Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Review

It’s the end of the phenomenon that is the Harry Potter movie franchise. It has grossed billions world wide, increased the fame the books already had, opened up its own theme park land in Islands of Adventure, Orlando and became a huge part of everyone lives in the process. But did the final movie in the series live up to the expectations and bring a great ending to these films people all over the globe love.

Well, first off I’ll let you know what my expectations of the film were.

After seeing all the Harry Potter movies it was fair to say they were all in a gradual decline from the first one onwards, until the Deathly Hallows Part 1, which absolutely through me straight back into the franchise that I nearly lost complete interest in. Part 1 of the “Epic Finale” was just that, EPIC, and brought even more fear and darker elements than was seen in the films before it, and that along with the drama and tensity of the film really appealed to me. The way they built up for part two of the movie was superb, like you had gotten to the end of a chapter in the book and just wanted to carry on.

After nearly a years wait and in that time visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Islands of Adventure, seeing the interviews with the cast about the “emotional ending” to the franchise, and especially the monstrous film premiere last week in Trafalgar Square, has all built up for me a film that was going to be of epic proportions and more.

Maybe I built it up a little too much and a part of me is sad I did so, because the film did not meet the huge expectations I had for it. Then again I think only a handful of films would have met those expectations, but it was a very good film and probably is on par with Deathly Hallows part one in terms of the best films in the franchise for me. I was expecting these huge fights and war between the good and evil wizards and it all seemed to just all be over so quickly.

The story continues from Part One with Harry, Hermione and Ron looking for the remaining horcrux’s to destroy and weaken Voldermort so they can finally defeat him. The three young wizards journey to Gringots Bank and back to Hogwarts in search of the horcux’s, but with Voldermorts attacks on the school and threats getting worse, Harry must decide whether he wants anymore blood on his hands, or to face the dark lord himself to end it.

I have to say that I did feel that this film concentrated just a little too much on Harry. Yeah I know the story is suppose to be about Harry and it is called Harry Potter, but for me it just seemed to take everyone else out of the limelight a bit, and characters that I have loved from previous films like Hagrid got hardly any screen time. However Harry was the star of the show, especially this finale, with maybe with the exception of the person who ended up saving the day, but I will leave that for you to see yourselves if you don’t yet know the ending.

Some positives of the film was that it was very emotional, especially a part where Harry says his goodbyes to Ron and Hermione. You could really feel the real emotions that they must have been feeling in that scene whilst watching it. Whilst on the subject of acting, I also must praise Daniel Radcliffe and say I think he put in his best performance as Harry out of all the films, which for some critics will say is not worth being proud about, but I thought he was great in this finale and deserved a mention.

There were some great comedy moments from the likes of Neville Longbottom and Ron, which gave the audience a great break from all the drama, evilness and people dying everywhere.

Like part one there was some pretty strange moments in the film where I did think what, why is this being shown, like the moment a small child sized skeleton  Voldermort is seen covered in blood under a table. Very very strange I hope you agree.

Ron and Hermione’s kiss which everyone was so looking forward to seeing was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t really built up in the movie and just happened and was over too quickly to think about it. Plus the fact all you could really see was the back of Ron’s head.

The ending was very good though and had me all tense and waiting for the final climax, which shouldn’t disappoint any Harry Potter fan.

Overall I did enjoy the film. I wish I didn’t have it built up so much so I would have seen it like Part 1 and thought wow! Unfortunately though I did build it up, but it still didn’t ruin the film for me and it was definitely a very fitting end to the movie franchise.

If you have seen the other films and read the books it is a MUST to go and see it… if you haven’t already.

Whilst some think this is now the end for Harry Potter, it really isn’t. As the actors said during the premiere the story will live on forever, but what they didn’t tell you (I really don’t know why or if I missed it somewhere) was that a new website http://www.pottermore.com/ has been launched by JK Rowling.

Pottermore will feature users submitting and reading others own Harry Potter stories online and will continue to grow the franchise on further. The site will fully launch in October, but you can sign up your interest in the site now, so all you Harry Potter fanatics should head over there now and prepare to read more and more stories of Harry and even write your own.

Although the books and films are now over, to the loyal fans of the franchise, Harry Potter will never end.