One of the most brutal and devastating is Snape’s ( Alan Rickman) death scene, in which he’s first struck by a curse from Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes) and then repeatedly bitten by the snake Nagini. To consider that this place that once embodied safety and comfort is now a war zone.Īnd while composer Alexandre Desplat’s score is fittingly operatic and tragic, there are plenty of scenes that Yates allows to play out without any music at all, making them far more intimate and dramatic. Harry and Luna turn back to the location of the Horcrux, but take a beat to look out the window, to glimpse the wards going up as protection around their school that are almost definitely going to fall. Luna Lovegood ( Evanna Lynch) stops Harry as he’s hurrying up a staircase, surrounded by students scrambling to take cover as their professors and allies put wards up around the school outside. Take for example the scene where Harry is trying to track down a Horcrux related to Rowena Ravenclaw. Yes, it features the legendary “Battle of Hogwarts” and there are explosions and magic fights and a goblin getting absolutely decimated by a dragon, but by and large director David Yates allows scenes to linger, stopping for a moment to allow the film’s characters to relate as human beings in the midst of almost-certain destruction. Part of what sets Deathly Hallows – Part 2 apart is that it’s a surprisingly quiet film. This boy has just been told that in order to save his friends, his family, the world, he must die. The third act begins with Harry Potter ( Daniel Radcliffe) marching towards his own sacrifice, being greeted by the ghosts of dead loved ones to whom he asks if dying hurts.
But Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is quite literally a film about death. It’s the eighth film in one of the biggest franchises of all time so you’d be forgiven for dismissing it as yet another smashy-smashy spectacle where the heroes almost lose until, wouldn’t ya know it, they pull out the W in the end. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released 10 years ago today, and it still feels like the film doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves.