Harry Potter saga ends where it should've began

Please note that several major spoilers are in this review.

This is what the Harry Potter saga should’ve been like all along.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” had the kind of ending the series desperately needed: wand-wielding wizards take part in battle, and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) himself finally meets with Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) to settle their score once and for all. Staying true to the saga, the action wasn’t overdone, and the plotlines came to the forefront. 

Potter and his two friends, Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), set out to finish what they started in Part 1 of the series finale, which is finding and destroying the Horcruxes that hold part of Lord Voldemort’s soul to be able to finally take down the dark lord. This journey on which the group embarks while scouring for these pieces easily is the defining event in the series.

It’s also nice that Part 2 took off right after the events of Part 1, something the series seriously needed before. There’s isn’t half an hour to 45 minutes of wasted movie time that plagues the first several movies of the saga.

While much might be talked about the growth of the three main characters (both in the movies and in real life), the finale, like the rest of movies, is carried by the supporting cast. Fiennes shows different sides of Voldemort that bring new emotions in play. Once perceived as ruthless, Fiennes reveals an almost hurt, wounded Voldemort, though it doesn’t diminish the character’s evil persona. Alan Rickman brings a weighted sense of redemption to Professor Snape.

The rest of the movie’s puzzle pieces fall perfectly into place. Snape, who seemingly betrayed everyone of Hogwarts by killing Dumbledore at the end of the sixth movie, turns out to reveal a significant, though blatantly obvious, truth that Potter and Voldemort are connected closer than they thought. This knowledge makes Potter’s reunion with Voldemort all the more significant, though the grand moment is made anti-climactic when Potter kills himself (he comes back to life, though. More on that later).

There’s other, more thrilling sequences in the last half an hour of the movie that bring a definite end to Potter’s seven-year journey in Hogwarts. The movie does, however, pull a Lord of the Rings: Return of the King—there were two or three false endings before it finally wrapped up with Harry and the gang seeing their children off to Hogwarts to begin their own journeys. This was quite annoying.

While the finale was a fitting end to the saga, that doesn’t redeem the series, nor does it make the series realize its full potential.

First of all, the series absolutely punishes viewers for not having read the books. There also are so many characters and events that aren’t given any kind of context that it goes beyond frustrating and into the territory of terrible film making. The finale does nothing to reverse this trend, either.

There are two major discrepancies (there’s actually more, but I’ll focus on the two that bothered me the most) that may or may not have been answered in the books, but for the purposes of the movie, were problems. Potter dies, but somehow comes back to life. How? It’s never really explained, though it’s possible that Voldemort only destroyed the part of Potter’s soul that was connected to him (that’s pretty flimsy if that’s the case).

The other issue I had was regarding the Elder’s Wand. Somehow Harry was the true owner of it. When did this happen? Why didn’t his ownership prevent it from being so powerful for others throughout the movie? It’s inexplicable and lazy writing, if you ask me.

Despite all that, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” was one of the two or three best Harry Potter movies and a fitting conclusion to an otherwise scattered, directionless saga that seemed to drag too long before coming to this point. Honestly, the saga would’ve been better with just the first one and parts 6 and 7. But then again, I’m someone who thinks the legacy of the Harry Potter Saga won’t ever come close to the likes of Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, the new Batman movies and other truly great franchises.