By Carlos Serrano
It’s been 10 years since the first “Harry Potter” film was released. In that time, more and more people have been drawn into the “Harry Potter” craze.
Director David Yates had the unenviable task of adapting the final novel into film in a way that would please both hardcore fans of the series and casual moviegoers. The result is not perfect, but it’s certainly an entertaining film.
“Deathly Hallows Part 2” picks up from where part one left off with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) continuing their quest to find Lord Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) remaining horcruxes.
The search leads them back to Hogwarts, where the final battle between Voldemort’s army and Harry’s friends takes place.
Like in part one, Yates managed to convey a sense of tension throughout the film. You definitely feel like everything is leading up to the final confrontation. A big part of this is the film’s score. Composer Alexandre Desplat has done a superb job using music to set the tone of the film. The music that plays while the battle at Hogwarts rages captures the scope of the event incredibly well.
This energy also carried over to the actors. It seemed like every actor was giving it their all during the film, and it definitely showed. In particular, Alan Rickman and Ralph Fiennes really hit it out of the park. The former’s performance as Severus Snape outshone almost everyone in the film. He managed to bring so much emotion to the character, especially toward the end of the film. Ralph Fiennes is the perfect Voldemort. He can make you laugh at his insanity in one scene and silence you with his cold-blooded cruelty in the next one.
However, like I said, the film isn’t perfect. I’ve never been the kind of fan that expected everything from the books to be translated into film, but I was still surprised by some of the changes that were made. Important parts of characters’ backstories were left out, to the point where their decisions in the film made little sense.
I’m speaking mainly about Dumbledore’s (Michael Gambon) past. As someone familiar with the books, I found that the exclusion of that backstory was detrimental to his character arc. That said, the overall plot of the film didn’t suffer much from its absence. And of course, it contains a lot more scenes than if it had been one movie instead of two.
My only other major problem with the film was the battle sequence. I praised the music earlier, and while it is certainly good, the actual directing was less than stellar. Battle scenes are edited in between scenes of Harry running through Hogwarts trying to find the last few horcruxes. The result felt disjointed and somewhat incomplete as if Yates was not comfortable directing large battle scenes. Instead these scenes seemed to be given as little attention as possible while still throwing in the obligatory“fanservice” scenes. Without the context of the battle as a whole however, those scenes felt awkward and shoehorned in.
Despite my problems with the film, it’s still very well-made, fun and a fitting end to the end of a decade of hit films. In a word, it’s wanderful [sic].
