Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (David Yates) 2011 NO SPOILERS

I didn’t really write a review for Part One for one reason. That reason being Deathly Hallows Part One is not a movie. I can’t really judge it on its own merits because I am only watching half a movie. Part Two does work a little bit better in that, where One was all build up with no resolution, at least Part Two obviously wraps up all the loose plot threads (redundant statement is redundant). So with all my useless discussion about a never written review out of the way and my ramblings, do I think the movie works best separated into two parts? Well, no.

I still feel this movie could have been a great complete film that was somewhere over three and a half hours. Of course I understand why the filmmakers split the movie into two parts and it is not just about the fact they wanted to make more money. It is because there is a lot of material here and the director probably thought this was the best way to satisfy both normal fans and fans of the books. And before I’m accused of being so unreasonable and wanting to chop up the movies into some mess I want to put into evidence the LOTR movies; both theatrical and Extended Editions. I think the theatrical cuts are perfectly paced to include all relevant information about the plot and make it as exciting as possible. The Extended Editions are the perfect fan service package. Each movie has deleted scenes adding anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of new footage which is perfect for hardcore fans of the series. I think Deathly Hallows could have been a great three and a half hour movie for everyone with the EE’s being an hour longer to satisfy the more hardcore Potter fans.

But for all of my griping, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is still a great conclusion to the series overall. Everything we expect from wrapping up all plots to closing all character arcs are done very well. This movie gives us the satisfying closure we all want. Most of Part Two is action and it is very exciting. The battles are all epic in scale with very good special effects and the series has always done a great job in giving us characters we really care about. I can’t really go into whether the movie follows the books because I never got that far in the series.

It is not like you need me to tell you to go see this movie. If you are this movie’s target audience then you probably already have gone out and seen it. Among all the Potter films, Deathly Hallows does rank among the best in the series for me. I think this movie would be entertaining to anyone even remotely familiar with the series. Yes I do have minor problems with the film and some decisions here or there, but they are all minor. Plus I actually don’t know if it would be fair since some of those problems might lie with Rowling’s original story but you don’t need to worry about that. If you can’t figure it out by now, I highly recommend the movie.