Thanks for checking out our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Review
You can check out my review for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 HERE
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Directed by: David Yates
Staring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint
Released: July 15th, 2011
THE GENERAL IDEA
Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction — the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart. Meanwhile, the wizarding world has become a dangerous place for all enemies of the Dark Lord. The long-feared war has begun and Voldemort’s Death Eaters seize control of the Ministry of Magic and even Hogwarts, terrorizing and arresting anyone who might oppose them. But the one prize they still seek is the one most valuable to Voldemort: Harry Potter, who has quit school and set out on his own mission to find the magical horcruxes that are the key to destroying Voldemort.
THE GOOD
Appropriately continuing right where the first part left off this feels first and foremost like its still the same film – which of course it is. The dark tone and seriousness of the first is stepped up once more leading to an epic battle.
The film manages to fill in all the second half of the book, hunting the final three horcruxes, paying tribute to the franchise, deeply and emotionally impacting its legacy and still has a TON of action, lighthearted laughs, and some kickass justice.
The action is the part I enjoyed most about this. After seeing Harry go to school repeatedly attending Defense Against the Dark Arts, we finally get to see some REAL throwdown battles. Wand duels, animating statues that go toe to toe with some giants, and outright magical mayhem. Very satisfying to see this large scale battle happen right on the Hogwarts grounds tearing it up. Lots of fun there.
Even moments where things have to be spelled out for you are done well. The whole deal with Wizards earning the respect and full command of a wand by winning a duel is laid out plainly, but its done well enough that you don’t feel like they are stopping the film to spell it out for the dummies. The film leaves no loose ends even bringing back some familiar faces.
The purists are going to hate the inconsistencies with the book, but honestly this does such a good job getting to the end without playing it out page by page that I can accept that. They deviated in presentation in Half Blood Prince and it suffered for it, but in this it still works just fine.
But the part I liked about this is the emotional impact. I mentioned this in my previous review for Part 1, but this one has it in spades. From tender little moments when Harry returns to Hogwarts and Professor Minerva McGonagall looks at Harry and says “It is good to see you again Harry” to feeling disappointment seeing familiar faces die in the battle. I was most impressed with how they handled the Malfoys. This has you cheering for the awesome moments but ACTUALLY sad for the sad moments. Not only is this well delivered, but it stands as a testimony as to how emotionally invested in the franchise you can become.
THE BAD
I honestly enjoyed almost every last moment of this film. But I think that the movie is only as great and epic as it has been because of its legacy. The emotional impact and depth of story are only there because of the other films. If you knew nothing about Potter, and went to this movie so much would be lost on you. However it was not meant to stand alone.
And I didn’t really like that in the scenes where Dumbledore reveals that he groomed Harry to die. It kind of makes him look like a dick while we were always lead to believe that he truly cared for Harry. In the books they made it clear that Dumbledore had hoped Harry could avoid his destiny and prepared him along the way. Here they disservice the character and it takes away from everything in the previous films. Easily overlooked if it bothers you.
And the “19 years later” scene at the end of the movie was a little weak. It didn’t have the same impact I thought it would. Making Harry look 40 just didn’t work. All the adult versions of the characters we see on the platform just look like kids playing dressup. I wasn’t charmed by that at all.
OVERALL
An effective and truly epic finish to one of the most successful film franchises in history of film. I usually get distracted by emotional outbursts in the theater but this one deserved it.
I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 a 9 out of 10
An enjoyable and purely entertaining movie.Very touching!
Harry Potter made me cry. I was born the year the first book came out. I was excited to see the movie come out finally but was very sad that it’s all finally over. Harry Potter has been there almost my entire life. The first part was very disappointing because I was expecting more excitement but the sencond part made up for it. I will miss Harry Potter very much.
Out of the thousand things they did right, everyone keeps pointing out the 2 things they did wrong. Great movie. Can’t wait for DvD release!
