harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 reviews2011 130 minutes rated PG-13 Judged on its own merits, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II is a fine film, full of terrific acting, solid action beats, several emotional high points, and exceptional visuals. But as a series finale to an eight-film saga spanning ten years and around 19 hours, it is just a touch underwhelming. It's not so much that 'nothing could live up the hype' so much as David Yates and Steve Kloves making the arbitrarily odd decision to make this film, of all the films in the series, the one that is in fact too short. We have a film series where the average entry ran 145 minutes, yet Yates and Kloves decide to try to end the whole saga in just over two hours. Furthermore, even with that comparably truncated length, the film wastes valuable first-act screentime with business that arguably should have been dealt with in the last picture.
Point being, when you split up a book into two whole movies, you have absolutely no excuse to feel rushed and somewhat incomplete. Furthermore, I can't think of a single Harry Potter fan who would not have relished a series finale at least as long as the shortest Lord of the Rings film. It is a fine thing to leave fans and audiences desperately wanting more, but it is a less fine thing when there is no 'more' to be found. A token amount of plot: When we last left Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, they had just buried their slain companion Dobby the House Elf and were continuing on their quest to find the last remaining Horcruxes (if you don't know what a Horcrux is and why they must be destroyed, DO NOT see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II this weekend). One thing leads to another, and Harry Potter and his friends find themselves back at Hogwarts, where Voldemort has given the student body an ultimatum: deliver Harry Potter or everyone in the school dies. Needless to say, the school does not give in. The students and faculty scramble to protect the school from an entire army of Death Eaters, which will hopefully give Frodo the time he need to... err... I mean give Harry the time he needs to destroy the last remaining Horcruxes and thus finally take out Tom Riddle.
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