Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -Part 2: “The boy who lived” avenges his parents
For this final installment into Harry Potter’s story, the continuous building tension in the wizarding world comes to a conclusion. The usual cast returns with David Yates returning as the director as well, which makes it his fourth Harry Potter film he has directed. It only makes sense to finish out the series with Yates as the director and yet again he doesn’t disappoint.
The school of Hogwarts was originally introduced to us by director Chris Columbus in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as a magical place almost out of a fairytale. Yates finishes Harry’s story in Hogwarts but much has changed since the orphan first discovered that he is a wizard. The series progressively shows darker, more adult themes as the characters get older with each new film and is at it’s darkest with Yates as director. Similarities can even be seen between Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Voldemort and his Death Eater army. The dark lord’s followers show extremist ideals of violence against other wizards without pure blood and you could easily draw parallels between the Death Eaters and today’s alt-right movement.
Starting off the film by showing dark wizards and dementors infesting Hogwarts while still mourning the loss of everyone’s favorite house-elf, this movie is visually and thematically one of the bleakest entries into the series. From the opening scene it can be noticed that the color pallete in the shot is much darker than the first few films in the series. The theme of all odds against Harry with almost no support from other wizards demonstrates the dismal plot and produces a feeling of loneliness or detachment. Despite the differences in this film compared to some of the earlier entries into the series, it does not have any less action and intense moments than its predecessors. From the escape from Gringotts Bank to the final wizard duel between Harry and Lord Voldemort, the visual effects technology shows just how far the film industry has come. The pale dragon guarding the vault at Gringotts Bank is more than just a dragon, it almost becomes a character. The tight chains and scars on its body show the abuse it has suffered as it is forced to guard the bank vault: its appearance and actions evokes emotion without even having spoken dialogue.
The development of the characters by Yates was pure genius. Severus Snape is a perfect example of this. He underwent a huge transformation as it was revealed that he is one of the most important characters to the dark lord’s downfall. Originally thought to be a traitor to Dumbledore and all of Hogwarts, Severus becomes an unrecognized hero. When the half-blood prince is introduced in the first film of the series, he appears to be a lifeless character forever cynical and downhearted but it is revealed that he is capable of showing the strongest emotion, love. His love for Lily Potter caused him to protect her son, Harry, and also stay loyal to Dumbledore. Speaking of Harry, he developed flawlessly by starting as an orphaned boy and then turning into the man who defeated the most powerful dark wizard of all time. With the help of his friends and deceased family, he is to destroy Voldemort or die trying in a showdown as epic and iconic as the duel between Luke and Darth Vader or Neo and Agent Smith. Which brings me to another point about this movie, there is a clear division between good and evil. Although there is an epic showdown between major characters in Harry Potter and The Matrix, Harry is obviously the protagonist while The Matrix makes it much less clear who the real “bad guy” is. This could be a strength or weakness of the Harry Potter series depending on if you prefer the grey area between forces that can be interpreted in a variety of ways or defined good and evil characters. Personally, I believe it is a strength of the movie because it is a movie that is meant to appeal to a large audience. And as a final piece of evidence to support character development, Voldemort became a more believable character, albeit an evil and twisted one. He showed pure ruthlessness against his ally, Severus Snape, and arrogance by thinking the Elder Wand was his to command, which became his undoing.
Overall, The Deathly Hallows Part 2 wraps the series up in a manner that ties all the important loose ends and doesn’t try to be anything more than it is. Sometimes that is all a movie needs to be good and in this film it worked. This final installment into the Harry Potter films shows that a big blockbuster series can still be accomplished at a time in the industry when Hollywood is plagued by culture-less cash grabs. After 10 years of production for the Harry Potter universe, The Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes to a meaningful and coherent ending.
