Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2: Critic Reviews

J.K. Rowling's boy wizard gets a spectacular, yet not entirely satisfying finale.

The thrilling conclusion to a phenomenal cinematic story 10 years in the telling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is proof that authentic movie excitement is its own form of magic.

My, how the children have grown - and the movies too.

This is such an entertaining, beguiling, charming and exciting picture. It reminded me of the thrill I felt on seeing the very first one, 10 years ago.

It has been extraordinarily fun, and now the decade-long saga has reached its grand finale. The best has been saved for the last.

With its heartening final note of hope and renewal, Deathly Hallows -- Part 2 provides an altogether fitting finale to a series that has prized the fans above all.

A fitting, expertly made final chapter, freighted with hard-won emotions, shot through with a sense of farewell, and fully aware of the epic stakes involved.

Part 2 is a magnificent finale for this fantasy opus, one that pays ample justice to Harry's long-in-the-making showdown with He Who Must Not Be Named, a battle in which life and death, the past and the future, precariously hang in the balance.

It's wonderful. Epic and heartbreaking and just as grand as it needs to be.

The best possible end for the series that began a decade ago.

Well done, Harry! You've saved the best for last.

Fasten your seat belts. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2is an emotional roller-coaster ride.

In the 10 years since Harry's first big- screen close-up, the spell has never been broken. And we Muggles have been made better for the magic.

In the end the thing works like, well, magic...

HPATDH 2 works like a charm. A funereal charm, to be sure, but then, there's no time left for larks.

When the movie was over, a young boy sitting behind me said, "That was great!" He was satisfied, and rightly so.

This movie is impressively staged, the dialogue is given proper weight and not hurried through, there are surprises which, in hindsight, seem fair enough, and "Harry Potter" now possesses an end that befits the most profitable series in movie history.

It's virtually non-stop action, though director David Yates, who has taken good care of these final four, ever-meaner Potter adventures, does a very crafty thing, following adapter Steve Kloves' screenplay.

Cinematographer Eduardo Serra underscores the sense of dread with a rich charcoal palette, and the outstanding CGI and 3D effects make the otherworldly threats more corporeal.

The movie puts a spell on you.

The final chapter ends with an epilogue that puts a lump in your throat and makes you want to watch them all again from the beginning. That's the definition of a classic.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 sends Harry off into the pop culture pantheon on a thrilling high note. Well played. Well played indeed.

With shifting loyalties, unlikely heroes, truths revealed and a little help from friends, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" winds the series up in a most-satisfying fashion.

What fun to feel like a kid again. I had a marvelous time.

With its accelerated rhythm, relentless flow of incident and wizard-war endgame, Part 2 will strike many viewers as a much more exciting, involving picture than the slower, more atmospheric Part 1.