HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2

DIRECTOR: David Yates

CAST: Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, John Hurt, Michael Gambon

CLASSIFICATION: 10M V

RUNNING TIME: 130 minutes

RATING: ****

‘HERMIONE. When have any of our plans ever actually worked? We plan. We get there. All hell breaks loose,” asks Harry (Radcliffe), neatly summing up every Harry Potter movie to date, including this one.

Action-packed, fast-paced and with just the right touch of the epic, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a film saga seven films and 10 years in the making.

All the films have led to this one – the casting was done on the basis of what the children would grow into and special effects take care of the rest. This film is a sort of culmination, one which cannot be viewed in isolation but as part of a highly successful octet. You may wonder whether this will relegate Daniel Radcliffe to the same status as Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford. Time will tell.

It may take place over only one day, but there is an entire film’s worth of story in here, validating the decision to split the last book over two films.

Part two picks up where part one ended, with Voldemort grave-robbing to steal the Elder Wand from Professor Dumbledore’s cold dead body.

It’s a slow start, but our intrepid trio make a quick side trip to Gringotts and then basically we get the battle of Hogwarts, or if seen in another way, the redemption of Severus Snape.

If you want a blow-by-blow account of every little fight, then watch the film, or better yet, read the book.

Once the pace picks up, keep up because it does not slow down until the very end. The seven previous films have all built up to this particular fight, so there is no set-up or major explanation, it simply jumps right in and doesn’t let go.

The SFX are totally up to scratch and the scene in which Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) and the Hogwarts professors set the protection over the school is spectacular, not only for the effects but for the way it mixes levity with a very English dogged determination to stand up to He Who Must Not Be Named.

When it becomes too heavy, there are a few moments of poignancy and cheesy fun. The hectic fighting is balanced with meaningful emotional beats, but all in all it does get a bit grim. The tone has gradually grown darker over the films and now Harry finally comes to understand his purpose.

Ultimately the entire story has been a growing up experience in the mould of traditional English boarding school stories. Now out of school Harry discovers the darkness within and has to figure out a way to accept and defeat it. Sacrifice, loss and hope, Harry is the one who lives it all.

Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint) come into their own as a team, Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) gets his moment and loose ends are tied up without countless LoTR false endings.

It’s been a thrilling ride and it ends on a high note. Now what?

REEL LOWDOWN

BEST BIT: Professor McGonagall finally has it out with Professor Snape.

WORST BIT: Hogwarts gets totalled.

BEST LINE: “How did you come by the sword?” Griphook asks Harry.

“It’s complicated,” comes the reply. “Why does Bellatrix Lestrange think it should be in her vault,” asks Harry.

“It’s complicated,” comes the reply.