Harry Potter, the boy who lived... come to die.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II

(2011)

A bit of a crumbly end to the series; Part I actually worked better and that had some serious structural flaws.

Presumably fidelity to the source material has resulted in this misshapen climax (and the promise of extra bucks that didn't see the book truncated into one movie), which doesn't succeed in sustaining tension and, amidst the ongoing battle sequences, gives us only a couple of really memorable scenes. One is the bank "heist" near the start, featuring an extremely well-rendered dragon.

The other is a flashback sequence involving Rickman's Snape, which answers many questions but also signposts some serious bungling in narrative flow; Snape exits the story with a whimper, so the investment and intrigue surrounding his character never pays off in a cathartic way.

There are other problems of that ilk too; hoisting a charisma-free series regular, Matthew Lewis, to fourth lead may be true to Rowling, but it leaves a vacuum of indifference in the scenes where he holds centre stage. And while most of the rest of the cast are solid enough on the run or incantating, they show their limitations (or are let down by the script) when required to express teenage passions.

***

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