| 'HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2' spoiler-free review. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Wednesday, 13 July 2011 01:16 |
 It's been three hours since I finished watching 'HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2' - which means that three hours have passed since I can never say that I am viewing a Harry Potter movie for the very first time, ever again. [ Dearest J.K., please don't cash in on some sort of irrelevant spin-off. ] Part Two picks up exactly from where Part One left off, so I would really advise you to re-visit the first half if you are at all fuzzy on the details of Harry & Co.'s Horcrux quest. There are no handy flashbacks and some of the finer details do slightly stray (or have been shuffled around) from the original book's running order of action, so here are the facts that the film opens with: - Lord Voldemort [Elder Wand] and Harry Potter [Invisibility Cloak] are in possession of one Deathly Hallow each, with the exact location of the Resurrection Stone yet to be determined. - There are three Horcruxes left to hunt down and destroy. Research or remind yourself of those however much you feel you ought to.   More than anything else, I've always thought of the Harry Potter films as visual accompaniments to J.K. Rowling's books, and the latest installment is no different. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful accompaniment, but some-one else's re-imagining of scenes that you've spent your entire childhood re-reading over and over again are bound to fall short of any unabridged expectations. However, it's easy to forget your past and present quarrels with screenwriter Steve Kloves, when presented face-to-face with the artful care that director David Yates and production designer Stuart Craig have put into utilising translucent and reflective surfaces on-set to unite the many diverging story-lines of the final battle.   I may have thought it prior, but now I know that Alan Rickman is no mere mortal. His portrayal of Severus Snape is absolutely everything that any diehard fan could wish for. The flashback that book-readers have all been waiting for is brilliantly done - albeit a little shorter than what I would have preferred, keeping in mind that I really do have rather lengthy expectations when it comes to Hogwarts Headmasters - and well-cast. Other highlights include an utterly convincing Helena Bonham Carter Polyjuice potion scene, Ginny Weasley growing on me more and more as the movie progressed, and Professor McGonagall channeling a little bit of Ron Weasley humour. Unsurprisingly, Evanna Lynch continues to play a perfect Luna Lovegood, with her character benefiting the most from the film's minor re-writes.  You can rest assured that Molly Weasley does indeed get her moment, but for me personally, the infamous line fell a little bit flat in such a truncated context. For everyone else in the cinema though, it inspired a hearty round of applause and cheering, as did you-know-what between Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.  As promised, you will receive no spoilers from me - at least not until Thursday when you've had sufficient enough time to form your own thoughts and we can compare notes about Moony, Padfoot and Prongs - but in the meantime I will leave you with this one question... WHY DOES VOLDEMORT GIVE DRACO MALFOY A HUG? P.S. Since when did Matthew Lewis - a.k.a. Neville Longbottom - get so darn attractive?!  'HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2' opens in New Zealand cinemas tonight at midnight! Click HERE to watch the film's official trailer. |
