Author: Charlize Tungol & Kristi Loi
Date: October 9, 2020
Picking up where the last movie left off, Deathly Hallows: Part Two begins with Voldemort’s first flick of the newly acquired Elder wand. Drastic changes have been made to Hogwarts, most importantly Professor Snape being appointed as the new headmaster. Director David Yates did a great job to secure the eerie and hopeless ambience of the final film, with dementors filling the sky and the students marching in line with emotionless expressions. It sums up the inevitable end of the world as they know it.
At the beach house near Dobby’s grave, the trio seek the help of a goblin, Griphook, to gain access to the third to last of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. They come to find out that Helga’s Hufflepuff Cup is locked away in Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault at Grindoff’s, so Griphook agrees to aid them in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor. To no surprise, Griphook ended up crossing them and throwing them to the wolves. Lesson of the day: never trust a goblin. At least they got a pretty epic escape scene–flying off a dragon while being attacked by several guards.
Newfound interest has surfaced about Harry’s two-way mirror that was given to him by Sirius Black. Harry later found out that the mirror was repossessed by Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth. From there, it brings sentimental value to the memory of Dumbledore and how one way or another, by relation or directly, he was always there to help Harry find his way.
My favorite aspect of Part Two is the return of the Hogwarts setting. I suppose you can say it really brings the plot “home,” and it instills a sense of mere hope in the audience to see a grand reunion between the students and McGonagalls’s rise to administrative control. Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem is very fitting to serve as the second to last Horcrux, reminding everyone of Voldemort’s tie to Hogwarts and his beginnings, along with sealing the idea of Harry and Voldemort being quite similar outside of the boy’s scar.
There’s so much happening all at once, you have no choice but to sit with your eyes glued to the screen, making sure you aren’t missing a single thing. That’s what makes it a little difficult to write about as well. What scenes are more important? Which characters deserved being the means to an end? What made this film stand out from the others?
Harry decides to give himself over to Voldemort so the war can at least come to an end. While in the Forbidden Forest, he uses the Resurrection Stone to at least speak to his parents before he dies. His parents, plus Remus and Sirius, appear. They all speak to him, and then he goes to be killed by Voldemort, who does kill him. However, Harry ends up in a place similar to 9 ¾, where Dumbledore explains how the thing that was killed was the piece of Voldemort inside of Harry, not Harry himself. To make sure that Harry was dead, Voldemort sent Narcissa Malfoy to check on him. She asks if Draco is alive, and when Harry responds that he is, she lies to Voldemort. I really think this scene is great, as a mother’s love saved Harry, just as it did when he was a baby. It also served to humanize the Malfoys a bit, at least Narcissa, as a woman and mother who cared deeply for her son. Dumbledore said over and over, that one of Voldemort’s weakness is love, because he never understood what it was, and therefore cannot comprehend its magic. Which means that it can be used against him, just as Lily Potter and Narcissa Malfoy did. It may not be my favorite scene, but it is a good scene, highlighting Voldemort’s weakness.
Those who have become fans of Professor Snape have definitely felt pain watching this movie. The front Snape has put up finally crumbled down, and his strict rule has come to an end. He was undermined and exposed by Harry and Professor McGonagall. Harry came to his rescue to retrieve the last shred of Snape’s memory to reveal to him why Dumbledore wanted Severus to kill him. Having the Elder wand belong to Snape puts it in his possession; he has his right to the wand. Even though Voldemort made sure to gain that power anyways, at least Harry knows that Snape had good intentions and was always a follower of Dumbledore.
During the chaos of the battle, Harry confronts Voldemort one more time, to end it once and for all. This is where it differs from the book. In the book, Harry simply throws off the Invisibility Cloak to reveal himself to Voldemort, before explaining how and why the Elder Wand did not belong to the Dark Lord. Then Voldemort ultimately dies. In the movie, they have this epic fight scene where they fight all across the school, before one last duel. Voldemort dies, and then Harry gives the explanation afterwards. While the movie does have an epic fight, I prefer the book overall, because Harry explaining how Voldemort messed up before he dies is basically taunting him, telling him that he’s not the true master of the Elder Wand, and never will be. It also shows how Voldemort disregards vital information and disregards anything that isn’t what he wants, as he attacks Harry despite knowing that the Elder Wand will never truly obey him. Meanwhile, in the movie, it seems like more an explanation for everyone else rather than for Voldemort. There’s also the fact that in the movie, Voldemort disintegrates. I really don’t like that they’ve done that, because it goes against what the book was saying. He is a human, just like almost every other witch and wizard. In the book, he dies and leaves behind a body, just like everyone else. It proves that A, he’s really dead and not just reduced like what happened 16 years ago, and B, he’s mortal like everyone else, ultimately spitting in the face of what Voldemort wanted: immortality. Meanwhile, in the movie, he straight up turns to dust, literally. Sorry Yates, Voldemort is not a bath bomb. He’s human. He dies like a human, with a corpse to leave behind. Normally, humans don’t disintegrate.
At the end of the book, there’s an epilogue, where Harry has grown up and had three kids with Ginny Weasley. Ron and Hermione have also married and had kids. Harry’s second oldest, Albus Severus Potter, is now going off to Hogwarts, and is scared about being sorted into Slytherin. His father assures him that there’s nothing to be afraid of, but he can choose. It ends with the book saying the scar had not bothered Harry in the 19 years since. Of course, anyone who’s read The Cursed Child knows that it soon will bother him again, but since that wouldn’t come out for around nine years, it was definitely a nice ending to those who had just read Deathly Hallows. The movie follows the same premise, and still has that nice ending. The Cursed Child uses this epilogue scene as the beginning of the play, as a sort of transition.
Like every other book in the Harry Potter series, Deathly Hallows definitely makes you think of all of the “what if” scenarios. For example, what if Draco had tossed the wand to Harry? What if Fred hadn’t gone in the room of requirement? What if Harry left Draco and Blaise to die in the fires? What if Bellatrix had killed Harry when she had the chance? What if Neville hadn’t slain Nagini with the Sword of Gryffindor? The list goes on, however, the ending of the film so effectively concludes the series in a way that certainly jerks tears and pulls heartstrings. Don’t even get me started on the whole Snape scene where he says, “Look at me,” to Harry to see the eyes of Lily, the love of his life, before he eventually passed away. And yes, I will always dwell on the deleted scenes that weren’t included in the movie, even though they may not always be an accurate depiction of the plot of the book, but this isn’t your average “happily ever after” story.
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