{"id":12373,"date":"2011-07-12T03:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T02:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=12373"},"modified":"2011-07-12T03:12:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T02:12:57","slug":"harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/07\/12\/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n The final chapter of the highest grossing film franchise in history<\/a> will delight fans and presumably break box office records, even though the final book<\/a> shouldn\u2019t have been split in two for the big screen.<\/p>\n Opening with a brief snippet of the climax to Part 1 (intriguingly before the studio logo), the final Potter extravaganza deals with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) finally confronting his destiny and taking on his wizard nemesis Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) as the forces of darkness surround Hogwarts.<\/p>\n For those that aren\u2019t Potter experts here is a brief summary of the film series so far:<\/p>\n In the The Deathly Hallows Part 1<\/a> (2010), Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) followed clues left by the late Dumbledore<\/a>\u00a0and went in search of Horcruxes<\/a> \u00a0(magical\u00a0artefacts) to help them kill Voldemort, whilst avoiding the clutches of his followers.<\/p>\n <\/a>Part 2 opens with Voldemort in possession of Dumbledore\u2019s wand, whilst Harry and his gang have to get back to Hogwarts to destroy more Horcuxes and fight off the forces surrounding their school.<\/p>\n Now, did any of these plot details make your head spin?<\/p>\n One of the problems in writing anything about the Potter films is that it\u2019s like reporting from a large foreign country \u2013 people know it exists but can get confused by the local details.<\/p>\n In many the Harry Potter phenomenon is the Star Wars<\/a> of its generation \u2013 a franchise which recycles previous tales of good and evil, repackages them with special effects and places them within a detailed fantasy world.<\/p>\n When the films began in 2001, there was already a generation of children obsessed with the books (by then the fourth had been published to record breaking sales), so there was already a built-in audience.<\/p>\n But Warner Bros were smart to preserve J.K. Rowling\u2019s vision and even if you are not a fan, these films are faithful to the books and technically well made.<\/p>\n Since David Yates<\/a> started directing the films with The Order of the Phoenix<\/a> (2007), there seems to have been a ramping up of the films in terms of scale and effects, even though they weren’t exactly small to begin with.<\/p>\n With this, the decision to split the final book in two was presumably made because the source material was longer than before and the studio was getting two blockbusters for essentially the price of one (albeit large) production.<\/p>\n Although this story is fast-paced, it feels like the third act of a previous film spread too thinly and perhaps the correct way for fans to see it is to experience it as a double-bill with Part 1.<\/p>\n Experienced in isolation, this film moves a bit too fast, whereas the previous film was a bit too slow.<\/p>\n At a running time of 131 minutes, Part 2 is essentially a war film in the wizarding universe as Hogwarts is under siege from Voldemort\u2019s hordes: this means some key developments (especially involving two major characters) don\u2019t really get the screen time they deserve and are drowned out by the clash of magical armies and characters brandishing wands.<\/p>\n Voldemort isn’t as scary now either, which is a bit of a let down considering the whole series has been leading up to this confrontation.<\/p>\n The best narrative pay off involves Severus Snape<\/a> (Alan Rickman), who has a flashback montage that shows new sides to his character.<\/p>\n By coincidence I happened to see this on the same day as watching Terrence Malick\u2019s The Tree of Life<\/a> and was struck by certain bizarre similarities: there is an extended flashback sequence involving trees, flowing water and an idealised red haired woman, plus there is also a sequence which touches upon issues of mortality.<\/p>\n\n