Detail of oil painting titled Gordon Greenough by John Singer Sargent, 1880
I'll admit that I'm a little envious of all the people writing reviews of the final Harry Potter movie, saying that its release has marked the final death of their childhood. I envy their youth, for one thing - I'm too old to have that reaction to this movie. Ultimately, though, I think that it would be too distracting for the experience of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 to be "all about me". I'm glad I can just enjoy it for what it is. And I found the experience of watching it to be fairly emotionally wrenching as it is - I can't imagine how affecting it would be for someone who has a very personal attachment to the Harry Potter series. For me, it was a very satisfying portrayal of the finale as portrayed in Rowlings' series-ending novel - I don't think I could have asked for a much better interpretation.
For one thing, I'm not going to cast aspersions at screenwriter/adapter Steve Kloves this time around - he had some difficulty wringing a good story out of the first half of the Deathly Hallows book, but it's a different story when he's working with the rollercoaster ride from the novel's midpoint to its close. He made some strategic choices in editing the source material that work well, and certain aspects of the story shine as brightly as anything in the whole series - Snape's big flashback, the disposition of the Malfoy family, and the Gringotts Bank sequence are all brought to life in a pitch-perfect way. There's little to complain about the performances in Deathly Hallows - Part 2 as well - the actors doing the heavy lifting (Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, and especially Alan Rickman) nail just about every scene. Most of the others get few lines and even fewer chances to really act, but no one really embarrasses themselves.
I didn't see Deathly Hallows - Part 2 in 3D, so I can't really speak to that version of the movie, but I was impressed by how the visual effects and CGI buoyed the story up here instead of distracting. The battle sequences are all ground-level and quite gritty - more Private Ryan than Chamber of Secrets - and the music and effects don't go over the top in the movie's most emotional sequences. The effects in the film's "postscript" scene were a little disappointing for reasons I won't get into for spoilers' sake, but it didn't ruin the ending for me by any means. Because Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is separated from the first Harry Potter movie by so much time and artistic evolution, I'm curious to see how this extended yet cohesive series of movies will be viewed as a whole in the years to come, but for now I'm happy that the series ended on a high note.
"Butterfly Magician" by Oranger
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