Italians - HPTDHP1&2

Harry Potter – The Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 & 2 – It All Ends

Quite true, actually…everything ends, including witches, wizards, warlocks, soothsayers, you name it, it all ends. The journey to the end, now there’s the good part and in some cases, the not so good.

Harry Potters 1 through 6 took us on an aggressively darker ride through the realms of the magical universe. Part 7, masquerading as 1 and 2, are, at times, very dark and mature and then again we realize we’re watching someone’s imagination visualized.

Kids who were the same age as Harry, 11, who read all the books, went to the store events, and begged and pleaded to be a little Harry or Hermione for Halloween, probably felt the most akin to the characters over the years. As a muggle, I wouldn’t know the first thing about spells, potions, dark arts, or white arts, for that matter. I just like a good story, pulling the rabbit out of the hat, fantasy, dragons, centaurs, mermaids, and the movies. I’d have to say, I pretty much got my wish here for all of those things and more throughout the series.

I won’t give anything away. I’ll just say, if you’re a fan, you’ll like the conclusion. If you’re not, read the books and see the movies after. Quibbling about whether or not everything in the books is in the films, well, you can do that, but you’ve missed so much of what the filmmakers were able to capture in only a few hours instead of what takes most of us weeks and months to read.

Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and especially, Daniel Radcliffe are to be commended for jobs well done. Supporting cast members…yikes, there are so many, Alan Rickman, Dame Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Richard Harris/Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Helena Bonham-Carter….the list is almost endless, top drawer. Lastly, without the over-the-top special effects and CGI brilliance used in each and every movie under the unique direction of Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell, and David Yates, this would be an impossible task to interpret without the use of a magic wand. J.K. Rowlings has created, for now and evermore, a classic on an epic scale. Grab a broomstick, put on your sorting hat, and watch out for the whomping willow. Rating: 4 stars ("Italians" is what we kept reading while standing in line waiting to see Part 2...get it, Itallends).