My expectations for this movie rose a hell of a lot once I saw the critic consensus on Rottentomatoes. The movie delivered don't get me wrong. It has much better pacing than the first Deathly Hallows, a lot of emotional weight, and stunning visuals. All that said, I was expecting another Return of the King in the making.

I think what really disappointed me with Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the epilogue. It just didn't feel that conclusive compared to the endings of Return of the King. The set up for RotK's ending just feels well-paced especially with the music complementing the scene (the score for Deathly Hallows was good, but not LotR good) and the dialogue having more gravitas.
SPOILERS It didn't help that the "19 years aging" wasn't that believable (Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliff didn't look aged) either. END SPOILERS

Just to note, I have never read any of the LotR or Harry Potter books so I have a fresh perspective on judging the movies on their own merits. Still, don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed Deathly Hallows Part 2 and agree that it's the best Potter movie so far.

Side note, this seems to be one of the few movies where I actually see girls who are willing to go see a movie alone. Also on another side note, The Dark Knight Rises teaser was awesome.

The epilogue sucked in the book too.

As much as the epilogue sucked in the book, I thought the movie sucked extra hard. It was disappointing, the movies had gotten fairly good, and then turned to meh.
I was very shocked to read the sentance "best Potter movie so far". I thought it was one of the worst.

It can't be worse than Order of the Phoenix.

Even though it sucks, the epilogue exists because Rowling wrote it a long time ago (like in 1990), to motive herself to finish the series. It really should've been axed, or at least heavily edited. I thought the movie was really good though, I just have minor complaints.

I'm really bummed Neville didn't kill the snake like in the book... when I read it, I thought "I can't wait to see this part in the movie." I thought Neville's speech right before Harry jumps out of Hagrid's arms was dumb. I loved the resurrection stone scene.

i havent seen a harry potter movie since goblet of fire.

my personal complaints

In the book fred's death had real impact because the reader is there when it happens... in the movie his death happens off camera and we see his body on the floor... he might as well have been random casualty #38

In the book harry repairs his broken wand, the wand he used from the beginning, the wand that meant so much to him, before discarding the elder wand here the broken holly and phoenix feather wand is entirely forgotten

A complete lack of Grawp... inexcusable

RotK was easily the worst of the Trillogy. The ghost army ruined ruined the climax and destroyed the built of sence of tension and conflict.

The last part of that sentence makes as much sense as your views on the movie.

RotK was the worst though

It was the worst book too, they were just being faithful.

I stopped caring about the story after the 3rd book because it stopped being interesting to me, but I eventually read them all and that made me stop caring about the movies, too. The last book is so horrible it's kind of hard to believe it was published. The already tedious horocrux bull**** being sweeped away with a bizarre deus ex machina sealed the deal though.

I like what TRS said. This is a children's bedtime story being told by their mother. She "tells" the story instead of "showing" the story, more so in the later books than in the beginning. Instead of killing her characters proper, there's a magical happy ending before we go to bed. That makes it bearable, for me.

On the other hand, I'm finally dating a girl that didn't go sit in line on opening night. I think she's the one?

Return of the King is the worse one? Why was it so revered then? Again I never read the books, so maybe the complaints by DrkJedi82 doesn't apply to me.

That may be true, but it's not why it sucks. It sucks because it's a happy feel-good ending tacked onto a dark story where everyone dies. It would be stronger without it.

I don't agree with Jedikirby, but the climax of the last book did feel like a big 'whos who' tour of the Harry Potter universe.

So is it basically the exact same story as every other Harry potter? voldemort "returns" again.. but misunderestimates Harry... Yet again??

Having religiously read all the Harry Potter books (and though enjoying them) I would say this last installment by Peter Yates was defensible but good. All silliness aside that wasn't from the book (dude gets choked by robes?!?! WTF!?!?) id say that %75 of the dialog was directly from the book, which makes me immense happy.

Flaws? Harry cannot feel out the pieces of soul. Likewise tom riddle cannot feel it when they are destroyed due to how maimed his soul is from making so many. They never show or mention hepsibar smith (or whatever her name is) nor did they mention or acknowledged Percy coming back after disowning his family. Plus! Wormtail was supposed to kill himself in pt 1. He didn't.

As you can see, im a diehard fan of the books and could preach to you all day about what they forgot and why its important.

What makes the series any good is the awesome british cast.

ie: Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, ralph fiennes, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Richard Harris of the old Chris Columbus directed ones.

Also that wasn't the plot of the 3rd one.

I suppose that now that it's over with I'll give the books & movies a go.

