I envy no one the momentous task David Yates has admirably signed on for in being the director to draw together the loose ends and bring ultimate closure to the bulbous world of Harry Potter. It would be difficult enough for any mortal man to adequately bring a momentous film series like that of Harry Potter to a successful finish with any aplomb, but Harry Potter, in the decade of its existence has become so much more than just a series of films about wizarding children fighting evil. The Harry Potter series is now marker for an entire generation of readers. The first book was published fourteen years ago, and in that time it’s readers have gone from snot-nosed pre-pubescents to post-college twenty-somethings. In the span of time that Harry Potter has existed as a character, his readers (and then viewers) have graduated from high school and college, they’ve lost they’re virginity, they’ve discovered drugs and alcohol and all the woes of being an adult - and for many the Harry Potter books have become markers of that growth. As Harry as grown in to an evil-fighting adult, his audience has grown as well. In dropping the curtain on Harry Potter and his eccentric cast of character, David Yates is tasked with respectfully bidding adieu to this wonderful world, creating and engaging and effects-studded film and helping ease the pain of loss for an entire generation of rabid Harry Potter fans. If I was hand the reins to bucking bronco of a film to any director in the series, David Yates, with his ability to balance big budget effects and quiet character moments with an adult tone even the books fail to manage, would be the one. And though David Yates doesn’t completely stick the landing, he brings the series down to Earth with a considerable amount of style and grace.
Where Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 tackled the
considerably less entertaining aspects of the final book in
the series (the lengthy bouts of depression, and the long
fruitless task of chasing horcruxes), Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 is the juicy action meat of
the book. The shortest film in the entire series, Deathly
Hallows is almost entirely Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron
(Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) sneaking their way
back to Hogwarts to engage in the aptly named Battle of
Hogwarts so Harry can face off once and for all against the
Dark Lord himself, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). It’s a briskly
paced film, and in the context of the other bloated (though
entertaining) beasts, it feels downright speedy. Yates
doesn’t seem fixated on focusing a terrible amount on this
being the final moments of a beloved characters career,
instead, he seems rushed just to get to Hogwarts and get to
the more epic moments his trailer promises. In terms of
choices this is sometimes great as a lot of the chunk of the
book is left on the side, but I like these characters and
wanted their final bow to be lengthy and drawn out so I
could linger on every last moment. Yates is smart though, he
focuses on Harry Potter and his various mini-quests because
Harry Potter is the crux of the entire film. Sure, I
would’ve loved more time spent with the fledgling romance of
Ron and Hermione, and I certainly would have enjoyed at
least an explanation of have characters like Lupin (David
Thewlis) and Tonks (Natalia Tena) and Fred (James Phelps)
died, but Yates knows that these are just sideshows to the
main event. This is a film about Hogwarts burning and Harry
Potter fighting Voldemort. And aside from any complaints
about the film’s relative brevity, it works, it’s a great
send-off to Harry Potter’s world. We get a few final moments
with Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), we get a lovely
little scene with Harry and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in a
whited-out King’s Cross, and of course we get a final moment
to relish in Snape’s assholery while seeing that perhaps all
of his rage was built on something a little more friendly.
|
