Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2

“It all ends”, states the movie poster. And indeed, this movie marks the end of 10 years of Harry Potter movies. With the same sadness as with which I read the last book, I found my seat in the cinema for a midnight premiere. Can this movie live up to its heritage?

Spectacular violence

Let me get straight to the point: the strength of this movie lies in its spectacular violence. Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts for a final stand against Voldemort. As is to be expected, this comes with great fireworks. The school's teachers show off impressive feats of magic, most impressive of which are the living statues. But of course the defences of Hogwarts are not enough to keep Voldemort and his host of followers at bay and in the end all recognizable characters have to fight for their lives in and around the school. All of this useful violence has been spectacularly captured on screen. Especially for the first half of the movie you'll be on the edge of your seat.

3D failure

As is common for a new movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows can be viewed in 3D in most cinemas. However, if you have the choice, I would suggest viewing it in normal 2D. The 3D-effects are not as good as in many other movies. The bigger part of the movie has so little 3D-effect it's barely noticeable. The parts that do have a lot of 3D are over quickly and often blurry. It never gets so bad you would wish you weren't wearing those glasses, but the effects tend to divert from what's really happening.  

Loose ends

With this moviem 10 years of Harry Potter will end. That means that the Deathly Hallows has more than just a heritage to live up to: the movie also has to tie up all loose ends. In the previous movies things have been omitted that, in the end, prove to be important after all. This movie not only manages to tell the story that's in the book in a sensitive and thrilling way, but also manages to tie up all those loose ends. By the end of the movie you don't feel like you're still missing something, something that still had to be explained. Because of this, Deathly Hallows part 2 gives a worthy end to the series.

Flaws

Of course there are flaws as well. As I mentioned before, the first half of the movie is terribly thrilling. The second half, however, is a bit of a disappointment. I blame this mostly on the fact that I have already read the book, so I already knew how it was going to end. Still, the final showdown with Voldemort is over very quickly. In addition, the inevitable deaths are shown only briefly. Because of this, it's difficult to feel for the characters, even though important well-known characters are dying. A sure flaw, because director David Yates has proven to have good sense of drama: many people will have to wipe away tears at the glance into the life of Snape.

A worthy end

All in all, this movie was worth the wait. Spectacular action, a good story, humour and magic: what more can we expect from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2? This movie, 10 years after the first, ends the story about the magical teens with dignity.

Sources: www.todio.nl