About 12 years ago, my Dad dragged me into a bookstore, demanding I pick out half a dozen books. That was how he tried to get me into reading (to be honest, it didn’t really work out as well as he’d hoped). One of the books I reluctantly picked out was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which in my opinion was a great book for a 9-year old considering I had recently graduated from Enid Blyton. I read it. Loved it. And got hooked to the entire series. Now more than a decade later, it all ends.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is everything I expected it to be - exciting, action-packed, emotional, heart wrenching and most of all an epic and satisfying finale to an amazing series. There are plenty of good things about the movie. More than ever, the color and lighting suits the tone of the movie. It’s like the entire film has the Walden filter (if you’re on Instagram, you’ll know what I’m talking about) layered over it. Effectively, it makes the movie more heart wrenching than it already is. On top of this there are some absolutely gorgeous visuals. I was really struck by the pure beauty of this film. It’s probably the best shot of all the Potter films, and I love gorgeous-looking movies.
Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) probably gets more screen time in this movie than in any of the previous four, which brought me around to realizing that he does a fantastic job. Everything is convincing. His pain, his anger but most of all, his terrifying whispers. While on the point of acting, Radcliffe, Watson and Grint have come a long way and finally give barely decent performances.
My favorite part of the movie was Snape’s story. It’s brief, concise and gets the point across but most importantly, it instantly built a sense ofaffection and close emotional connection for me. With that, it brings me to the content of the movie and my issues with how they were separated, making up part 1 and part 2. David Yates had two options - either film a long ass movie no. 7 or, split the last book up into two movies. Obviously, he went with option no. 2, which I believe to have been a wise decision. My problem is that there is too much content in the book to have been fit into one movie but on the other hand there is too little content to have made two outstanding movies. So this is a problem for me that can’t really be solved. Big props to Yates for making the best of it though.
Having cut the first movie off at a great point, part 2 essentially comprises scenes set in only three locations and only one day passes in the movie. Although massively eventful, the movie feels stretched, dragging the content out to fill up the allotted 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Having said that, I think this is a good movie on its own and if you’ve followed this from the start I believe you will be quite satisfied. I know I was. And to everyone who has grown up with Harry Potter, as I have, say goodbye but only for now. This is our generation’s Star Wars and we will introduce our kids to this. And when we do, we’ll experience, all over again, the magical escapism it’s brought us.
