There’s no swell of music, no soft light on their faces. The camera lingers on the bodies of Lupin ( David Thewlis) and Tonks ( Natalia Tena), hands outstretched, nearly touching. But again, the way Yates frames the entire thing doesn’t feel movie-y – it feels crushingly real.
You’ll recall that Voldemort hits pause on his bombardment of Hogwarts castle for the students to collect their dead and reconsider handing Harry Potter over, and it’s during this interim that we see that a number of beloved characters didn’t make it out alive. If Harry Potter is to truly sacrifice himself and die, and if we’re to believe these are just a bunch of kids banding together with a ragtag team of wizards against the Dark Lord and his army, we need to feel those stakes in our bones. But when we reach the end of the story, it’s treated with the respect it deserves. Rowling’s source material gets progressively darker as time goes on, there are still glints of magic (both literally and figuratively) here and there. Over the course of seven films, we’ve been transported to any number of corners of the Wizarding World, and while J.K.
Yates drops the score entirely, and the sounds of Snape’s body hitting the glass windows while Harry, Hermione ( Emma Watson), and Ron ( Rupert Grint) look on are absolutely harrowing.ĭecisions like these only serve to make Deathly Hallows – Part 2 feel more truthful, more real, and that’s a big reason why the film is so successful. One of the most brutal and devastating is Snape’s ( Alan Rickman) death scene, in which he’s first struck by a curse from Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes) and then repeatedly bitten by the snake Nagini. To consider that this place that once embodied safety and comfort is now a war zone.Īnd while composer Alexandre Desplat’s score is fittingly operatic and tragic, there are plenty of scenes that Yates allows to play out without any music at all, making them far more intimate and dramatic. Harry and Luna turn back to the location of the Horcrux, but take a beat to look out the window, to glimpse the wards going up as protection around their school that are almost definitely going to fall.
Luna Lovegood ( Evanna Lynch) stops Harry as he’s hurrying up a staircase, surrounded by students scrambling to take cover as their professors and allies put wards up around the school outside. Take for example the scene where Harry is trying to track down a Horcrux related to Rowena Ravenclaw. Yes, it features the legendary “Battle of Hogwarts” and there are explosions and magic fights and a goblin getting absolutely decimated by a dragon, but by and large director David Yates allows scenes to linger, stopping for a moment to allow the film’s characters to relate as human beings in the midst of almost-certain destruction. Part of what sets Deathly Hallows – Part 2 apart is that it’s a surprisingly quiet film. This boy has just been told that in order to save his friends, his family, the world, he must die. The third act begins with Harry Potter ( Daniel Radcliffe) marching towards his own sacrifice, being greeted by the ghosts of dead loved ones to whom he asks if dying hurts. But Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is quite literally a film about death. It’s the eighth film in one of the biggest franchises of all time so you’d be forgiven for dismissing it as yet another smashy-smashy spectacle where the heroes almost lose until, wouldn’t ya know it, they pull out the W in the end. Cast: Adrian Annis, Adrian Rawlins, Afshan Azad, Alan Rickman, Anna Shaffer, Anthony John Crocker, Arben Bajraktaraj, Ashley McGuire, Bill Nighy, Bob Yves Van Hellenberg Hubar, Bonnie Wright, Brendan Gleeson, Carolyn Pickles, Ciarán Hinds, Clémence Poésy, Daniel Radcliffe, Dave Legeno, David O’Hara, David Ryall, David Thewlis, Devon Murray, Domhnall Gleeson, Emil Hostina, Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Fiona Shaw, Frances de la Tour, Freddie Stroma, Geraldine Somerville, Graham Duff, Granville Saxton, Guy Henry, Harry Melling, Hazel Douglas, Helen McCrory, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Kelly, Imelda Staunton, James Phelps, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jason Isaacs, Jessie Cave, John Hurt, Jon Campling, Josh Herdman, Judith Sharp, Julie Walters, Kate Fleetwood, Katie Leung, Mark Williams, Matthew Lewis, Matyelok Gibbs, Michael Gambon, Michelle Fairley, Miranda Richardson, Natalia Tena, Nick Moran, Oliver Phelps, Paul Khanna, Penelope McGhie, Peter G.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released 10 years ago today, and it still feels like the film doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves.