Warner Bros. divided the last book into two parts, a decision driven primarily by commerce and not art. Deathly Hallows Part I added close to $1 billion dollars to Warner Bros.’ coffers. Deathly Hallows Part II will more than likely do the same. Despite the split or maybe even Part II, one of the shortest entries at 130 minutes, gives the decade-long Harry Potter series the much dramatically satisfying conclusion it deserves.
Deathly Hallows Part II jumps almost immediately into the action, stopping three quarters of the way through for a crucial, character-backstory-explaining flashback before plunging back into Harry Potter’s (Daniel Radcliffe) long-awaited final battle with arch-nemesis Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), a.k.a., He-Who-Should-Not-Be Named.
David Yates took the directing reins with the fourth entry, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the first film to be marked by a significant third-act death (a staple of each subsequent film in the series) and the first film to introduce Ralph Fiennes as the fully resurrected Lord Voldemort. Taking his visual cues from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third entry in the series directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Yates skillfully balanced the need to stay faithful to Rowling’s novels with the demands of visual storytelling and restrictive running times. At times, that meant jettisoning secondary characters and subplots favored by fans of the Harry Potter series without alienating them.
To adequately sum an eight-film series isn’t an easy task. It’s probably best left to examine weeks, months, or even years later after the last entry. Despite that, it’s fair to say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II caps off the series perfectly, giving the characters (in, alas, an unneeded “19 years later” epilogue) and patient fans of the series in book and film form, a cathartic send-off that never feels cheap and always feels earned. It’s a send-off even casual fans of the series will want to revisit repeatedly.
