Video: The Best of the Best!

By: Holley Sinn

Verdict: "Mind Blow" or rather, Approved

Anticipation makes everything better.  It's like the perfect seasoning for an already exceptional moment or event.  That is...if the moment or event itself is not a total letdown.  The build up that has surrounded the final installment of the Harry Potter film series has been monumental, which leaves two possibilities for audiences:  sheer euphoria or massive disappointment.  Anticipation creates emotional polarity.  Luckily, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley know something about the ups and downs of the human...or ahem...Muggle condition, and with a wave of their wands, they summon the powers of J.K. Rowling's incredible writing, David Yates' remarkable film-making and a cast that can only be considered a team of Queen's English-speaking all-stars, to create a cinematic experience that doesn't just satiate....it overwhelms.  

Where "Part 2" picks up, Harry, Hermione, Ron and several of their friends have taken shelter in Bill Weasley's home on the seashore.  The trio is hunting horcruxes...the items into which Voldemort has commended pieces of his soul.  The dark lord has acquired the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in the wizarding world, and Harry and his friends must destroy as many of the horcruxes as they can in order to diminish the dark lord's power, or he will be unbeatable. 

The hunt takes team Potter to Gringott's Bank and then back to Hogwarts where Snape has taken over as headmaster, and the prevailing ideas are dark magic and corporal punishment.  Voldemort has secured the loyalty of most wizards and other magical beings, and a war is brewing...Hogwarts being the battlefield.  Snape's true loyalties are revealed, and Harry's fate finally becomes clear.

The final installment of the Harry Potter series is as mature as its wizarding world-weary heroes.  Harry, Hermione and Ron have been forced to grow up quickly, and Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have become young adults right before our eyes.  And, while a myriad of directors have tackled Harry's saga, David Yates will go down in history as the man with the most difficult job - destroying everything his colleagues built, and taking Harry from a hormonal adolescent to a self-sacrificing martyr.  From a technical standpoint, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is immersive.  The 3-D is used exactly as the medium was intended...to enhance an already extraordinary experience by including the audience without socking them in the face continually with flying objects.  The visuals, while muted and predominately grey, are stunning and the panorama of a broken society is both heart-wrenching in its defeat and beautiful in its quiet hope. 

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" qualifies as the best of the best of this series, without question, and I am sure I don't have to tell you....it is rated PG-13 and now showing in theaters all over the bay area.