Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – Cathay @ AMK Hub. I haven’t been writing much about films on our blog – and that’s not because we haven’t been watching any. On the contrary, we’ve been hitting the theaters pretty regularly – just that the zest to write about films has taken a hiatus!
We caught the last Harry Potter film over the weekend, and the film left me with quite a mix of emotions. It was by large a more coherent story this time round than the first Deathly Hallows film that I blogged about last November, though on account that the story centers squarely on finding the remaining Horcruxes, and the final big Hogwarts battle. Lots of faces from the last films all show up, most of whom are given at least a few lines of dialog but their presences on screen becomes so fleeting that the film at spots feels like Cameo Central. Some of those cameos are excellent – like McGonagall who gets the film’s best line which she delivers like a ditzy girl thrilled at getting access to her first car. Others like Hagrid fare worse and with very little to do, I was left wondering why he showed up even, outside fan service.
Still, it remains a delight to see how far the three young leads have come along, and Daniel Radcliffe showing real acting range again. The best performance though goes to Alan Rickman, whose Snape presents a touching backstory that makes sense to several key story points over the seven books. I don’t think Rickman is going to get an Oscar for his performance here, but a nomination might be in the books for him.
Visually, the film’s splendid. The wizardry duel scenes see the actors front and center, and it’s satisfying to see action scenes in films that don’t give you the same migraine one gets from Michael Bay’s productions. The Hogwarts battle is suitably epic too and very large in scale. One story element has been changed though to significant effect, resulting in an almost disturbing change in tone to the film. In the book as I remember it, Hogwart students were evacuated prior to the final battle. In the film, they’re not. Which means you get plenty of scenes of dead students, including one whose bloodied throat is feasted upon by a Death Eater. Pretty gory stuff, and definitely not kid-safe.
The one scene where I was really looking forward to was how the film was going to portray Harry, Ron and Hermione 19 years down the road – a key scene in the closing pages of the final book. On this score, even Ling remarked that only Ron looked suitably aged with a plump middle-aged tummy. Harry looked digitally artificial with post-effects added wrinkled eyes and stubbed chin. Hermione looked like she was still 20 than 39.
All this said, the film did leave me misty eyed at several spots, on account of the very strong actor performances from the lead players, and the emotional resonance from following a story that has lasted ten years on film.
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