Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (*** / ****)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
Director: David Yates
Before I begin, I must confess right away that this review of the second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be from a Potterhead’s perspective. I’ve never been able to completely watch the movies from a neutral standpoint; in the past nine years, I’ve devoured all seven books and eagerly awaited every film release like an overexcited schoolgirl. This actually marks the first Potter film I’ve reviewed since 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I wrote about on my old site American Dreamer with the unbridled excitement of a ten-year-old in a Baskin-Robbins.
The first half of the film series featured faithful and wonderfully-produced adaptations of the first four novels despite a Rolodex’s worth of directors, but the second half – all helmed by David Yates – has been marred by inconsistency. While Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) is the best film in the series, but the worst two were also under his watch: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and the first half of Deathly Hallows just last year.
DH1 was excruciatingly dull, as it was just one long drawn-out camping trip featuring the occasional missions that had the suspense of a scavenger hunt, not to mention one of the most ridiculous “nude” scenes put to print in recent memory. However, it’s really difficult to fault the filmmakers for this, as this was the case with the first half of the book. As anyone who’s read the novel knows, it’s the second that has all the meat and potatoes. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and best buds Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) continue their mission to defeat the ever-nasty Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) once and for all by finding and destroying the remaining Horcruxes, magical items that each contain a part of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s soul.
While Yates tries to atone for the lack of action from Part 1 – he jumps right to the Battle of Hogwarts from a nifty action setpiece featuring our heroes flying through the Gringotts (the wizarding bank) vaults on a huge dragon – the opening hour threatens to carry over the torpor, as he unloads a lengthy expository conversation exchanged among our protagonists in a secluded beachfront cottage.
At the risk of sounding picky, I happen to be a fan of the minor characters, particularly Harry’s schoolmates, and Yates paid them a healthy amount of respect in Half-Blood Prince . In DH2, although many of them from previous films – both students and teachers – are brought back for the finale, they’re virtually ignored. The Battle of Hogwarts, thrilling in the novel, is relegated to a backdrop for Harry’s showdown with Voldemort. Minor subplots of the battle, such as the deaths of several beloved characters and the chilling subsequent reduction of Hogwarts to rubble, are inexcusably given short shrift, and these scenes end up emanating little gravity that was abound on the printed page.
Deathly Hallows’ strength lies in the acting. The best moments easily come in one-on-one situations that have the silent intensity of a chess match. Getting into too much detail here would mean playing spoiler, which I dare not do, but I will say that Voldemort’s final, chilling confrontation with Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) is nearly worth the price of admission alone, as is Dumbledore and Harry at a bleach-white, Pearly Gates-like King’s Cross.
One of the series’ highlights has been watching the three main stars grow up in front of our eyes over the past ten years, maturing into cute, pop-eyed preteen performers into steely adult actors, especially Radcliffe, who will go down as one of the best fictional-book heroes to ever hit the big screen.
The film makes no bones in not catering to those uninitiated to the Harry Potter universe, which is a smart move, as going into DH2 cold turkey is like starting War and Peace somewhere in the middle. Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves are fully aware that the core audience has grown up with the films as well as its titular hero, and there’s no sugarcoating the final installment. There’s a fairly disturbing scene depicting the bloody aftermath of the slaughter of several Gringotts goblins. Young, innocent Hogwarts students are among the battle casualties; one dies after a werewolf chomps on their neck.
DH2 is a satisfying, if slightly flawed, finale to this epic series. At the same time, it seems impossible to believe that it’s now all over; no more books or movies, not to mention the Herculean feat of sticking around for a whopping eight films. Though I was a ripe old 26 when I discovered the world of Harry Potter for the first time, it was like entering a temporary portal back to my childhood, if that makes any sense.
It’s truly the end of an era, and though the series won’t reach the lofty heights of the all-time classics, we will never witness anything of this magnitude again. Studios will continue to fight tooth and nail to hustle the big thing in young-adult publishing into megaplexes, but as the scores of pale imitators over the years – The Golden Compass, Eragon, Percy Jackson, and even Twilight and its fanatical following – have proved, they lack the magic that made the Harry Potter franchise so special. The HP films succeeded by paying an enormous amount of respect to J.K. Rowling’s vision. The storytelling was such that it was never overshadowed by gaudy CGI effects, not to mention that there was that something about it that words can’t really describe, but you knew you were onto something special from page one onward. As we Potterheads toast The Boy Who Lived with butterbeers held high, no doubt we’ll someday be passing on these books and films to future generations.
© 2011 Jane F. Carlson