VIDEO REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Here's our review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. i flew solo for the review this week, and this was filmed all in one take, so it's a bit less refined than usual. I didn't get to say all I wanted to in my review because we were hurting for time while we shot it. I thought it Isaac also makes a guest appearance to review the new Winnie the Pooh movie, which he went to with his nephew.







As an added takeaway from this review, I'm going to jot down a few additional thoughts on this film.

• It was an adequate finale to the series, but didn't live up to the hype I had built up in my head for four years.
• The main action sequence was disappointing to me because it lacked tension and a sense of fear for the main and supporting characters.  Rowling offed a bunch of characters in this battle in her book, but only bothered to tell the reader this after the battle was over.  Similarly, we never see any characters we recognize in danger in the movie's battle.  This was an opportunity for Yates to communicate the stakes of this conflict and ratchet up the battle's tension by giving proper onscreen deaths to some of the more beloved characters of the series.  he fails to do this, however, leaving their deaths seeming empty and meaningless.
• The first death in the movie is played for laughs, and we see bloodied corpses by the dozens, but the main villain just *SPOILER ALERT* just floats away in a cloud of ash?  Talk about anti-climactic.
• Warwick Davis gets some well-deserved moments in the limelight for his two Harry Potter roles, Griphook and Professor Flitwick.  It was nice seeing some of the ancillary characters given a few moments to shine.
• When Harry, Ron, Hermione make their triumphant return to Hogwarts about halfway through the film, I got a little chocked up thinking back on all the films and how much this imaginary school of wizardry meant to me while growing up.  There are some great moments of emotion in this film, despite my nitpicks and complaints.  The scene in the ghostly King's Cross Station, Neville's impassioned speech to his classmates, and Snape's backstory (though a shadow of it's literary self) are all excellent reminders of why Potter fans have grown to love this series so much. 

We'll miss you, Harry.  You've had a long and occasionally uneven run, but you've meant the world to a generation of readers and moviegoers alike.