When David Yates started directing the Harry Potter movie franchise, he gave a realistic feel to the wizarding world in the big screen, bringing to life the palpable magic that we felt in Rowling’s novels. Yates, since the fifth movie installment, smoothly fuses the real world that we know with the dead seriousness of the Harry Potter mythology. His realistic, serious treatment of his Harry Potter films transcends its fantasy genre; gluing what is real and not into a believable magical world that the books have transported us to, as if he and Rowling are one in their storytelling.
In the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the epic finale of the Harry Potter movie series, Yates has done, in my opinion, his greatest Harry Potter film—and rightly so, because a series of masterpiece should be ended with a masterpiece.
In HP7.2, in the last hunt for the horcruxes to ultimately finish the Dark Lord, you get hooked right from the beginning. We are given scene after scene of wow-inducing high emotions, with the melancholy undercurrent that IT ALL ENDS right now.
What is beautifully rendered in the movie is Voldemort’s sinister presence and the dark magic that is cloaked in every scene; the evil more alive and bone-chilling, therefore a real threat to our beloved heroes and the wizarding world. The elegant, sophisticated musical score was perfectly synchronized with the scenes, heightening every dangerous, vulnerable, frightening, and proud moment, as we are reluctantly brought to the inevitable end of our journey with Harry Potter.
The battle at Hogwarts was impeccably recreated, the danger and tension tangible and exciting. Emma Watson (Hermione) incredibly lost her theatrical acting and became a natural, and the magical creatures became more than just costumed puppets but creatures with souls.
But there were a few things that Yates strangely did not work on: he dismissed Ron and Harry’s years of strong relationship, and Ron, our favorite sidekick, was most of the time relegated in the background. Even when Harry leaves to be killed by Voldemort, we didn’t get Ron’s in-depth emotions, nor his and Hermione’s up-close emotions when Voldemort pronounced him dead. That was quite alarming. And when He Who Must Not Be Named was finally defeated into smithereens, finally ending the long agonizing decades of his torturous presence and finally freeing the wizarding world of his evil, we were not shown an intense collective relief from the wizarding world---when Harry came back from his one-on-one battle with Voldemort, the folks acted as if Harry just came home from playfully rolling in the Forbidden Forest dirt.
However, in its entirety, the well-crafted film, the excellent screenplay has surpassed these flaws, and we leave the cinemas planning for our second, third movie-watching.
The book, and now the film, has finally ended. But this great contribution to the literary world that opened the imagination of every age, race, and culture will be eternally present, its magic lasting forever.
Again, cheers to the genius of JK Rowling, and to the masterpiece that is Harry Potter!
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