All I have to say is: GREAT! movie…. very touching, different then the rest of the movies. It’s more grown up, the effects are great! the storywriting is also very good, i actually believed Harry died, almost cired and everything…. yes, a marvelous movie.
this was the worst of them all!
seeing a bunch of silly fireworks isnt epic.. its the 4th of july
and all the offscreen character deaths obviously sucked… but not as much as the actual deaths you wet to see were dying=disintegrating
Yea, I agree with Travis, and also the fact that Harry didn’t use the elder wand to fix his own really bothers me. In the book it was a really big deal to him that his wand was broken, it really would have taken the same amount of time in the movie to follow the book.
I really enjoyed the movie, but as for the ending (the final battle) I was disappointed. For those who read the books know the amount that was left out or changed from books to movies. In the deathly hollows book the final battle that J.K Rowling wrote about was not the one I saw. To me the final moments were in front of everyone with Harry calling Voldemort, Tom Riddle and pointing out all the things he missed or overlooked. Like how Harry’s sacrifice protected everyone and how Snape was never Voldemort’s man as he thought. If the movie was five minutes longer to have that ending I would’ve been pleased.
It’s been a while since I read the books so I can’t remember all the details too well (which is probably a good thing where unhindered enjoyment of the adaptation is concerned) but I do agree about they way they portrayed Dumbledore’s setting up of Harry and the weak ending. It doesn’t bother me too much about Dumbledore looking like he didn’t care about harry because I know it wasn’t as bad as it seemed in the movie, but it does seem a shame as for me it was one of the best bits of the book(s). I’d imagine for anyone who hadn’t read the books he’d appear to be a bit of a jerk.
And as for the ending “All the adult versions of the characters we see on the platform just look like kids playing dressup” pretty much sums it up, it made me snicker a bit because it looked so corny.
On the whole though the film was awesome and had me gripped all the way through, definitely a great way to end the series. Would have been even better if it ended five minutes sooner.
Exactly what I wanted to say, but said much better here.
I really enjoyed the movie and series for these past years. I have seen all the movies as well as read the books. The books were one thing and the movie is on it own, but Yates did a great job for bringing the books alive. The only thing I really was angry about IF you read the books is that Wormtail AKA Ron’s rat, was supposed to choke himself with the silver hand that Voldermort gave him for failing to keep Harry and Co. captive. In the movies Wormtail just got jinxed with Dobby’s spell and said “That hurt” and fell to the floor. Who knows if Wormtail died! For all of you that do not know, Wormtail betrayed Harry’s parents by setting them up to have them killed by Voldermort and later bringing Voldy back from the dead in Goblet of Fire. So is Wormtail Dead? Is the question.
Everything about this movie was absolutely perfect — until the last 20 minutes or so.
Agreed: I don’t think they gave Dumbledore the proper ‘respect’ by making it clear that while he prepped Harry to be a sacrifice, it was never his true desire.
But the biggest let-down of this film was the final scene. The Epilogue, as it was in the book, was sort of everyone’s reward for traveling along with Harry for seven years. We got to see that he truly lived happily ever after. We got to hear a little about their lives, were happy to hear Neville was doing well. We saw Reumus and Tonks’ son doing well (thanks to Harry’s guardianship)
We even got that moment of grudging respect from Malfoy with his curt nod in Harry’s direction.
But the final scene not only didn’t give us any of that, but it felt rushed — artificial. Really, they split the book into two films — would it have been so awful to add another five minutes to the length and treat the ending the way it deserved to be?
I literally went from loving this film, being choked up with emotion to sitting there as the credits rolling saying, “Huh. Um, Ok…well that’s it then.”
Awesome movie, I was shocked at how emotional i got haven’t not read any of the books (the movies tied together extremely well). I hope apon hopes that my kids attach on to these like they have star wars because seeing the glint in their eyes that I did watching iconic franchizes like this keep memories alive. Great job team Potter you successfully touched multiple generations.
ignore my double negative (typing too fast)
I thought they cleared up the part about Dumbledore “grooming Harry to die,” as you put it, when Harry and Dumbledore had that little pow-wow in Harry’s subconscious. I may just be remembering things that weren’t there, but I thought Dumbledore told Harry that he had to die so the piece of Voldemort’s soul inside him could, but Harry still had work to finish. I believe Dumbledore told Harry that he could choose to die or he could “catch a train” and go back to the battle at Hogwarts.