Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Directed by David Yates
Produced by Warner Brothers
A battle-weary Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) takes up the centre of the poster hanging outside the theatre doors. His equally dishevelled friends, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) stand to either side. Hogwarts is in the background, its cobblestones crumbling. Beneath everything, the poster reads, “It all ends.”
The problem is, when the final instalment of a series is this good, you don’t want it to.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is a war movie. Half of the two hour and 10-minute film is taken up by the final battle, an epic clash between good and evil manifested by Harry and his arch-nemesis Lord Voldemort.
But Voldemort cannot simply be killed, his soul, split into seven pieces, must be destroyed. The task before Harry and his friends is so great the audience can feel its impossibility.
In one scene, Harry must find out where Voldemort is by connecting with his mind. Hunched over in a pile of rubble, covered in dirt and staring at the looks of desperation on his best friends’ faces, nothing is more evident than the size of the task at hand.
As in any war, there are deaths. Favourite characters get knocked down in the heat of the battle. At a midnight screening of the film, sniffling can be heard throughout the theatre as the end of the war, and the film, nears.
The film is a solid finish for director David Yates, who’s directed the last four films in the series. In Part 2, Yates takes a complex plot and charms it into an understandable flow of events, something Part 1 lacked. Yates takes the time to re-explain exactly how Voldemort’s soul must be destroyed and uses flashbacks to delve deeper into the histories of certain characters.
The screen writers are triumphant at mixing sadness with humour. Characters that stole hearts in that first movie 10 years ago are back, each with their own shining moment.
For Professor McGonagall (Dame Margaret Natalie Smith), it’s during the final battle when she commands a battalion of suits of armour. Uncharacteristically dropping her professional demeanour she says wittily, “I’ve always wanted to use that spell,” as she animates an army of stone warriors.
Matthew Lewis plays a much larger role in this film than its predecessors. In his portrayal of Neville Longbottom, the once shy Gryffindor, Lewis delivers a performance that is heroic, heart-warming and funny. At one point, he runs in terror from a herd of Death Eaters, at another, he challenges Lord Voldemort man-to-man.
And for the fans so loyal to the books, they can recite lines in their sleep, the script does not disappoint. Trademark quotes are not forgotten, least of all, Molly Weasley’s (Julie Walters) famous battle cry of “Not my daughter, you bitch!” shouted when her youngest child narrowly misses being hit by a deadly spell.
Of the eight part series, Part 2 is the only film released in 3D, and the enhancement is entirely worthwhile. As the film opens, an eerie dementor hovers above Hogwarts. As its black cloak whips in the wind, the demon genuinely looks as if it is floating past you.
Rounding out a series of seven books and eight movies, the only thing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is missing is a sequel.