Harry Potter 7, Part 2 - 8 Films and This is the Ending that I Get?!

I am going to tell you all from the get go, that I am not the biggest Potter fan, as I had to rely on most of my knowledge on my wife and sister. Although, I did really enjoy playing the Lego Harry Potter video game which , you can check out my review on Associated Content right HERE. But after seeing all of the Harry Potter films, I was really quite let down by the overall finally of the series and wanted to share my grief with the world. So before you go any further, SPOILER ALERT ahead.

I actually really enjoyed Part I of Deathly Hallows, as I was totally blown away with the overall feeling of loss, dark imagery, epic story elements and the quest to destroy Lord Voldemort. But when Part II opened up, it started off quite slow and I had a hard time remembering what happened in Part I. I then recalled the plot to find and destroy the seven horcruxes of the Dark Lord. The three youngsters on this quest, Harry, Ron and Hermione, ended up heading to a vault and free a dragon, which breathes fire and destroys the place. The action is awesome, but I felt at times it had a hard balance of cheesy dialogue and a dark foreboding society.

THE PLOT - Stopping Voldemort once and for all becomes the main quest of the heroes in the film. They have to hunt down these ancient relics, all the while being on the run, as Harry Potter is the most wanted Wizard in all the land. Voldemort tempts his classmates to turn him in, threatens to destroy all of their school at Hogwarts and any man, woman or child that gets in his way. Hogwart's is under constant attack and Harry discovers some secrets about himself that he doesn't find too appealing. In the end, he knows that he must destroy Voldemort once and for all.

CINEMATOGRAPHY - The faculty ends up standing up for the students as there is an all out attack on the school from nearly any minion that Voldemort threatened to join his cause or else. One of the things that I did not like about the film was the overall darkness. I mean, I am not talking about the dark themes of the film, but more like the lighting and cinematography. Especially watching this film with the 3D glasses, and had a hard time focusing and really seeing some moments in the movie.

THE WRITING - In the midst of hunting down and destroying these horcruxes, there are some fairly slow points that really drag. I understand that this is to get some plot exposure out of the story, but this just can't be to fit the basic three act structure format of a story. It is hard to examine the film as far as a three act structure, as it is a second part of a bigger story. If that is the case, than this film should have opened up with a climax and been a slow decline. Instead the film rises and declines at points of some explosive action and really cool fight scenes, but then you are left hanging with some moments of really cheesy dialogue. I got some of these off of IMDB's site, just reading them won't do you justice, but when you see them in the film, I can almost guarantee you will roll your eyes in disgust and groan:

This scene is when Harry goes into the forest and speaks to the ghosts of his family:

Harry Potter: You'll stay with me?
Lily Potter: Always.
Sirius Black: Until the end.

This scene is when Harry ends up in "Heaven," which I found really confusing. He drops the Resurrection Stone, which was such an important relic as part of the Deathly Hallows, which he just leaves it in the forest after talking to the ghosts. He gets blasted by Voldemort and enters this white void when Dumbledore meets up with him. Within this void, Dumbledore tells him that Voldemort killed that part of himself that was within Harry, and that he has the choice to hop on a train or go back. I found this as REALLY confusing and this is just a snippet of dialogue from it:

Professor Albus Dumbledore: Of course, it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it's not real?

Finally, there was another scene at the end when Voldemort's army enters Hogwart's with Harry's "dead" body. Voldemort asks who will join his army and Neville Longbottom stands up for the crew. He begins to give this speech (which I unfortunately couldn't find on IMDB) but it goes something along the line like this:

Example: "Harry died, but he didn't really die, he is still with us."

THE ACTING - But aside from the writing, there is some great acting in the film. The person who stole every scene for me was Ralph Fiennes, who portrays Lord Voldemort. If you are a Potter geek, you will probably squeal with excitement with he bursts out "Avada Kedavra!" He is hell bent on destroying Harry, without knowing the truth behind Harry being one of the final horcruxes. He knows if he can destroy Harry, there will be no one else to stand in his way. He wipes out his own comrades just for asking him how he is doing, in true typical bad guy fashion. But one of my favorite parts is just when he gives a big powerful laugh when he enters Hogwarts at the end. Aside from Voldemort, I think a lot of the other actors do a great job, especially discovering the tragic past of Snape (Alan Rickman), Neville Longbottom gets some great screen time, and McGonagall (Maggie Smith) stepping up to defend Hogwart's.

THE ENDING '" WAS REALLY GRABBED MY GORD! I was so let down by the ending, which was really provoked me to write this review. I guess it all starts off in the epic ending battle scene between Harry and Voldemort. The fighting is great, and it brings it back to that classical "wizard's duel," but the final fight really left me hanging and wanting more. Basically all that happens is that Harry gets the Elder Wand to float out of Voldemort's hand and the dark lord turns to ash and cinders. Yeah that's right, Voldemort becomes dust in the wind like the Sandman in Spiderman 3. I was SO let down. At least have Harry give a final spell and blast him away into a massive explosion, instead he just crumbles like stale cake. And after defeating the dark lord, Harry goes back into the school and not ONE PERSON congratulates him '" ungrateful jerks. The film is shortly thereafter followed by a little epilogue that takes place nineteen years later and it is just so coincidental that nearly every major character had a child around the same age and they all went off to Hogwart's together. I understand the cyclical nature of it all, but I also felt it to be a bit too cheesy.

So that is the jist of my review, and in my opinion on how the film could have ended a bit more epically, then again I am a huge action film fan, so perhaps my expectations exceeded me. After learning more about Snape's character, I am actually looking forward to seeing all of the films again. I would really like to get the entire series on Blu Ray when they come out, as I am sure it will have a really nice collector's set loaded with bonus features and cut scenes to help tie the whole series together. Finally, again, this is just one person's review, so don't take it to heart, I just wanted to be difficult and unique on stating that I was really let down by Part II and would rather see Part I again.

References:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201607/quotes