Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes
Yes! Action and magic… a satisfying end
No! Some of the emotions feel misplaced

In the final part of the Harry Potter film series (octology?), Potter (Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Grint) and Hermione Granger (Watson) try to collect Voldemort’s (Fiennes) remaining horcruxes to finally end He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Going into the cinema to watch this final instalment was both sad and happy for me. I’ve enjoyed the series since tweenhood, and I’ve managed to see each of the movies in the cinema. This was the end. Truly the end.

The movie carries on right where the previous film ended, at the beach. If you can manage it, I’d recommend reading or watching the previous instalments, because I was a little lost at the beginning.

Potter’s conversation with Griphook near the start of the film is probably one of my favourite scenes in the movie, because Warwick Davis’ goblin was particularly well acted.

From the dialogue-heavy first few minutes, the intrepid trio then have intermittent bouts of action (a roller-coaster ride into Gringott’s) broken up by shots of Voldemort being evil and all the characters looking pensive.

I enjoyed the film a great deal, and the action did not disappoint, but some of the emotions were slightly off. Don’t get me wrong, there was emotion in spades, but the things that had me bawling like a baby in the book (Death! Love!) were rather meh in the movie. The emotion came from the general tension and the good-triumphs-over-evil. I definitely think a few more tears could have been milked out.

As the books grew increasingly darker, so did the films, and I’d suggest parents do some research about the film before letting little ones watch it. No nudity or cursing (well, not our Muggle cursing), but the violence and dark themes seemed quite intense for kids that just want some magic.

It’s definitely worth a watch, and has more action and tension than part one (see our review here), which felt like little more than build-up.

But, really, the deciding factor won’t be a review, it’ll be whether you’re committed to the series. If you’ve never seen/read Harry Potter, you’ll be lost; if you’ve seen/read them all, how can you not watch this one?

This review was originally posted on Pulp Online