So here it is, the final chapter. Ten years in the making, millions of dollars spent, billions of dollars reaped. The most successful film franchise in the history of cinema, a decade-long gravy train that comes chugging up to Platform 9¾ for the last time. It’s all led up to this, this moment, this ending. A battle between the forces of good and evil, a choice between what is easy and what is necessary. There will be tears and deaths, breath-taking battles and the resolution to some long awaited romances, one you didn’t know was coming. There’s even a bad word. Harry Potter, a superstar in his world and in ours. The boy who lived. Can he possibly defeat Lord Voldemort, a wizard so infatuated by cheating death that he’s split his very soul apart? Or will the answer to this Riddle prove impossible to overcome?
Come on, it’s not 2007. You know exactly how it ends.
Indeed, that’s been the problem that’s plagued Mr. Potter all along, just how could the boy who lived live up to expectations of millions of fans who know him inside and out? For the most part, he hasn’t, with the opening movies bogged down by a constant need to razzle-dazzle audiences with quaint magical puns and protracted origin stories for every piece of bedazzled brickabrack found on Diagon Alley. This Bertie Bott colourfulness required a complete tonal shift round about number three, where they turned down the saturation and learnt that the series would need to get some edge before it could pack a critical punch. Their solution, make each subsequent movie darker, both thematically and literally, than the one that came before. And again, mixed results.
It wasn’t until British director David Yates came aboard on Order of the Phoenix that Harry, Hermione and Ron really rose from the ashes of the early years to escape the confines of Rowling’s prose. Yates adapted, more than adopted, the source material, and the choice to keep him at the helm has resulted in a continuity of style that has elevated the series into visually splendid films that do not fail to entertain. For the most part, Yates’ Harries have been exciting and dependable to deliver a big scale summer blockbuster. But they have never been brilliant.
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| She was still searching for a magical solution to bingo wings |
And the same can be said of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. As films go, it’s okay, an action packed romp with visual effects that push the boat out. But it’s flawed. Too many of them to forgive.
Picking up immediately where Part I ended, we find Harry hiding out in the beach house with Ron and Hermione, trying to figure out their next move in destroying Voldemort’s horcruxes, magical vessels containing fragments of Voldemort’s soul. One big set piece later, and we’re back in Hogwarts, with the final battle between the staff, students and a handful of friends versus Voldemort’s motley crew of people who haven’t washed their hair, while Harry continues his frantic search. Old enemies reconcile, old friends lose their lives, and it all comes down to one boy and one man.
The problems come thick and fast, right from the get go. The plotting feels rushed, a serious problem for anybody unfamiliar with the material, who’ll be so slow on the uptake that they’d earn a place in Hufflepuff. While many felt Part I suffered from long bouts of moany camping and not enough action, Part II is the exact opposite, with near endless bouts of wizardly duels killing off characters you know and love left, right and centre, while Harry runs endlessly around the castle. The problem is that the camera follows him, giving him unnecessary screen time, so when those losses come, major players in Harry’s de facto family, it’s only an afterthought, panning over their cursed corpses. The impact of their murder is lost in a frantic editing of flashing whizzes of lights and sounds, and in many ways it’s a betrayal of the amity we have for them. The ones who survive get a few brief seconds on screen to remind us they’re still breathing.
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| Try as he might, he just couldn't remember where he'd left the other chopstick |
The core acting still is not good enough, with Rupert Grint easily the most consistent of the three stars throughout the series, and acquitting himself reasonably well as Ron, whose only real use to this story is providing family members for fodder. There is no denying that Daniel Radcliffe has improved as Harry, but his swansong here is mixed, at times well judged, but during those dramatic moments when surrounded by the stellar quality of the supporting cast, he’s still in desperate need of an invisibilty cloak. Emma Watson’s Hermione is perhaps the most disappointing, flatly sighing her way through the film with a flimsy fragility that pushes her key-player role way into the background, made all the more annoying given that proceedings are in a polished 3D rendering.
But, truth be told, in many ways the film’s most successful scenes actually come when Yates strips back the flash bang wallop and focuses on the three leads. It’s in its quietest moments that Deathly Hallows Part II says the most. A scene where Harry tells the others he has to leave them behind and face his fate is perhaps the most touching of the entire series, and even though you fully know the outcome, it is hard not to get carried away by the weight of emotion tied to a series of stories you’ve grown up with and which feels like a part of you.
It is that magic, that intrinsic emotion in seeing these characters bow out, which lifts this film up, and I have no doubt that tears will flow. It’s just a shame that this last stand just doesn’t stand out.
3 ½ Likes
Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 130 Mins
General Release
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