Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.
Yes, the last in the series is the best in the series. It’s full of all of the things that make a great movie great. Action, suspense, intrigue, drama, treachery, top-notch visual effects, just the right amount of very well done CGI, great sound effects and really well built sets and props.
There’s also explosions (lots and lots of explosions), gun fights (ok, wand fights count…My review, my rules.) and Kung Fu (wizards do Kung Fu with wands…again, my review, my rules).
The last of the Harry Potter movies isn’t just great because it’s full of action and all of the breaking loose of hell we’ve been waiting to see for a long time, it’s also great because it takes us to the finale of this incredible arc in a very convincing, very flowing, very FINAL manner. We, at last, get to see the grand conclusion to this decade long struggle between the powers of good and evil; Not just good and evil, though. Ultimate good and ultimate evil. The only series of books or movies I can think of which so deftly displays the breadth of light and darkness as does Harry Potter is the Star Wars series which started out really well but, as we all know, fell flat on its face with the last/first 3 movies.
Here, we’re talking about the same kind of distinction – of utter discongruity – but told in a way which has so much more depth and scope that the comparison is truly unfair.
We learn a lot in this final movie. There are flashes of story which were never told. I would call them flashbacks but that’s not entirely accurate, in some cases…Let’s just call them flashes and be done with it. Truths are revealed, holes are filled in and all the previously told parts of the story become one in such an artistic and fanciful way that it makes me truly sorry it has come to its end…or has it?
J.K. Rowling is a genius.
I’m not going to tell you anything at all about the story itself. Nothing of the plot, nothing of the locations, nothing of the characters. Nothing of the beginning, nor the middle, nor the end. All I’m going to tell you is that if you’ve watched the other Harry Potter movies, you must watch this one. It absolutely makes the series.
And here’s where I come to the hard part. How do I rate this film? As I watched it, I tried very hard to remain objective and rate it on its own merits as opposed to rating it as a part of the whole. Even as I write this, I’m finding that a very difficult task. I’m having a hard time seeing this as a discrete product rather than the culmination, indeed the finished product of a process. It’s as if the other movies were the doors and seats and windows and motor and this one is the car…it’s very hard to maintain perspective so I have come to the conclusion that I can only do this one way.
I have to rate the discrete movie AND the sum of the parts. In doing so, here is my final say.
To Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, I give a 9.
To the series, as a whole, I give a glowing and unreserved 10…It’s perfect. Made so by this film.
Bravo!
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