Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and othersIMDB Rating: ****
Take a book series spanning a decade. Add to it a movie franchise spanning another. Double the expectations for those who've read the books and watched the movies. Plus, another set of fans acquired solely through the films. Multiply by seven, nay, eight parts. Don't bother with the calculations.
Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows: Part II, eighth and final part of the film franchise (and second part of the seventh book; let's just call it HP8) isn't just another movie. It's an event. Director David Yates takes it upon himself to hold our hands and take us through to the end. And he does a fantastic job of it. If this was the N.E.W.Ts, he would surely "exceed expectations".
HP8, let me tell you right away, is stunning. It's also terribly entertaining, keeping you at the edge of the seat through it's run time, touching a chord, drawing a tear; the works. It has some amazing SFX, enough action to thrill, and emotions to pull the right (heart)strings. The combination of these three makes the finale a splendid affair.
I remember being slightly disappointed with the final Harry Potter book, only because the sixth one had kept me riveted and I expected the final chapter to go one up on it. Expectations were massive; meeting them would have been extraordinarily difficult for author JK Rowling. But Yates does what Rowling didn't (for me, at least).
Of course, Rowling's material itself had it all: the ultimate test of courage, loyalty to friends, importance of loved ones, the final twist in the plot, defeat of all things evil, triumph of the good. Even then, to bring all strands together and mount them on the big screen must have been no mean feat. Producer David Heyman did a good job of executing Rowling's vision on celluloid through the series, and Yates makes sure it ends on a high.
The Harry Potter movie franchise, in my opinion, came into its own only after Yates took over the directorial baton. I liked what Alfonso Cuaron did with Prisoner of Azkaban, but Order Of The Phoenix was the first Potter film I truly enjoyed. Yates, of course, had the luxury of bringing in a certain 'adult' flavour, keeping with the darker nature of subsequent books. But like original director Chris Columbus said in one of his interviews, the series "grew with Yates."
Potter's grown too. And this is his final face-off with Voldemort. You know the set-up: It all ends this time. But along the way, some secrets are revealed, and sacrifices made. After the death of Dumbledore, the Death Eaters have taken charge of Hogwarts while Harry, along with best friends Ron and Hermoine, is in search of horcruxes. Much of this was established in part 7, which laid the foundation for the marathon battle between Death Eaters and Harry's friends in the eighth part.
Wands are drawn, spells cast, and mayhem ensues as Hogwarts becomes a battlefield. Most of part 8 is pure action, but the beauty lies in the underlying emotions. Just after Harry is briefly declared dead and Voldemort is celebrating victory, Neville Longbottom delivers a blood-curdling cry for the battle to continue. It's among the hair-raising moments that you were promised. And that are delivered to you.
Or the pensieve sequence where Harry learns the truth about Snape. It's superbly executed. When Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to bring back his parents, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin - if only for a brief while before he meets his fate - a lump in the throat is guaranteed. These moments make HP8 sparkle.
Yes, the epilogue does take away some of the magic (it did in the book too), and not enough CGI can make Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny Weasley look 19 years older, without it being too weird. Grint and Watson don't have much to do, with the focus almost entirely on Potter this time (more than in earlier parts), and they go through the motions. Matthew Lewis, as Longbottom, stands out. Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter - each of them a veteran, each of them bringing something to the table one final time.
If anyone wondered how any actor other than Radcliffe (if chosen a decade ago to play the coveted lead) would have played Harry Potter differently (even better), can stop doing so. Radcliffe seems to have charted a route similar to Potter - a clueless kid with potential at the onset, but a seasoned pro by the time it ends. In his final duel with Voldemort (Fiennes, menacing as always), Radcliffe summons all he has to come across as equally powerful as his nemesis, and does a great job of it.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part II manages to live up to the gargantuan expectations fans the world over have attached to the finale. That, in itself, is quite an achievement.
Watch it for two hours of relentless entertainment. And for Dumbledore's final words: "Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Classic.
