The eighth Harry Potter film. That’s one more film than Voldemort has horcruxes And if you don’t know what a horcux is then you might be in the wrong place. Best go back and read the books, or just give up on ever getting this whole ‘Harry Potter’ thing.
Part eight (or part two of the seventh installment) sees Harry, Hermione and Ron return from their Gap Year. They’ve had a great time and grown a little but now it’s time to return home to Hogwarts. On the way they rob a bank.
The bank robbery, which seemed almost written for the screen in the book, is surprisingly underwhelming. Instead of being the big opening sequence it’s shoved in quickly after an opening twenty minutes of exposition. Harry and pals have been away from Hogwarts for too long and director David Yates is determined to get them in the doors as soon as possible.
Once there there’s the usual mix of decent action sequences, clunky dialogue. Poor auld Seamus Finnegan (Devon Murray) seems to always get saddled with the worst lines and this-is-exactly-what-is-happening-now exposition.
But everything is given an extra lift by the fact that this is the finale. It’s hard not to feel a bit giddy as the ‘Battle for Hogwarts’ gets underway. There is plenty of montage, plenty of soaring music. And, given the length of time we’ve spent with these characters, it works. If anything, it’s undercooked. A couple of deaths are given perfunctory treatment when a slow motion agonising death would have audiences in tears.
The script stays as faithful to the book as it needs to be (Hermione and Ron’s inevitable ‘moment’ probably works better than the book). There are no major errors of judgement, but no moments of real inspiration either. Like pretty much every Potter film since Azkaban, it’s efficient and loyal to the source material without being Chris-Columbus-so-loyal-it’s-boring.
As with the entire series; as a whole it’s good enough to be worth watching, without being great enough to talk it about afterwards. A suitable finale to a series that has it’s fans but never really held a candle to the books.
By Kevin Donnellan.
