Without a doubt, The Boy Who Lived has become a phenomenal figure for the last decade. Millions of books sold, translated into billions of box office from 7 movies, and uncountable fans and readers, including me. If you happens to be an outsider, you may want to skip this thing. Otherwise, no worries, I'll try to make it as spoiler free as possible...but what the hell, you guys knew the story at least 4 years ago.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 is the top of the giant pyramid of J.K Rowling enchanting wizardry tale, the final culmination and conclusion, not to mention the end confrotation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort. This final installment wastes no time, starts right where it left us, bad-ass You-Know-Who, Voldermort got his strongest weapon, The Elder Wand right from Dumbledore's grave, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are still grieving from Dhoby's loss. Still have to find several Horcruxes, Harry has to break in Gringotts to obtain one of them, and of course, Hogwarts itself to prepare for the final between battle with Voldermort's army.
This second part of Deathly Hallows appears to be a totally different movie from the first one, with the story now is focusing more into the big action battle scenes in Hogwarts. The infamous school falls into ruins and all hell breaks loose. The Great Hall grandiose, the warmth of Gryffindor house, all the memories of how Hogwarts used to be a safe haven for Harry has been replaced with the great scale of destruction by The Death Eaters army. Lots of people died, both bad guys and our loveable characters. At least not until the final fight aftermath, there was none of that cheerful moments similar to the early years of Harry Potter’s journey.
While Rowling may not provide an epic the battle scenes described in words, I can tell you, David Yates did a magnificent job on creating a suspense battlefield (some articles even compared this with LOTR's Pellenor Field battle scene). Apart from long and intense battle, Yates added the value by slow-mo fighting, landscape and bird eye view camera movement, and of course, lots and lots of destructive scenes with great detail.
Harry Potter may be the lead character in the previous movies, but usually, his colleagues and other supporting characters used to have more screen time to show up their faces. On the contrary, this last movie can be deemed as Harry's sole movie, since he is so pivotal in every scene, complete all his depression, struggle, and triumphant moments. Daniel Radcliffe may just gave his best performance of Harry's characterization. He appears to be very comfortable and attached to Harry, which doesn't surprise me at all, since he has been playing Harry for almost 12 years. The same thing can be said also for Rupert Grint as Ron, and the loveable Emma Watson as Hermione. Due to the in-movie romance, they are inseparable and always appears in pairs. But that alone does not deter their performances on-screen, the chemistry was there, and finally, they have their own moment (yes, the long-have-been-waiting-for kissing scene). Too bad for Harry, his romance moments with Ginny (Bonnie Wright) was quite minimal.
Harry’s dominant presence does not just make Ron’s and Hermione’s screen time lesser significantly, but also cutting down the importance of his Hogwarts friends. Perhaps, only Matthew Lewis stands out as the heroic Neville Longbottom. Mind you, this character was kinda blurry and dumb in the previous movies. But that is not the case on these last two movies, where his character has matured enough to wipe the dumbness into a hero. His essential scene involving the Sword of Gryffindor was quite captivating. Tom Felton has his Draco Malfoy character became less threatening and bound to be indecisive, which ended up with his family allegiance to the Dark Lord became immensely equivocal. I’m a bit disappointed to see the rest of the Hogwarts students do not have much more screen role apart from one liners or involved in several seconds during the battle scene. Although the Weasley twin do have their own moment halfway into the end (no spoiler, but u know what I mean, don’t u?). Undoubtedly, these kids have been the body and soul, the main and irreplacable ingredients for the whole Harry Potter saga. To be involved in this project for almost a decade really needs dedication, hard work, and a high degree of commitment.
What makes the big screen version of Potter even better for all these years is the supporting cast, which contains British best of the best. Ranging from Ralph Fiennes (Voldermort), Alan Rickman (Snape), Gary Oldman (Sirius), Richard Harris and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore),Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), David Thewlis (Remus Lupin), and the list goes on…
No one can deny the antagonist talent of Ralph Fiennes. I watched “Schindler’s List” not long before I did the Harry Potter marathon, and my gosh, this guy fits into Voldemort shoes naturally. I mean, even if he didn’t have the CGI-snake face on it, he would still be damn terrifying. Not to be left behind, Alan Rickman showed a more emotional Snape in this one, which I haven’t seen before. Well, if you know the story, this latest part is the moment of truth of Snape’s real allegiance. Heartbreaking and devastated, the scene involving the Pensieve and his past should have been a tearjerking moment. But, too bad that particular scene was a bit rushed compared to the book, but Rickman still did a pretty good job of transforming Snape into a loveable personality. Last but not least, I was hugely impressed by McGonagall valiant leadership during the Hogwarts siege. One particular scene where she fought Snape to help Harry gain control of Hogwarts was purely entertaining (Coming out from nowhere, she was just awestruck with the dragon-shaped fire magic to kick Snape out of the room).
Harry Potter saga is an incredible journey for its fans. No doubt, we all felt the same magical experience first time not from visual enchancement, but just by traditional storytelling with words. The translatation is a mere transferring the media into an audio-visual experience (not to mention the big franchise money making factory). A decision of cutting the movie into two parts may be questionable. A grand 3.5 hours long of the part 7 may be sufficient, but hey, if one Harry Potter movie can easily get 3 billion dollars, why not make two?
The journey finally comes to an end, and it has been a triumphant for Harry Potter production team. For the kids, these 8 movies have been a massive portfolio for their future reference, and I have no doubt, their journey do not stop here. While for the older cast, I believe their kids and grandchildren will be very proud with their involvement. David Yates’ final Potter movie is the way how the saga was meant to end. It has something that usually other Hollywood movies do not have, which is -- the power of goodbye, I mean, a really ‘the end’. Deathly Hallows part 2 is an example of how to give the audience the feeling that we all have been sharing the magical experience for the past 10 years, with a bittersweet farewell. The grand finale is truly epic, and enchanting.
My Review : 9/10
