Pottering Around

Well, the saga of Harry Potter has "re-ended." (I mean, first the book series concluded, and now the movies-- oh, never mind.) I joined the throng last night to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. (And I've rarely encountered such a well-behaved sold out house of movie patrons. Maybe movie manners aren't quite dead yet.) The critical feedback has been largely positive, with many happily reporting the franchise came to a fitting conclusion.

To that, I say: duh! The seven preceding films have all been good to great; the novel itself brought the series to a fantastic conclusion. What, are they somehow going to screw everything up right now at the end?

It wasn't quite perfect, though. Well, that might be too harsh. I think it would be more accurate to say that this film just wasn't quite as good as Part 1. I say this having just re-watched Part 1 the night before, as "prep" for the final chapter. In doing so, I was struck all over again by just how many powerfully dramatic and emotional moments are in that movie, and all of them pitch perfect.

Part 2 has its share of these moments too, chiefly as it marches into the final act. Specifically... well, hang on. The next three paragraphs are spoiler laden. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, skip ahead to the bold text below.

Okay, just us now? Alright, the drama really kicks in when Alan Rickman takes center stage. No surprise there; I've praised his emotional work in many other films (even a comedy like Galaxy Quest). Snape's death lands with surprising weight, and then things get deeper still when Harry views his memories in the Pensieve. We get just two, maybe three minutes, to reform our entire eight movie opinion of Snape around the new knowledge that he was in love with Harry's mother. That could easily not work. But fear not when you have Alan Rickman in the role. Thanks to him, the reformation is so believable, so thorough, that the moment of the movie that brought me closest to tears was in the epilogue, when Harry tells his son that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew.

But I'd argue that maybe the moment that should have been the big tear-jerker was the deaths of Professor Lupin and Tonks (leaving behind an orphaned son), and Fred Weasley. That was what choked me up reading the books, and I think it breezed by so quickly in the film that I wonder if someone who hadn't read the books could even fully realize what had happened.

Fortunately, plenty of other moments succeeded where that one was rushed. Harry's encounter with his dead family and friends in the forest was wonderful, and the scene with Dumbledore in the train station better still. And again, that epilogue was perfect. That was the ideal way for the books to have ended, and was absolutely necessary for the films too -- but was no small risk, considering how hokey it could have come off trying to age the kids 19 years.

Alright, the rest of you can come back now. Seriously, though. Maybe you could pick up a book now and then?

Though I said I'd rank Part 1 a little higher, Part 2 wasn't far enough below it to drop a grade in my book. The two films really are of a piece anyway. I rate Part 2 an A-. Obviously, my review isn't going to push anybody to see it that wasn't going to anyway (or hasn't already), but I'm still putting it out there -- a great end to a great story.