Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 (DVD)
Warner Home Video

Release date: December 3rd, 2011
Certificate (UK): 12
Runtime: 125 minutes

Director: David Yates
Composer: Alexandre Desplat

Producers: David Heyman, David Barron J. K. Rowling

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes

It’s hard to imagine a time when Harry Potter wasn’t part of our popular culture. Having captured the imaginations of millions around the world with her first novel devoted to the child sorcerer, J.K. Rowling then sold the rights to Warner Brothers in 1999 and it was David Heyman who made that all important first film, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone (2001).

In the years that followed those young fans got to grow up with the series and its characters as they developed and grew, from page to screen. 10 years later it breaks our hearts to watch them say a tearful goodbye.

This final chapter opens with much sadness and darkness. Following the death of Dobey in Part 1 and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) finding the power he seeks to destroy his opposition, the trio, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) face a grim task if good is to triumph in this ultimate battle. They must destroy the Horcruxes, thereby extinguishing Voldemort’s power once and for all.

The first thing is a bold break-in at Gringotts bank to retrieve an item from Bellatrix’s vault, but the plan goes awry and they’re betrayed. It makes them realise their schemes never work and they always end up ‘winging it’. More than that though is Harry’s feeling that Voldemort and him are so inextricably linked that killing him might result in the deaths of them both.

Their next move takes them back to Hogwarts where Harry encounters an unlikely ally. It’s also where one of the series’ greatest battles takes place. It’s both breathtaking and devastating to see the destruction unleashed on this beloved building. Its smouldering remains, nothing more than rubble, is another sign that this is really the end. It’s as if what’s left of their innocence has now been brutally torn from them. It’s an emotional moment in the film and its impact is felt even more by Alexandre Desplat’s monumental score.

Everything has lead to this moment and Harry has to make a choice, not an easy one but an important one, as he comes face to face with Voldemort. Radcliffe takes everything he’s done so far and gives his all in this final performance of a character that’s brought so much to so many.

Right and wrong and the idea of choices have always been recurring themes in the Harry Potter series but in Deathly Hallows 2, together with revisiting some memorable landmarks, there’s an inescapable feeling that this is a fight for the future, a future that not everyone will live to see.

While Deathly Hallows 2 closes the book on the series, it doesn’t say goodbye without showing us what that promised future holds. As hard as it is to imagine a time before Harry Potter, it’s even harder to imagine if there will ever be anything like this again.

The adventure, the characters, the action and the fun made this series a worldwide phenomenon, but a lot of it had to do with magic as well.

Though the films have now ended, their magic will live on in those who’ve experienced it.