Am I the only one who enjoyed Order of the Phoenix? xD

I thought the movie was infinitely better than the book, but that's not saying a lot.
She clearly ran out of ideas after the first few of books.

yeah he's just there in the background... anyone who forgot about him or wasn't really looking would have easily not known he was there

we get to miss Percy making a joke and Fred dying while showing his surprise at his brothers joke followed by Percy having to be pulled away from Fred's body before going into full pissed off mode and running off to get some payback... all of which they could have easily put into the movie without extending the runtime by making Neville's moment of badass exactly as it was in the book

That sort of stuff is why the climax felt so weak when I read it in the first place. Most of the people who show up play some tiny part, it feels like most of them - including Neville - are just there to say 'Hey, remember that I exist?'. The rest of the book is much better, with it's tight focus on the three main characters. It also hi-lights what's wrong with Order of the Phoenix.

OotP represents the transition from 'adventure of the year' to a single over-arching plot. In that regard, it's a beginning - except all the interesting work of beginnings has already been done. All the characters have been introduced, we know how the world works. The only part of a beginning that's left for it do is the boring part. It's also when the HHR trio stop working alone, and try to become leaders of others. This theme actually works very well : They are the junior members of the OotP, and suddenly lose the independent agency they had had in the previous four. At the same time, they are the leaders of Dumbledore's Army. This is interesting because they utterly fail at leadership, and will eventually defeat Voldermort by abandoning these allies. But while the theme works, the actual story is boring. There's no clear obstacle, no clear conflict, just a vague 'we better get ready or else' feeling, and HH and R lose almost all ability to act alone, something they don't get back until Deathly Hallows.

Despite all that, the real reason OotP sucks is because the only thing I remember from that movie is spinning newspapers.

I found this movie terrifying, particularly the gentleman with no nose.

**** yeah! Im glad im not the only one who knows whats up. Harry Potter does seem a bit juvenile for massassi, therefore I wasn't even sure if anyone from here gave a ****. Im glad to see that there are hp fans among we, the brave and the bold.

I saw the midnight showing, and who can help scrutinizing the movie immediately after viewing? I went into a 10 minute rant about HP to my girlfriend on the car ride home! INcluding what you mentioned about percy and fred.

Percy is dueling Pius thicknesse (minister of magic under the Imperius Curse) and says something along the lines of "oh and by the way im resigning" At that moment fred is supposed to say something along the lines of "your joking perc! I haven't heard you joke in-" BAM!! Fred lies dead with the ghost of his last smile across his face. Thats when **** gets real.

You think that they would take a cue from the books. Its awesome cinema if they only listened.

Oh well. Its all over now so we can only explain to an extent. At least its not twilight.

That's part of what confuses me. A lot of the changes they made really would have been better cinema and higher drama had they stayed as they were supposed to be in the book.

ahhaha!! wookie strikes from the great beyond!

Absolutely this. I thought the later movies did a great job of fixing the books, but the last couple of movies had changes in them that did nothing to help, only to hinder.
I mean sure, movies change books all the time, that's completely understandable and is generally a good thing, but sometimes they make abysmal changes for no reason that just screw things up (my most hated one is what they did to Eragon, but that's a different story)

I actually liked Order of the phoenix the best. I liked the dark overtones combined with the rebellious ending. Plus there was some mystery to it, like the others. I will admit the ending didn't make the most sense with the mirror room that Sirius died in.

I don't think there's any change they could make to Eragon that wouldn't make it better.

makes more sense in the book... plus it's an archway with a veil not a mirror

I'm still annoyed that she killed off the best character.

And resurrected the most annoying >_>

I'm convinced that Daniel Radcliffe is the Mark Hamill of his generation... a whiny wiener who will only be in one famous film franchise then never do anything important again.

I have made the Luke Skywalker comparison with him many many times.

Also, RIP Duckface. ;_;

Just saw it.

Those who don't like it will never be satisfied with anything, plain and simple. I thought it was great. Went astray from the book a few times, scenes added or deleted. As for those *****ing about the ending, your retarded -- it was a great ending and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. What would you prefer? Another climatic build up of their kids getting into some adventure? No this is an epilogue, not a teaser for a new film.

The only thing that threw me for a loop was Harry not comforting Ginny even though her brother died. In the book or not I felt it should have been there.

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”



is my favorite line from entire series

Would've appreciated that line more if I hadn't read it a million times before.

That line is pretty amazing no matter how many times i hear it. What a cute little tale harry potter was, and you have the strehgth to admit it... nice

Also- More on the movie, I did also like the ending and likewise thought the "older" modles of them were all good. I knew the movie would end with a shot of the three, but i was unsure of the time. The end was a suprise and a threat.

Furthermore, this movie was on of the best. Im SOOOOOO glad it was not like the others. (DH pt1 & Half-blood prince) Random stupid twilight-like chase sceens strune throughout in forests at the most absurd times.

Its ok tho, they just remake them again in 10 years.

To be clear in case you misunderstand me, I mean that it's been written in a million different books before =p

I prefer (and was very disappointed it was left out of that scene) "explain more".