Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Part 2 (12A.)
Directed By David Yates.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith. 130mins.
Is that bloody it? Is that all there is to a Harry Potter? It is finished and after 1178 minutes I think it is fair to pose the question, what was the point of all that? Of course if you’re a fan it will all have made perfect sense and HP7pt2 will probably be all you want it to be – the audience burst into rapturous applause at the end. Anyone outside the faith hoping that it would summon up some kind of last gasp inclusive climax will be disappointed. Even the execrable Star Wars prequels roused themselves for a thrilling finale. HP7pt2 is almost one long (slightly inferior to) Lord of the Rings style battle scene, but it is still same old, same old.
The series has been an honourable endeavour and you appreciate that the producers have tried to do it properly but ultimately this hasn’t been an adaptation of the books, simply an illustration; a selection of often very pretty pictures to accompany your reading pleasure. The ending confirms what has long been suspected: objectively they are not very good. Rowling’s tale again manages to be less than the sum of its borrowings.
The story is stubbornly uninteresting. Fundamentally nothing happens but there is a constant twitter of plot with little indication as to which bits might actually be important. This is like taking the exam after a particularly dull history course where the teacher has gone over everything but nothing has stuck. The repeal of the Corn Laws; Harry search for the seven Horcruxes: what was the relevance again?
The Potters pose as a saga but plays out like a super compressed soap opera. At the start Warwick Davis pops in as a goblin and he has his little sub plot that takes up about twenty minutes and then he disappears out of it, like so many others whose storylines have briefly taken centre stage before being written out.
The long anticipated big show down between Potter and himself has been hyped up in a way that would shame a boxing match on Sky, and is just as underwhelming. Compare it to the dramatic weight of the meeting of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader at the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, where even a Sky Wars sceptic gets into the gravity of the moment.
The outcomes of these stick pointing contests seem entirely arbitrary. Helena Bonham-Carter and Julie Walters wand off to the death at one point and the decisive moment, what swings it in her favour, is as mysterious as the judging of some obscure sport during the Olympics. Indeed the outcome of the whole thing seems entirely arbitrary.
Over the last twenty hours I’ve been waiting for the outstretched hand to welcome me aboard or some clue as to what it is that people find so enthralling about the books and it is still as big a mystery as it was ten years ago.
Directed By David Yates.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith. 130mins.
Is that bloody it? Is that all there is to a Harry Potter? It is finished and after 1178 minutes I think it is fair to pose the question, what was the point of all that? Of course if you’re a fan it will all have made perfect sense and HP7pt2 will probably be all you want it to be – the audience burst into rapturous applause at the end. Anyone outside the faith hoping that it would summon up some kind of last gasp inclusive climax will be disappointed. Even the execrable Star Wars prequels roused themselves for a thrilling finale. HP7pt2 is almost one long (slightly inferior to) Lord of the Rings style battle scene, but it is still same old, same old.
The series has been an honourable endeavour and you appreciate that the producers have tried to do it properly but ultimately this hasn’t been an adaptation of the books, simply an illustration; a selection of often very pretty pictures to accompany your reading pleasure. The ending confirms what has long been suspected: objectively they are not very good. Rowling’s tale again manages to be less than the sum of its borrowings.
The story is stubbornly uninteresting. Fundamentally nothing happens but there is a constant twitter of plot with little indication as to which bits might actually be important. This is like taking the exam after a particularly dull history course where the teacher has gone over everything but nothing has stuck. The repeal of the Corn Laws; Harry search for the seven Horcruxes: what was the relevance again?
The Potters pose as a saga but plays out like a super compressed soap opera. At the start Warwick Davis pops in as a goblin and he has his little sub plot that takes up about twenty minutes and then he disappears out of it, like so many others whose storylines have briefly taken centre stage before being written out.
The long anticipated big show down between Potter and himself has been hyped up in a way that would shame a boxing match on Sky, and is just as underwhelming. Compare it to the dramatic weight of the meeting of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader at the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, where even a Sky Wars sceptic gets into the gravity of the moment.
The outcomes of these stick pointing contests seem entirely arbitrary. Helena Bonham-Carter and Julie Walters wand off to the death at one point and the decisive moment, what swings it in her favour, is as mysterious as the judging of some obscure sport during the Olympics. Indeed the outcome of the whole thing seems entirely arbitrary.
Over the last twenty hours I’ve been waiting for the outstretched hand to welcome me aboard or some clue as to what it is that people find so enthralling about the books and it is still as big a mystery as it was ten years ago.
