Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

IMDb

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Director: David Yates

Writer(s): Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)

Staring: Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

MPAA Rating:Rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence and frightening images.

Running Time: 130 min

Synopsis: The final chapter begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their quest of finding and destroying the Dark Lord's three remaining Horcruxes.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 97% (Fresh), Top Critics: 100% (Fresh), Audience: 93% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 87 out of 100, Users: 8.4 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 84 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: A- Users: A

My Review

Source Material: Based on Book with same name.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: There is a good amount of action, lets just say a good amount of the film is a battle sequence. A full blown war break out at Hogwarts. We finally get to see some bad ass wizard encounters, that just makes you smile.

• Comedy Elements: This is a darker film but that Harry Potter humor and light heartiness isn't completely gone. Meaning you will get a good couple of laughs.

• Dramatic Elements: Man a live there are a few sequence that might just make you cry especially if your a "fanboy" of the books. These scenes are cinematically beautiful.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: If you don't know by now that Harry Potter takes place in a high fantasy wizarding world then you mostly live under a rock or your just not in touch with any popular culture at all. Either way this film has a bunch of visual effect to achieve the magic from Harry's world, that us Muggles don't understand.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 8: The performance were great overall. There was some highlighted character this time around that was nice to see for a chance. Notably, Minerva McGonagall played by Maggie Smith has an awesome battle with Snape. I think I enjoy the adult actor performance sometime over the now teen actors. I absolutely adore the performance that comes from Ralph Fiennes, and Alan Rickman. I' m not sure who else could have been a better Dark Lord, Ray Fiennes is such a great antagonist. Alan Rickman voice scream Snape, but this film we see the real Snape.

• Art Direction: 9: The film is straight up beautiful...I hope to see Oscar nomination.

• Cinematography: 9: Like I said before this film is an action film. With that being said the filming of the action is not horrible like we saw with Transformers a few weeks ago. Also so many different emotion were sparked with the cinematography alone, it was fantastic.

• Direction: 8: I was never board and the film seemed to flow smoothly. David Yates did a good job in my opinion.

• Editing: 8: I would basically say the same I did for directing for the editing.

• Screenplay: 8.5: Lets talk a bit about adaption. The average length of a screenplay is somewhere between 90 pages to 120 pages. Keeping in mind that one page of a screenplay is about one minute of screen time. The book had 759 pages which equals 759 minutes or 12 hours and 40mins. That would be one long movie...how about two 120min moives pulse or minus 30mins, meaning a screenplay with over 200pages, that's a little more manageable don't you think. So with that being said some stuff has to be cut. To a "fanboy" these cuts usually ruin the film complete, making claims like,"They forgot this...didn't explain that...WTF" To someone who hasn't read the books, confusion maybe in order but they get over it quickly. This is how I tend to approach adaption film. 1. Did the filmmakers hit the main plot points and premise I remember from the source material? 2. Dose the added material for cinematic effect add to the over story, therefore making a more exciting movie? 3. Dose the content of the film have good literary structure? 4. Was there good character development? 5. Did I enjoy the film as much as I did the book?

• Sound and Music: 9: I love the score as much as the other Harry Potter film. Music just add another depth of emotion.

• VFX: 10: The magic was brought to life again but this time better than ever. I see VFX award or two coming out of this film.

Overall: 8.5: Sorry I spent sooooo much time in the screenplay section but I know the worst part of every Harry Potter film or another film with a huge fan base is what the filmmaker choose to leave out of the film. Overall the film is great and I think all Potter fan will enjoy it. I'm sure most of anybody has seen it. I didn't get a chance to watch until Monday after it opening...so this review is a bit old news. I suggest watching Part 1 then watch Part 2 while Part 1 is still fresh in your head.