If you haven’t read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows then stop reading this review now as it will contain tons of spoilers and pretty much reveal how the saga ends. Also, I didn’t see the movie in 3D so I can’t say if it was worth it or not but since I loved it I will see it again and this time in 3D.

Okay for those  that are still with me, I have to say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was awesome and did great justice to JK Rowling’s final Harry Potter novel. When combined with Part 1, the last novel is a four and half hour tale.

We pretty much open Part 2 where Part 1 left off and that is with Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) stealing the Elder Wand from the grave of Dumbledore (Michael Gambon).

Then we are at Shell Cottage, home of Bill and Fleur Weasley *Domhall Gleeson and Clemence Poesy), at Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in front of Dobby’s grave where the tombstone reads: “Here Lies Dobby a free elf” as it is in the novel.

I do wish we spent more time at Shell Cottage and given more for Fleur to do then have her just say one word but I understand that we need to keep this epic movie going. So we get the trio of Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) talking first to Griphook about getting into Bellatrix Lestrange’s (Helena Bonham Carter) vault in Gringotts because they believe a Horcrux is in there. The goblin agrees in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor. Next the trip visit Ollivander (John Hurt) to learn more about wand lore and in particular the Elder Wand.

In a pretty funny scene, we get Helena Bonham Carter act as Hermione acting as Bellatrix. The sequence at Gringotts is wonderfully realized on film, even with some minor tweaks from the novel. Seeing the Gemio curse, where objects that are touched get doubled times infinity was great.

The Gringotts dragon was pretty cool too.

Then we finally get back to Hogwards and the epic Battle of Hogwarts. First we meet Aberforth Dumbledore (Ciaran Hinds) at the Hog’s Head in Hogsmeade who is revealed to be the one that sent Dobby to rescue Harry et al and is the eye in the broken mirror. What I do find interesting is in the novel, we know that mirror belonged to Sirius who gave it to Harry in Order of the Phoenix, in the movie it never happened. Here Harry just casually mentions that it belonged to Sirius.

Even though we still get the portrait of Arianna Dumbledore as the passageway to Hogwarts, I wish screenwriter Steve Kloves put Dumbledore’s full backstory in the film instead of Aberforth and Hermione just off handedly mentioning it.

Once Neville Longbottom (a kick ass Matthew Lewis) emerge, I started to get excited to see the Battle of Hogwarts. The scene with the Room of Requirements as the HQ for the resistance movement was just how I pictured it. We get familiar faces from Cho Chang (having more to do in this film that Half-Blood Prince, Katie Leung), Lavendar Brown (Jessie Cave) and Seamus Finnegan (Devon Murray) and much more. However, I do wish Colin Creevey made an appearance.

Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith) is also kick ass in her duel with Snape (Alan Rickman) and I love when she summons the statues of the knights of Hogwarts to defend the school.

However, I wish during the battle that we had Professor Sprout (Miriam Margoyles) throwing Mandrakes and Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson) throwing crystal balls at Death Eaters instead of being mere background players with no lines. However, it was nice to have them in the films again. I also wish Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) had more to do.

What else…I loved that Kelly MacDonald was finally in a Harry Potter movie. I have been a fan since seeing her in the David Yates-directed The Girl in the Cafe with Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimegour). MacDonald plays Helena Ravenclaw, the ghost of Ravenclaw. I thought she was great in a small but pivotal role in helping Harry find one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

The moment that I had been waiting three books and 500 pages for was the kiss between Ron and Hermione. How the kiss came to be in the movie and book are different, I was okay with it as it was a better moment for them to kiss. It was actually a nice kiss between them.

And really loved in the scene at the Room of Requirement to find the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw when Goyle (Josh Herdman), Malfoy (Tom Felton) and some unknown Slytherin attack Hermione and Ron, enraged yells “That’s my girlfriend!” and runs after them. That scene too with the Fiendfyre and everything was cool.

Another scene that I looked forward to was The Prince’s Tale where we finally get to know Snape’s true allegiance. While it was truncated as I knew it would be, it was still poignant none the less and Rickman did a great job with it.

Scenes that I cried at: Seeing Fred dead in the Great Hall and his family crying over his body. Seeing Lupin and Tonks dead too had the tears flowing. However, I do think the filmmakers did a disservice to Tonks and her storyline. They pretty much ignored the fact that Lupin and Tonks had a son called Teddy and Harry only mentioned it once.

The waterworks went during the Resurrection Stone scene where Harry, as he walks to his death (after realizing that he is a Horcrux) in the Forbidden Forest, is join by his parents (Geraldine Sommerville and Adrian Rawlings), Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) and Lupin (David Thewlis) who gives him reassuring words. Bravo Steve Kloves on this scene and it was beautifully directed by Yates.

When Harry is “killed” by Voldermort, the scene at King’s Cross with Dumbledore was very moving and performed well by both Radcliffe and Gambon.

As we near the end of the battle, we get a slow build towards the killing of Voldemort’s final Horcrux, his snake Nagini, until Neville comes up the hero and strikes that snake down.

Of course the scene every one waited for was the duel between Molly Weasley (Julie Walters) and Bellatrix and the classic line “Not my daughter you bitch” and boy she delivered that line with gusto and it was a great duel.

Harry’s and Voldermort’s duel was epic and went all over Hogwarts until of course we know that Voldemort, with no more Horcruxes protecting him, finally meets his maker for good this time.

The wizarding world is safe all thanks to the Boy Who Lived.

The one scene that I was worried about was the 19 years later scene. I wasn’t sure how they were going to age Dan, Rupert, Emma, Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Tom but they did a really good job of it. It was a great scene as now adult, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Draco see their children off to Hogwarts.

The final shot of the three of them was emotional for me as it would be the last time we see Harry, Ron and Hermione.

I thank Harry Potter for giving me 10 magical years of film going.