IMDb #218 Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2011)

Source: Wikipedia

After the first half’s piddling around, the final film concludes the Harry Potter mega-franchise with a splendiferous whiz-bang. It’s guaranteed to baffle new viewers.

Wizard Hitler has risen again like Evil Snake Jesus. He speaks softly but carries a big magical stick. The Wizard Nazis overrun England, and presumably nowhere else. The bright and flamboyant magical subculture has decayed into grays and greens. Fitting, for a dark finale — sometimes too dark to see a bloody thing.

Meanwhile, the Golden Trio languishes at a beach house, talking about things they already know to inform the audience. (Props for trying.) They look very serious and stand around awkwardly a lot.

To kill No-Nose, the heroes hunt his soul shards. They flirt with the heist genre but revert to the usual supernatural shenanigans. Five fragments to destroy in two hours. This herculean labor is made more feasible by convenient visions, logical leaps, climbing on piles of junk, and blind-as-Oedipus luck.

Cashing in on top-notch foreshadowing, certain whimsical devices return from past adventures (now for warlike purposes), just as old characters reappear to enter the battle and promptly snuff it.

Finally, the castle/school gets used for castle purposes: keeping people out. It’s glorious. Good guys battle Wizard Nazis, unusually  human werewolves, and CG giants (possibly unemployed Lord of the Rings extras).

At the end, Harry knows there’s only one way to beat Evil Snake Jesus: Harry must out-Jesus him. Which he does, with the help of a Gandalf the White analogue who speaks in inscrutable koans. (Wait, “the good guys win” doesn’t count as a spoiler, does it?)

130 minutes.