SPOILER ALERT: This review contains plot elements from the Harry Potter series, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II!
Perhaps better than anyone else, we collegiettes™ make the best Potterheads. We grew up reading Harry Potter and watching him on the big screen. And today, we say goodbye to Harry for the second time since July 2007 when the book series came to a bittersweet close. It’s the second and final installment in the blockbuster series, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II premiered in theaters nationwide.
We’ve adored Harry over the years. We laughed at Ron’s slapstick side comments. We cried when Dumbledore died. We oohed and ahhed at CGI wonders like Fluffy, Norwegian Ridgeback dragons, and Dementors. We were itching on the edge of our seats at Quidditch games and wand-wielding wizard stand-offs. We were happy when Harry broke up with that crazy girl Cho (and even happier when he hooked up with Ginny). And we always get a sense of nostalgia when we hear the tinkling melody of Hedwig’s theme song.
We came of age alongside Harry, Ron, Hermione and the other witches and wizards enrolled at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (admit it, you were a little bit disappointed when you didn’t get that letter by owl post). So it’s no wonder that our generation of wannabe witches will be feeling bittersweet about saying goodbye to Harry.
There’s so much to encapsulate in a book series and movie franchise spanning over a decade, that it would be impossible to mention every little detail of Harry’s magical world. But in order to best recap Harry’s last on-screen appearance, let’s take a look back on the past ten years that led us up to this point, and why we loved and still love Harry (as if you needed reminding).
J.K. Rowling was a single mom on welfare when she started scribbling notes for a children’s book on napkins at her favorite local cafe in Edinburgh. She claims that she thought of the idea for Harry Potter on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. She outlined the plot and developed the characters for the first novel for five years before it ever met the hands of a publisher or literary agent. After her manuscript was rejected by twelve publishing houses and the manuscript sat on a low-priority shelf, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published by UK’s Bloomsbury in 1997. The seven novels encompass the Harry Potter series took the world by storm, immersing children and adults alike in the pages of her spell-binding world. Rowling has sold over 400 million copies in over 40 different languages. Since then, it exploded into full-blown Harry mania with seven international bestsellers and a multi-million dollar movie franchise.
The movie series came into the works early in the 2000s with director Chris Columbus and J.K. Rowling on set. The crew introduced us to a cast we’ve come to know and love, including the debonair Daniel Radcliffe, the stylish Emma Watson, and everyone’s favorite goofball Rupert Grint. The trio were coming of age in the fourth and fifth movies and it was only in the later installments of the series that the plot took a turn for the darker with a directorial change in David Yates for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that continued through to the final movie.
The deaths of memorable characters like Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black, as well as a trail of horcruxes led Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the seventh and final installment of the series, separated into two halves, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Part II.
Which brings us to Deathly Hallows Part II. It picks up where the first half left off: on a melancholy note burying the house-elf Dobby by sea. If seeing Hedwig die and dramatically spin out of the sky in the first half didn’t make you cry, Dobby’s sacrifice is sure to have you awing in sympathy. After mourning the loss of their longtime non-human friend, Harry Potter and his friends, having just escaped torture at the Malfoy Manor, reconvene at Bill and Fleur’s beachside cottage to plan their next move. It’s a stark reminder that this movie will be as edgy and emotionally raw as the last, and no time to store away your tissues.
The final chapter begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their quest of destroying Voldemort’s horcruxes, the magical items that house his soul, thus preserving his immortality and uncovering the mystical Deathly Hallows, previously believed to have only existed in children’s folklore.
After a near-death escape from Gringotts Bank, a broomstick flight through the Room of Requirement, and the final showdown to be hosted at Hogwarts Castle.
Little do the trio know that Severus Snape has taken total control as the totalitarian headmaster at Hogwarts and Lord Voldemort has cracked open the casket of the late Albus Dumbledore to take possession of one of three Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand.
The final pieces of the puzzle start to come together in the culminating battle against Voldemort’s legion of Death Eaters. We are reunited with some of our favorite characters from the underdog Neville Longbottom, the no-nonsense Professor McGonagall, and the bewitching (if not slightly crazy) Bellatrix Lestrange played by Helena Bonham Carter.
And who can forget the sour-faced Alan Rickman as Severus Snape? I’ve always loved him on the movie screen and Rickman has proved to be a stellar casting choice for Snape’s character.
But he falls victim along with many more of the characters who die in this movie.
Admittedly, I haven’t read the book in a few years, so being slightly out of touch with the wizarding world proved a little difficult in understanding the ins and outs of the plot.
Part II hits the main plot points in the book, but explanations of horcruxes, wand lore, the Deathly Hallows and other plot elements are left to Part I, so recapping with a movie marathon might be a good idea– just in case you forgot about Horcruxes, Deathly Hallows, and Patronuses, or anything else from the last ten years, before heading into the theaters.
Regardless, the movie, though action-packed and fast-paced, doesn’t have a very complex plot.
Or at least not much more than what you would predict. The final showdown between Voldemort and Harry is little less than the wizard prodigy surrendering himself with closed eyes and open arms to the villain’s wrathful Avada Kedava spell. In a moment suspended between life and the afterlife, he chats with Dumbledore who has more riddles than answers for Harry (“Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” classic Dumbledore). And after he’s dramatically carried back limp and lifeless in Hagrid’s arms to the gates of Hogrwarts, surprises the dark lord and his horde of Death Eaters by springing to life. In a clean-cut match of wills, Harry reclaims the Elder Wand and blasts He Who Shall Not Be Named into oblivion.
Most details in the book were incorporated into the plot or at least touched upon in the movie and the epilogue is no exception. The CGI look is a little jarring on Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny who are meant to be 19 years older, but it’s the sweet moment between Harry and his son at Platform 9 3/4 that makes up for the awkward technicality.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II isn’t simply another movie. It’s the conclusion of a pop culture phenomenon and the last chapter of a story we’ve been following for years. No more waiting in the ticket line hours before midnight. No more trailers or merchandise.
It’s true, we haven’t seen the last of Harry. Rowling launched Pottermore online just this year. But it’s the closing of a chapter for our generation and a pop culture phenomenon not likely to be rivaled any time soon. So sit back with a mug of Butterbeer, don your best witch’s hat and dress up in Gryffindor colors (or Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff) if you want, because it’s your last chance to say you saw a Harry Potter movie in theaters and your last chance to bid him adieu on the big screen.