Some may throw me into the street and grab their torches and pitchforks when I say this, but “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2” was only ok. Like Voldemort in regards to his personal Deathly Hallow, I feel like the film had more potential, could’ve had more laughs, and should’ve been more satisfying.
I’m writing this with hopes that most who read this are already fans of the Harry Potter series, so those who hate, stand to the left and go back to your normal lives; this review ain’t for you.
For a more entertaining (spoiler-filled!) review, go here.
For a more entertaining abridged version of the book, go here. (Seriously funny!)
For a nonfan's absolutely clueless perspective of the movie, go here
First of all, the film could do better with a better recap of the previous film than Big V going grave robbing. Nothing at all about the main cast really? No new status quo of death and misery on par with a Nazi regime? Honestly movie, for some sequel films, they can get away with no how-did-we-get here, but for a Harry Potter movie, the last one at that, it might help to get the rest of the not-fans up to speed. How many hapless boyfriends/girlfriends and parents were left in the dark because of this so-called pacing?
2ndly, one of the most heinous offenses is the complete lack of backstory. Dumbledore’s past is something that haunts Harry in the last book, making him question whether or not the great man he admired was really a manipulative jerk. The other Mr. Dumbledore clears that up by saying that yes, he was, and it took his sister getting caught in a crossfire between Dumbledore and his new BFF to wisen up. None of that is addressed in the films, boiling down to about 2 minutes of Aberforth Dumbledore going “he’s a jerk,” and Harry staunchly defending him by saying, “that’s not how I remember him.” Oi, and you thought it was bad when Kreacher magically (har har) becomes a more compliant elf in the first half. As is typical of Harry Potter movies and flashbacks to the past, Snape’s backstory is full of disappoint. They could’ve shown more about how Snape and Lily were ok chums until the mudblood incident, but nope, they pretty much go straight to him cradling her lifeless body in his arms and bawling.
For people who’ve read the books, the movie cheapens each death in more and more frustrating means. The film only gives about a total of 10 seconds of interaction time between Tonks and Lupin, cheapening their romance and thus the impact their death leaves on the audience. Percy Weasley finally telling a joke as he fights his boss (who Voldemort offs like any other grunt who speaks out of turn) with Fred present to witness something cool before he dies is left out. Instead, we just see the lifeless body of the Fred as he had died off-screen from obviously not falling rubble. Even the great scene with Bellatrix getting the Ridley from “Aliens” line is cheapened immensely with a seriously anticlimactic duel. The closest we ever get to actually feeling for a dead character is when we see a werewolf om-nom-nomming on a young boy (maybe a Creevy brother?) and Hermione reacting with a “no!” and a Force push.
While this shouldn’t bother me as I had already read the books and know why things happen, I found some of the insane troll logic to be aggravating. Luna is shown in Shell Cottage and then is magically (har har) present in Hogwarts waiting for the main trio as they come out of the magic hole in the wall. The nonfan doesn’t know she goes to school again shortly after healing up at Bill & Fleur’s. The logic of finding a Horcrux in Bellatrix’s vault becomes more of Harry listening to the voices in his head rather than looking for a priceless magical world artifact as Harry learned earlier that Voldemort likes his !tchotchkeys! to have some significance. After falling from a dragon, Harry and Ron provide fanservice by stripping while Hermione grabs blanket. They could’ve made it great by having said blanket be the invisibility cloak and her having a new outfit but nope, just exposition talk while boys go topless. =/ While it was nice to show Ron and Hermione going to the abandoned movie 2 set to dispose of a Horcrux (something that happened offscreen in the book), the incomprehensible waves of Voldemort fury splashing about them and leading to first onscreen kiss was just handled poorly. Bookwise, it was because Ron made an offhand comment showing concern for elfish welfare, something that Hermione’s been petitioning for about 3 books but was thankfully dropped in the films. While I’ve no idea how to get that scene slotted in without the impact of the elf sideplot, I feel like it could’ve definitely been arranged better. The forces of evil suddenly give us trolls (giants?) and freaking huge spiders out of nowhere when most people who’ve read know that they show up because Voldemort’s been raising up his own dark forces in previous insallments. Most frustrating though is how Harry handles the titular Deathly Hallows; he freaking dumps the Resurrection Stone in the forest somewhere, and while some can argue that he didn’t need it anymore to feel his loved ones in his heart or whatever, Dr. Jones would like to remark that “IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!” Same thing can be said about that poor Uber-wand as he’s not even shown repairing his own wand before unceremoniously snapping the thing and tossing the bits into an abyss. Priceless wizarding artifact that validates an old wives’s tale? Destroy it and have no wands left. There’s so much more I have issue with, but the blog is still called “Simply Movies” isn’t it?
And while the past four paragraphs have been naught but bashing on the movie, it was still a spectacular end to a franchise. They highlighted the key parts of the last half of the book to make sure the story had a semblance of flow and sense. Acting was alright, key amongst the cast being Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith. Snape gives us his usual, unintentionally funny, long. drawn out. drawls. but in his flashback scene provides a bit more emotion. Mc G gives us her most boss (literally) performance and a little glee at being able to defend her school. The big defending the castle scenes were by far the most impressive, showing a nifty scene with the teachers erecting a force field, giant stone armors animating and putting terracotta soldiers to shame, and Neville Longbottom outrunning a burning fireball bridge because he’s taking down evil wizards. The red herring with Harry charging his two best friends to take out the evil soul-jar snake leads you to believe that the movie’s going to change that just as blatantly as giving all of Dobby’s jobs to Neville, but thankfully, Neville still gets the magic teleporting sword and saves the two and the day. The Limbo train station was a pretty good scene too with the stark whiteness, the moaning, bleeding bit of Voldemort soul huddled under a bench, and the characters dressed as simply (and whitely) as possible.
Overall, this movie brings a good close, but at the same time, feels incomplete. If it’s to be seen, it should be seen with its first half. Otherwise, it’ll feel like a grilled cheese sandwich without the bread: still tasty but quite messy.
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