I used to love 3D movies. Oh, certainly there have been some in which the technology hasn’t exactly been up to scratch, but really, having my enjoyment of something like Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage slightly disrupted by badly rendered upconverting came as only a minor inconvenience, barely even worth mentioning. Having my enjoyment of a major movie event like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 quite dulled by its lackluster attempt at same, on the other hand, was nothing short of unacceptable. I mean, going through Gringotts’ vault on that rollercoaster thing! Such a cliché 3D moment, like one of those early themepark rides. I hated Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but the 3D was freaking awesome, and it is a pity that Team Harry couldn’t have worked the same digital magic.

3D issues aside, however, the movie itself: yep. Liked it. Didn’t love it, like I did Deathly Hallows, Part 1. I felt that the battle at Hogwarts began too abruptly, and ended too oddly, and while I had been gearing myself up for another three hour-long, bladder-testing marathon of a movie and was, instead, quite happy at first to discover it would come in at an economical 125 minutes, it did seem like there was a lot more room there for additional plot points that, as it happens, really shouldn’t have been glossed over.

I also felt it was very cliché for all of encroaching Death Eaters to oblige us by being unkempt and ill-favored, if not outright disgusting, thus signifying their evilness; even Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs), once so suave Regency villain, was so disheveled in his satins you could almost have felt sorry for him, despite how mean he always was to poor Dobby.

Nevertheless, there was a lot of the awesome in here. Maggie Smith’s Professor Mcgonagall probably came out the best of the adult cast (I mean, how was Alan Rickman as Snape? Get a word out, man!), especially when she Transfigured the statues -- even though it felt a little Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Was I the only one humming “Treguna mekoides and trecorum satis dee”?

There is also much to be praised in Ralph Fiennes performance as the fearsome Lord Voldemort, particularly when he lets loose an awkward, braying laugh that is so excellently done it reminds us subtly but forcefully that under his black robes and Unforgivable Curses there still exists the bookish and socially inept Tom Marvolo, whose somewhat pathetic Daddy Issues have brought about so much pain and suffering.

In addition, all of our junior cast did their jobs well -- Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione’s (Emma Watson) long-awaited kiss in the Chamber of Secrets was certainly a highlight -- and as the movie came to an end, I found myself… happy. Content. It was a perfectly agreeable, if not necessarily outstanding, conclusion to the series, and if it lacked some of the emotional resonance of certain quite beautiful passages in the text, then at least it got a lot of it right -- in particular the redemption of Snape.

The sold out and excited crowd with which I watched the film certainly added to the atmosphere of satisfaction, with catcalls and applause and gasps and groans and unrestrained laughter (quite a lot of laughter) punctuating proceedings. And then, perhaps my favorite part of the event, were the snippets of conversation I overheard as I and the rest of the opening night crowd filed out:

♦ “Apparently, when you die, you can choose to… uh, not to.”

♦ “What was with Draco’s mother calling Harry Draco? Was Harry’s body channeling Draco?”

♦ “If the dark magic guys can kill with their death spell, why don’t they just keep shouting ‘Avada Kedavra’ all the time?”

♦ “Helena Bonham-Carter probably didn’t even need to go into hair and makeup for this movie.”
   “Yeah. They saved a fortune on her costume, too.”

♦ “‘Hogwarts always helps those who ask for it?’ Must be nice in an exam.”

♦ “If the school was supposed to be crawling with, what were they called?”
   “Death Eaters?”
   “Yeah, them. Then where were they all?”

♦ “I totally want to be able to turn into smoke. Wait, that would make me one of the bad guys, right? Then… no.”

♦ “No one told me there was going to be a dragon. I hate dragons. Even the one from Shrek.”

♦ “I feel bad. I’ve been hating Snape for years.”

♦ “That bit, with the spell, making the statues come alive? That. Was. So. Cool.”

♦ “Voldemort’s a fucking moron.”

♦ “Wait. How was Harry alive? I don’t get it.”
   “Read the damn books!”
   “Well, I will now.”

And, you know what? I think I’ll go and read them again now myself.

(Meanwhile, the only comment that I really felt the need to make immediately upon exiting the movie: “Mom Malfoy has really cool hair.”)

   -- Rachel Hyland