Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II 2011

Critics score:
96 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Exactly what it needs to be: artfully filmed, tautly paced, just sentimental enough. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: In the end the thing works like, well, magic... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: My, how the children have grown -- and the movies too. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The final Harry Potter movie, above all others, supplies Radcliffe with the gravitas of not just an epic story come to completion, but some real dramatic heft. Not so bad for a Hogwarts dropout. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: HPATDH 2 works like a charm. A funereal charm, to be sure, but then, there's no time left for larks. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The best possible end for the series that began a decade ago. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Yates and Kloves find the grand scope in Rowling's book, and mine it for all the excitement and pathos it's worth. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: 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. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: 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. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: 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. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Well done, Harry! You've saved the best for last. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It is not often that we can chart a series over 10 years featuring the same child stars as they grow into adults. This phenomenon gives Deathly Hallows 2 a particular poignancy. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: Fasten your seat belts. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2is an emotional roller-coaster ride. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: 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. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Deathly Hallows Part 2 sends Harry off into the pop culture pantheon on a thrilling high note. Well played. Well played indeed. Read more

Christopher Kelly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: For 10 years and eight films we've gotten to watch these young actors grow as people, as performers and as characters. It has been a true coming-of-age saga, in the fullest and most moving sense of the term. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: This is the way The Harry Potter saga was meant to end. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: An outstanding capper to the most lucrative film franchise of all time. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The Harry Potter films, like the boy wizard himself, have had their creative ups and downs, so it's especially satisfying that this final film, ungainly title and all, has been worth the wait. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: While "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" offers long-promised answers, it also dares to pose some eternal questions, and it'll stay with you after the final chapter has closed. Read more

Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News: Tears are shed for the lost, cheers are raised for the (often unexpectedly) brave and noble, and, in the movie's final moments, there is a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment rarely achieved in filmmaking. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: We'll miss you, Harry. But oh, what a way to go out. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Fiennes and Rickman get the actorly moments they've been building toward for so long, and the film is most fun when it sticks to mechanics: roller coaster rides, battle scenes, close calls. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: When the movie was over, a young boy sitting behind me said, "That was great!" He was satisfied, and rightly so. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Be sure to arrive at your seat with plenty of popcorn -- and tissues. You're going to need both. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's wonderful. Epic and heartbreaking and just as grand as it needs to be. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Everything a summer blockbuster should be but rarely is - a whip-smart, slam-bang piece of entertainment where we deeply care about the fate of the central characters (and many subsidiary ones who return for their last bows). Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: What fun to feel like a kid again. I had a marvelous time. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The movie puts a spell on you. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's almost impossible for the convergence of good and evil to meet inflated expectations. What matters here is that the story is told clearly and with faithfulness to the book, and that it resolves a conflict that has simmered for a decade. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is a masterful and worthy final chapter in one of the best franchises ever put to film. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 puts a triumphant capper on a decade of Pottermania. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's always hard to predict how a work of art will age over time, but I have the feeling that, like its three young leads, the Harry Potter series will turn out just fine. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: 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. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Like the previous seven movies, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" obliviates the line between art and craft, but the witchcraft conjured for this satisfying finale is uniquely generous. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: It's a pleasant irony that, just as the first installments of Rowling's oeuvre were better suited to page than screen, the final installments have reversed the relationship. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: This is a terrific, smartly designed adolescent adventure, visually rich, narratively satisfying, and bound to resonate for years to come. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If you've been a devoted follower of the Potter saga in print and at the movies, you'll come away from this final chapter with a feeling of catharsis and, perhaps, a slightly damp handkerchief. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The sublime supporting cast, brought back if only for glimpses here, remind us that the series is a luscious, perhaps unparalleled showcase for this generation's most endearing British actors. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: While it's unfolding, this is just terrific fun: eye-scorching, ear-battering, heart-pounding cinema of pure spectacle. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Ten years and eight films after the boy wand-twirler's cinematic adventures began, the saga resolves in ways suspenseful, romantic and thrilling. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It has been extraordinarily fun, and now the decade-long saga has reached its grand finale. The best has been saved for the last. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: 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. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: 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. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: 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. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A movie with no beginning and no middle but two-plus hours of thundering, momentous ending... Read more