Like the boy that shares its name, the Harry Potter series stumbled from the gate, saddled not entirely unexpectedly with inexperience and immaturity. But then, as with the boy, something truly wonderful—even magical—happened. It grew into something to be immensely, colossally, button-poppingly proud of. Unlike nearly every adaptation Hollywood produces, the Harry Potter films, taken individually or as a whole, are worthy—epically worthy—of their literary source material.

The plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is not important. It’s not that it doesn’t have one, but simply that horcruxes and deathly hallows are ultimately irrelevant to simply being present in the story. Everything has been leading up to this confrontation, and once the film dispenses with a handful of introductory scenes, we find ourselves right back where we started—at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (sorely missed, it must be said). However, while Hogwarts used to be a place where Harry and his friends could hide safely from the malevolence sniffing around for them outside the high walls, the school is now under siege by Voldemort and his army of evil. Everything ends here as the Dark Lord wages all-out war to force a final, climactic showdown—a showdown in which our hero may be asked to give the ultimate sacrifice.

Something happens this time around—something bewitching. Of our heroic triumvirate, only Harry Potter is given much to do. The other two had their moments to shine in Part 1. Beyond that, we’ve always known that Potter was our intended hero (even though, especially in the beginning, his hardheadedness and bad attitude revealed others, primarily sidekick Hermione, as the more compelling character), but it wasn’t until this final installment, when faced with oblivion, that other, secondary characters also rise to the heroic occasion. Remember Neville Longbottom? He’s been there all along, but other than a few red-letter moments, there is no real reason to remember him. However, after this film, Neville Longbottom will be absolutely impossible to forget.

“Words,” a beloved character tells us, “are our most inexhaustible source of magic.” He could not be more right. The Harry Potter mythology is not as deep as Tolkien’s, but it is every bit as rich. It is not as culturally persuasive as Lucas’, but it is every bit as expansive. The final film explores the duality of good and evil, the hero’s sacrifice, survivor’s guilt and the disillusionment of discovering the true motivations of those we once misjudged. (It is a testament to the series’ power that the largest lump in our throat is saved not for one of the martyred students, but for a colossally tragic figure who is revealed, instead, to be perhaps its most incandescent paradigm.)

It was absolutely the right decision to break the final book into two films. While doubtless somewhat a monetary decision on the part of Warner Bros., it also allowed the series to avoid that which plagues the denouement of so many great tales—the sensation of feeling rushed, of not getting our emotional money’s worth, of not hovering long enough around friends to whom we know we must shortly say goodbye forever. That goodbye is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. The calm after the lethal storm in which we are allowed to bid our friends farewell is appropriately touching and bittersweet, and the epilogue, jumping nearly 20 years into the future, makes for both an articulate and humorous look at the passage of time we all, muggle and wizard alike, must experience.

The poor, clinically-depressed, suicidal single mother in Edinburgh who began tapping out stories on an old manual typewriter in a desperate attempt to find some purpose in her life created one of children’s literature’s most gobsmacking success stories (and made her a multi-millionaire). J.K. Rowling created something indubitably rare—a titanically panoramic and universal story as deep as it is wide. The best thing that could ever have happened to the spellbinding adaptations—which began a decade ago—was to have matured out of the hands of director Christopher Columbus, who presented the first two films (which looked the part but lacked the books’ soul), and into those of directors like Alfonso Cuarón and television veteran David Yates, the latter of whom helmed the last four episodes, truly shepherding the franchise into greatness. Yates and his team (especially writer Steve Kloves, editor Mark Day, composer Alexandre Desplat, and an army of production designers, costumers, make-up artists and special effects wizards) somehow manage to make magic look like child’s play.

And so we must bid our friends adieu. We have been with them on every stage of their journey—from innocence to adulthood, from students to wizards, from a deeply troubled boy to a man of maturity and wisdom. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is one of the most satisfying finales in all of cinematic history—epic, poignant, triumphant and possessing exactly the right amount of gravitas as befits a fable as spectacular as this. J.K. Rowling and the filmmakers who interpreted her work have produced an inestimable supernova of creativity and imagination that the world won’t soon forget.

© Copyright 2011 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Robbie Coltrane, Bonnie Wright, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch, Julie Walters, Tom Felton, Jason Isaacs, Helen McCrory, Maggie Smith, Ciarán Hinds, John Hurt, Warwick Davis, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Clémence Poésy, Domhnall Gleeson, David Thewlis, Natalia Tena, Jim Broadbent, Katie Leung, Jessie Cave, Afshan Azard, Isabella Laughland, Anna Shaffer, Georgina Leonidas, Freddie Stroma, Alfie Enoch, Dave Legeno, Chris Rankin, David Bradley, Emma Thompson, Miriam Margolyes, George Harris, Kelly Macdonald, Geraldine Somerville, Adrian Rawlins, Gary Oldman, Hebe Beardsall, Ellie Darcey-Alden, Benedict Clarke, Arthur Bowen
Rated PG-13 for intense violence and some frightening images.
Running Time: 130 minutes