FLICKS: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Posted on 21 July 2011 by LeslieM

By Dave Montalbano

After a decade, the cinematic Harry Potter series comes to a close.

AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com

My introduction to Harry Potter began 12 years ago when Deerfield Beach Percy White Youth Services librarian David Serchay called me when I was working at Sunrise Dan Pearl Library to check the shelf status of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. (Five years later, David went on a “set-up” date to go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with Bethany, who is now mother to David’s twin girls).

If the Beatles were the social myth of my childhood
and Star Wars the transitional myth of Generation X’s adolescence, then Harry Potter
and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry has become the cultural hero of the new millennium.

With a record-breaking box office revenue of $168 million, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 delivers upon its original promise. The production team was wise to divide this final movie into two parts, sustaining both narrative flow and the attention to detail.

Part 2 picks up directly from Part 1. The evil Lord Volde-mort (Ralph Fiennes) has obtained the invincible Elder Wand, while Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his consorts, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) bury a loyal ally. As the evil magician grows more powerful, Harry and his allies seek Voldemort’s Achilles heel. As war wages between wizards, beasts and dementors, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry becomes ground zero.

With the exposition out of the way, director David Yates is freed to direct three extremely well-done action sequences involving a heist, a dragon and a fire in a vault. These scenes are the ones that fans have been waiting for since the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The visual clarification is worthy of the action sequences from a John Ford/John Wayne classic.

Since the opening of the first film a decade ago to the current release, the Harry Potter franchise has enjoyed a quality ensemble of British actors. As the monstrous Professor Snape, Alan Rickman deserves kudos for balancing the contradictory motives of the menacing character. Of course, the series would have folded years ago if it were not for the sincere, consistent and empathetic performances from Radcliffe, Grint and Watson.

The closure from this final film is equal to the closure I felt concluding J.K. Rowling’s book. Let’s enjoy the waning days of Harry Potter mania and look toward our next social mythology.

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