So, finally, the inevitable has happened, and the series drags itself over the finish line, is wrapped in a foil blanket and given a complementary bottle of Lucozade Sport for its trouble. It's been a long hard slog, and there was an alarming dip in pace towards the end, resulting in eight films out of seven books, but now it's all over bar the shouting and the special edition Blu-Ray boxed sets.
Obviously, any attempt to review the plot is futile. I don't think the book surprised anyone when it came out, much less the film of the most read book in the world. It is what it always is, well made, slavishly faithful to the text, with a few abridgements and practically no deviation. The performances are what they've always been; everyone by now very comfortable in their roles, and obviously aware, in-character and out, that this is the final act. In the last film (HP7a: Harry On Camping), it was very much a three hander between Harry, Ron and Hermione, and you'd have thought this would be rather different. But actually, much as it's possible to be alone in a crowd, despite basically everyone in the franchise coming back for their curtain call, this leads to very few scenes of any depth at all between Harry and anyone other than Ron and Hermione. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say Ron gets a bit short changed; Hermione stands revealed as the real support that Harry needs to prevail. Everyone else seems more or less to just say a few pleasantries and words of encouragement to Harry before he moves on, like he's having a big birthday party, and in having to talk to everyone, he hardly gets to talk to anyone. And in a way, that's how it should be. For all that he's got the greatest supporting cast in literary history (I think it's fair to say), ultimately, Harry is almost a man alone.
As to the film, well, I have my doubts. It's not that you can sit there and actually criticise it, call any of it rubbish, because it's not. It's well directed, and well acted, but ultimately, it's two hours of things that must dutifully be done before the end; a real sense of putting the chairs up on the tables, sweeping the floors, and turning the lights out before locking up. I think of the films of my own childhood that stand out, your Back To The Futures, and your Top Guns, and I can't see, much as it should be, that this is a film that will have that kind of impact as the backdrop to the lives of today's kids.
I couldn't help comparing the film to other films, to classics, because this is a would-be classic. The first half hour or so of this film is essentially a bank heist. And while the bank gets heisted because the plot demands it, this is no Ocean's Eleven. The meat of the film is essentially a siege; but this fails to convey either the doomed tenacity of the soldiers at Rourke's Drift in Zulu, or the shock and awe of the Imperial assault on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. It's too inevitable now. Is anyone really going to be taking Voldemort up on his offer to leave them be if they hand over Harry? Even consider it in their darkest moments? No. Everybody, characters and audience alike, knows how this ends, Harry and Voldemort, to the death, for better or worse. The inevitability of it, for me, saps the tension right out of it. We finally have it explained to us the precise nature of the relationship between Harry and Voldemort, but this is no "Luke, I Am Your Father" moment.
This is as much a fault of the structure of the book; and you can hardly fault a book for not being structured like a film either. So there we have it, a sometimes time-consuming, but not unenjoyable chore is finally put to bed. I feel much as you might when you've just finished the washing up; basically quite pleased that all the dishes are now clean and put away in the cupboard.
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