Harry Potter part 7b - the end

So we finally come to the end of the Harry Potter series. With part 7b the story comes full circle as Harry and his chums return to Hogwarts to graduate by blowing up the school (a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer of course). Where part 7a was about hiding in the woods, part 7b is about explosions. Where part 7a was about character drama and angst, part 7b is about - well - more explosions I guess. That's right folks, you've sat through the prelude, you've endured Harry's teenage whining and Hermione & Ron's will-they-wont-they... now it's time for the payoff.

And what a payoff. Hardly any time is wasted before getting on with the big finish. Within minutes of the stylised Warner Brothers logo falling from the screen our trio of heroes are breaking into the Gringots vault in search of another part of Voldemort's soul. As soon as they escape that by riding a dragon over London they're immediately off to Hogwarts for the final confrontation. I didn't look at my watch in the cinema, but there's got to be a good hour of film all set on one night at Hogwarts - where the forces of good and evil finally collide in a climactic battle between Harry and Voldemort. Cue lots of very cool effects, running & chasing, firing off spells and soul-searching. Epic though all this is, I still thought the best scene was Harry's 'dream sequence' with Dumbledore in a ghostly apparition of Kings Cross station. It's here that the emotional heart of the story lies, even in a crash-bang finale like this.

The usual stellar array of British actors are in display as in the other films. It was particularly odd to see people like Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters reduced to little more than vessels for make-up and two lines of dialogue. One nice surprise was seeing Kelly MacDonald turn up for 5 minutes of mad nattering as a Hogwarts ghost, I guess there was at least 1 Brit left who hadn't appeared in this series yet. Her English accent is very good.

Basically this was a great finish to the series. Not as good as the book - although that probably wasn't possible - but essentially true to the source material and a fitting way to end it all. The final scene still grates a little on me though. I never liked it in the book and though I can understand Rowling's motivations for including it I think it's a little lazy. None of the young actors look in their late 30s no matter how much hairspray they put in Emma Watson's hair.

One tiny gripe, why didn't they fade to a 'THE END' logo at the end? Not too important but it would have been a nice way to round everything off. Also - minor point but important - do not attempt to watch this film if you're not seen the rest. Almost no attempt is made to cater to an audience requiring a 'previously on' recap.

A seminal moment for many, the final part of the Harry Potter series was for me the end of an enjoyable journey through a modern re-casting of many of the staples of fantasy fiction. Of the films, I think that HP3 was the best by a nose over HP5. Where the fifth had teen angst and Immelda Staunton hamming up the evil, the third had a big heart and freed the series from the clutches of the money men. Imagine what the series would have looked like if all 7 books had been filmed by Chris Columbus - Nightmare! As it is, the Potter series is an impressive achievement in modern fantasy. Though rarely groundbreaking and sometimes bogged down in maguffins and detailing the minutiae of its own world (what fantasy isn't though?), the series' main driving force was always the characters, their relationships and emotions. It's been an enjoyable decade.

And I watched it in 2D thank you very much.