome of a villain he can play. We have seen him portray the villain in a number of films, but this one is going to be his most memorable. This villain must have a lot of guts in order to hold his own in Hogwarts’s ruins, and force whoever is there to choose between Harry and joining Voldemort in becoming a Death Eater. Look at what happened to Hogwarts in the films. I’m surprised the students just kept coming back to this place and they never sent them home. Then again, Dumbledore had other things that he was worried about.

The film is very well staged, the dialogue is fluent and you never feel that it is rushed, there are surprises that you will see, and “Harry Potter” has an ending that makes it a candidate as the most profitable series in movie history. These films will be around forever. Like I said, I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you see the ending, you would think there will be another film. I have been hearing a rumor about it, but I don’t think there will be one. There isn’t a need for it.

Just to let you know, this film is the darkest, most gloomy, and is covered in shadows. It should be since this is the conclusion and the finale is normally really dark. It really fits Halloween since it gets really, really dark.

Thanks for joining in on my “Harry Potter-a-thon.” Stay tuned for the rest of “Halloween Month,” where I will talk about more films that you should see around this time.