It's quite impressive, isn't it?
Harry Potter fans everywhere are rejoicing; they must be, for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has given them the film they - no, we - have been waiting for. It's a fitting send off for the cinematic franchise of our time, an epic, pulsating, emotionally-wrought finale that just about gets everything right. The Potter franchise might be critic-proof, and the films before this (with the exception, perhaps, of the Prisoner of Azakaban) have all failed to live up to the enormous hype generated by the popularity of the books, but this film doesn't disappoint, and surpasses all expectations to create the deserving farewell we craved for.
Right from the start, director David Yates gets it right. The score is grinding and spare, the atmosphere dripping with bleakness and dark seriousness. The cinematography is absolutely brilliant, from the panoramic shots of a Hogwarts, to the shot of Snape (Alan Rickman) framed manacingly against a gloomy, dark hallway, to Harry himself kneeling at Dobby's grave. It's adult and mature and hints at the madness and terror that is to follow.
Harry, Ron and Hermione are no longer children but adults, and their conversations with Griphook (the sly, double-dealing goblin) and Ollivander (a magnificent John Hurt) are snappy and taut with tension as they negotiate, cajole and probe for details. Yates doesn't make the same mistake of the first film by dwelling and accentuating the pauses. He immediately fires the film forward into a breathtaking sequence, where the trio (aided by Griphook) break into Gringotts bank to try and steal a Horcrux (a very underwhelming and puny looking Hufflepuff's cup) from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. Helena Bonham Carter has a ball of a time here, playing Hermione impersonating Bellatrix with great gusto, all doe-eyed and sweet-voiced innocence, complete with tottering in high heels and girlish disdain at the hobo get-up. The perils of Gringotts to thieves is wonderfully brought to life here, the grimy walls and dim lighting lending an air of foreboding to the place. But it is the dragon guarding the vault that is the centerpiece here, and it quite honestly is one of the most brilliant works of CGI I have ever seen. There is nothing cartoony or unrealistic about the way the dragon bursts out of Gringotts onto the roofs of London. The beast has real depth and weight to it. Reign of Fire had, I thought, incredible dragon effects. This one makes them look like toys. I digress, but you get the picture.
Again, the film zips forward and before you know it, we're back at Hogwarts, which resembles a meagre refugee camp now under the rule of the new headmaster, the (seemingly) evil Severus Snape. Now, Alan Rickman is absolutely immense in this film. Every syllable, each dragged out in deliberate enunciation, oozes menace and danger. And yet, his is a character of complicated duality, and Rickman does an outstanding job of portraying that, delivering a layered, nuanced and balanced performance that deserves some kind of award. Best anti-hero, maybe? Anyway, from then on the film turns into an all-out action movie, with wand dual after wand dual and scenes of destruction reminiscent of World War II.
This is where Yates doesn't disappoint like before. Previous movies had precious little wand action, when the books were essentially about good facing off against evil using magic. But this outing doesn't fall flat. The hexes fly. Green light bounces everywhere. There's wild slashing and furious waving of wands. Rubble collapses. A death eater is sent spiralling out of the air into a pillar by Harry's curse. It is breathtaking and intense and pulsating and just when you think the film would slow down, it speeds right up again. In the book, the middle of the battle gets bogged down by Rowling's narrative, which goes slight off-tangent as Harry searches for the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. But here, the urgency is almost pulpable as Harry desperately tries to convince Helena Ravenclaw (the ghost of Ravenclaw) to lead him to the diadem while Ron and Hermione race to destroy the cup with the fang of a Basilisk in the chamber of secrets, all in a race against time as the Death Eaters lay siege on the magical forcefield erected by the teachers to defend Hogwarts. It's nail-biting stuff, and Alexander Desplat's brilliant score keeps things pumping and moving along at breakneck speed as Harry fights his way through the chaos. And eventually, when Harry accepts his fate and confronts his doom with heroic nobility, you almost feel like you're losing a close friend you have come to know and love. That one scene in the forest with the Resurrection Stone, where his parents, Sirius and Lupin appear before him, had me tearing up. And finally it's right back to Hogwarts, unrecognisable in its deriliction and misery, where Harry faces of with Voldemort in their fateful dance of death. This battle is dragged out and brought to screen in a sequence that the book failed to conjure. For lack of a better word, the battle between the two of them is incredibly cool. Harry deflects and counters, Voldemort blocks and fires back. He punches and kicks Harry, this use of physical force a nice touch as a manifestation of the Dark Lord's vicious hate for the Boy That Lived. And when Harry finally vanquishes Lord Voldemort, the tackiness and terribly lame ending of Rowling's book is completely absent here. There's no shouting of "Expelliarmus" against "Avada Kedava"; I always found that scene especially stupid and unrealistic. I mean, didn't Rowling ever consider how incongruous it sounded, Harry using a disarming spell against the frightful Killing curse and still coming out on top? No such proposterousness here. It's a dazzlying confrontation as green bolt meets a jet of red, Harry's and Voldemort's faces contorted with strain and effort, and when Voldemort is eventually engulfed in his own curse, you feel like, well, at least it looked like Harry really had to try his utmost and Voldemort really went for it. Like the rest of the film, it's grounded in gritty realism, and that is what ultimately defines this as the Potter film that was - at long, bloody last - a summer ACTION blockbuster.
Credit must be given to the terrific ensemble cast. Rickman is of course the stand-out, his scenery-chewing role one of real emotional gravitas and riveting dichotemy. His recollections of Lily Potter had a real, devastating sense of unrealized love and tragic lost, forming the core of the story ark and leaving you rooting for him, right till his brutal, bloody (quite frankly, I can't believe that scene can even be considered PG13) end. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore is another scene stealer. I remember the furore over his casting as a replacement for the late Richard Harris, but he is magnetic, imperious and wise as the dead-but-not-quite-gone headmaster. Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall also deserves special mention. All determined wrinkles and steely resolve, she does a wonderful job portraying the defiance, bravery and loyalty of Hogwarts' principle defender and guardian. Geraldine Sommerwille (I IMDB-ed this) as Harry's mother, Lily Potter, is also deserving of special mention. She does a fine job delivering a performance filled with quiet warmth and noble love that lends credibility and believability to Rowling's assertion of the strength of a mother's love. Her scenes with Daniel Radcliffe carried the real sense of a mother-son bond.
Not forgetting, of course, Daniel Radcliffe. I know my friends all hate his performances. I myself found his early portrayals of Harry as alarmingly one-dimensional and wooden, but that early naivety has given way progressively and he has finally found a meaty emotional role to sink his teeth into. He finally, in my opinion, becomes a star in this installment, where he carries the film with a performance full of maturity, conviction and gravity. You feel for him instensely as he realizes his fate and then manfully confronts it. Brilliant, brilliant job.
This movie does have its flaws. At times the transitions between scenes seems quite abrupt. Yates also diegns to leave out the technicalities of why Voldemort's wand couldn't defeat Harry's, or why Harry could seemingly return to life. But apart from that, this is a real work of art, the shining piece out of the 8.
We have waited a long time for this. But finally, the franchise has delivered - on its final film - a thrilling, magical, electrifying cinematic experience that's heavy with emotional heft and packed with action scenes with eye-popping ( I mean really, WOW) CGI. So it's with a overwhelming sense of satisfaction and a slightly heavy heart that I bid the Harry Potter movie franchise a fond farwell. So long Harry, it's been one hell of a ride.