End of a decade: A review of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2

Severus Snape: “You have used me. I have spied for you, lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter—

“Albus Dumbledore: “But this is touching, Severus. Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?“

I guess I should count myself as part of a generation of people that practically grew up with Harry Potter. As I recall, I was in Form 2 when Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone came out and I’m in the final year of my 5-year university course now. I opted not to refresh my memory on the books for this movie, to avoid the inevitable comparisons. And I chose to see it in 3D out of convenience because my nearest theatre was showing it (+1) at the earliest possible time (+1).

To my surprise, the theatre was not full even at midday on a Saturday. Perhaps most of the Potter enthusiasts caught it on the premiere day, I thought to myself. The opening scene sets the mood for the rest of the film – a somber march to a final conclusion. Even the giant Warner Bros. logo appears more ominous than usual.

The film picks up directly after the events of its predecessor, where we find Harry Potter having just buried Dobby the elf. The first act is a thrilling break-in of the Gringotts bank by our trio with the help of the goblin Griphook. Here, Helena Bonham-Carter shines as she plays a nervous, polyjuiced Hermione in Bellatrix Lastrange’s form. After collecting the horcrux in the form of Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup from the vault, they escape via dragon.

We then get to meet Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth who rescues Harry. Ron and Hermione when they apparate into Hogsmeade and set off a Caterwauling charm alarm. We also get to see a portrait of the young Ariana Dumbledore which appears to be the centrepiece of the living room. But regretfully, we don’t get to see any of the backstory between the Dumbledore siblings or Grindelwaal which would have added tantalizing depth to the movie.

Harry sneaks into Hogwarts with the sole purpose of finding the remaining horcrux. Sensing this, Snape launches a crackdown on all Hogwarts students in the Great Hall before Harry reveals himself. He is swiftly pushed aside by the awesome HBIC Professor McGonagall. She forces his ouster in startling fashion following a fiery one-sided duel from her formidable wand. But there is little time to cheer as Voldemort sends a chilling message to Hogwarts to prepare for his arrival.

The Battle of Hogwarts ensues as Voldemort’s forces attack Hogwarts itself. For me, the highlight of the movie is the following part where we see Snape’s final showdown with Voldemort. The dark wizard is insecure that the Elder Wand is not under his command because he did not kill the previous owner (Albus Dumbledore). Thus he unleashes his pet snake Nagini on Snape (which was a little bit frightening for the little ones). Harry finds Snape in his dying minutes, only to retrieve a few drops of his tears for the pensieve.

We learn that Snape and Lily were childhood friends, and he could only watch as the woman he loved fell for the seemingly arrogant James Potter. When the Dark Lord rose for the first time, he begged him to spare Lily Potter. On that fateful night at Godric’s Hallow, Lily refused to step aside to the Dark Lord in order to protect her son, Harry. Voldemort unleashed a Killing Curse which rebounded on Harry as a result of his mother’s willing sacrifice. Snape is seen at the Potter home later, in grief at Lily’s death. He changes his allegiance to Dumbledore’s side in order to avenge Lily’s death and his true colours are revealed.

Dumbledore was in fact dying after inflicting himself with a horrible curse during his last horcrux adventure with Harry. He had ordered Snape to kill him in order to ostensibly show his loyalty to Voldemort. And as for Harry himself, Dumbledore knew that in order to defeat the Dark Lord, Harry must die. This horrified Snape who had sworn to protect Harry to honour Lily’s memory and sacrifice. Snape then reveals his patronus, the shape of a doe – the same as Lily’s. He still had feelings for her after all these years.

I think that the story of Snape, the half blooded prince, is the climax and tour de force of the movie. It is storyline most unexpected and that has been slowly revealed over the seven books – that Harry’s most disliked teacher was the one who was protecting him all along. The rest of the movie simply pales in comparison to the complexity, depth and emotion of Severus Snape and his relationship with Harry and Lily Potter.

Good things aside, there were some parts of the movie that were not well done. The epilogue was presented to us almost literally from the books and it was laughable. Harry, Ron and Hermione did NOT look 19 years older. Only Ginny could have passed for a mom. And there was little sense of emotion or nostalgia of any kind during this scene. It really kind of all fell flat for me. And don’t get me started on how they undermined Harry and Ron’s friendship in the movie to make way for Ron and Hermione’s “romance”. I had always imagined that the core trio’s relationships would be strongly developed, but Ronald Weasley’s role as Harry’s best friend was severely underestimated in this film. He didn’t even seem to flinch when Harry announced he was going to face Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest alone.

But all things aside, when the Pottermania subsides, Harry Potter will likely be the top grossing movie franchises of all time. And what is the future of Pottermania? Well, thankfully, JK Rowling is not going to stop with books and films. She’s created an online portal called Pottermania where her work lives on. And as a true thank you to her legions of fans, it will be available for free hopefully, for decades more to come.