Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I was able to watch both of the final two Harry Potter films in close succession, and that made it clear to me - the finale of this series couldn't have been better. From the beginning to the end something happens, the viewer feels that something is going on, no scene is extra, no character is superfluous. I knew that I would be moved by certain moments, because I was already moved by them when I read the books. But I didn't really expect that it's going to be moving to the point (you know whose death I mean) that it's going to have the power of the best moments from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. My hat goes off to David Yates, in whom the series has found an excellent director, and I was happy to see every actor who even was glimpsed in any of the eight magical films. (09/11/2015)

Harry Potter is a monotonous and long-winded franchise that reached its premature peak in the third part, Cuaron’s The Prisoner Of Azkaban, which isn’t at all surprising. The first four books can be considered standalone stories, each with its own specific plot arc (the search for the philosophers’ stone, the legend of the chamber of secrets, the danger of a fugitive prisoner, the tournament of schools of wizardry), while the remaining three are a overly long storytelling mess about the “final confrontation of good versus evil”. Add to this the fact that the third part was the only one in charge of a director whose ambitions could be said were higher than only bringing to the screen an unoriginal adaptation of a book, and the shortcomings of the entire saga are clear. Evidently, this will be enough for some of the hardcore fans, nothing against that, but it’s funny to observe how some of them give priority to (and also reject) a different episode. This could be taken as proof of the diversity of the episodes, but to me it’s actually proof of the inconsistency of the saga as a whole – basically, it only depends on which film each fan prefers. But now briefly about Deathly Hallows: Part 2 itself (because it doesn’t warrant a long comment). I can take bland performances in summer blockbusters, I can take a concise and episodic script, but that the mood among the people of Hoghwarts after the longed for defeat of the Lord of Evil (which everyone had been waiting for X years) would be as if their team had ended third out of four in a big tournament, and that major characters would die out of frame as if by the way, without a hint of emotion... THAT’S QUITE SOMETHING! Yeah, and the epilogue is just as stupid as Rowling wrote it, so the film doesn’t deserve any bitching for that :-D (07/21/2011)

It's definitely almost a star better than the first part (but I'm still giving it the same rating since it just doesn't deserve 4 stars). Yes, we've got the conclusion of the grand Harry Potter saga, we get to see a lot of old friends flash by, except that... everyone's barking, nothing is done properly or realistically, and the music isn't that great either – kind of a mousy wallflower (here of all places, when it's supposed to be so epic!). For being 130 minutes long, the film went by very quickly for me – a plus. Unfortunately, a lot of scenes came across as kind of weird, hollow, there was bad continuity (for example the sequence of Hermione – snake – Ron, then in the next shot the snake – Hermione and Ron; I’m wondering how Hermione got past the snake...), even the scene that made me shed a tear, all of the action was so tastelessly interrupted that I couldn't even properly enjoy the feeling of grief, sorrow... what a pity. And then the fight with Voldy. I mean, it was ridiculous; even his death – are we back to the first one again? Despite my dissatisfaction with all the individual flaws, it was a decent film overall, but I wouldn't have had to go see it in theaters (which I did), the DVD would have been enough. For how I expected the film to be a climax, it didn’t quite land. A better 3 stars, just so I’m not being mean. Btw. I am a fan of the saga; I just don't want to watch something all blinded with sentiment. (09/09/2011)

A generic fantasy colouring book that benefits from the dark undertones of The Dark Knight and The Return of the King. The inspiration of those masterpieces is blatant in places and at times it seems that the viewer will finally find their own way in all that copy-pasted and uninventive darkness (where is the childlike playfulness and originality of the first and second films?), but the finale is a flabby, artless affair. I can understand that just as the Harry Potter books and films age and evolve, so do their audiences, but keeping they’ve been far from successful at quality bar at all frequencies. (08/15/2023)

The last Potter suffers from being split up. While part 1 of 2 (the intro) works even without a finale, part 2 of 2 (the finale) without an intro doesn’t taste so good anymore (when I watch both parts in a row, this problem will probably vanish). And there’s a lot to fit in, so most things are just said rather than shown, and so for instance Dumbledore’s villainy is cut down to just a couple of sentences. But this is just a problem with the screenplay and Kloves’ pruning that we are already used to from before. Otherwise, Yates handles Harry’s last adventure pretty decently, it’s just a little obvious that he doesn’t have time to focus on those deaths as much as he would like to and important characters fall like flies in battles that we never see. But it’s all about Harry, anyway. Primarily about Harry. That boy has trodden a damn long journey, and we have with him and fundamentally the finale isn’t a disappointment. Excellent actors, Alan Rickman was given some room at last, stealing the best scenes of the movie and even Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort duly enjoys himself (the same way I enjoyed Neville being teased - magic, this was always a missing in the Potter movies). I have to admit that the saga got me in the end. I used to think those books about a boy with glasses were ridiculous before someone persuaded me give the movie a try at the movie theater in Nový Jičín ten years ago. Today in the same theater, but ten years later, I told myself that I had done right to go watch the movie in the end. You've been raising him like a pig for slaughter! (07/19/2011)