Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Phwoaaar! Give ‘um a kiss Voldie!

I’ve seen most of the Harry Potter films and I’ve not particularly liked any of them, always struggling to understand the massive hype they get. For some reason, I still gave the final installment a chance. The best way to sum up my reaction is that I’m glad I’ll never have to suffer through another one again.

The previous three or four entries into the series all have an identical dull and generic feel, The Deathly Hallows P2 is no exception. What should have been an epic send-off for such an “iconic” series, instead feels flat and redundant – showing it was well and truly time for the series to be put down. The film suffers from David Yates’ overly-conventional direction, especially throughout the ‘Hogwarts Battle’ scenes which could have been quite spectacular if enough energy was put into them.  Considering, the Deathly Hallows two-parter was given such a grand budget ($250 million) it seems to have gone on paying salaries as opposed to the film’s CGI (Featuring an almost cartoon dragon and a pathetic demise for one of the main villains).

God Bless you, Dame Maggie!

It’s unfortunate that the film never worked for me emotionally either. I would have thought this would have been quite an emotive goodbye to these “much loved” characters, however, this isn’t the case. Harry spends most of his time bumbling on, rambling like a disgruntled pensioner, but that’s nothing compared to what’s happened to Hermione and Ron though. The pair spend most of their time slobbering over each other, and no one wants to watch two love struck teenagers working their way to second base. There’s also some incredibly cringeworthy dialogue – mainly from one scene where Neville Longbottom stands up to Voldermort claiming that Harry lives on in everyone’s hearts, great mate but he’s not dead.

On the positive side, the wonderful Dame Maggie Smith (who’s tragically only given about 4 minutes of screentime) is completely watchable. That said, I’d listen to her read the phonebook. Also, Tom Felton is somewhat entertaining as Draco Malfoy, unfortunately the character has become a bit of a wimp by this point which takes away some of the fun from watching him.

The film’s conclusion “treats” us to a glimpse 19 years into the future, where all the characters have aged incredibly bizarrely (thanks to the CGI expenditure of what looks like about £8). This scene, obviously intended as a sweet way to bring the series full circle, instead gives the film an unintentionally laughable and flat ending.