Ten Years of Harry Potter The Journey Ends this Weekend
For as many years as my 9 year-old son has been alive there has always been a Harry Potter movie coming out in the summer. Well this year it all ends, and the reviews indicate it is worth the watching. J.K. Rowling's fantastic wizard fantasy has keep us mesmerized and wanting more. I will take my 7 and 9 year-old sons, my 24 year-old daughter, and my wife (I won't reveal her age) to the movie this weekend. The fact that a 7 year old to someone my age can watch the same movie speaks volumes to J.K. Rowling's books and the movie interpretations. We will get our popcorn and drinks and put on the 3D glasses for the final installment. My youngest son always brings his wand just in case the dementors sneak in from behind. Thank you J.K. Rowling! for all the years!
Here are a few of the early reviews:
Some Early Review:
"So many good films come to bad ends, but not the tales of Harry Potter. The final episode of Harry's epic journey, part 2 of 'The Deathly Hallows,' is the best possible end for the series that began a decade ago. In contrast to part 1, which was a ponderous exercise in stage-setting and dramatic incipience, this film, directed by David Yates and adapted by Steve Kloves, is a climax worthy of the term. It's a dark and thunderous pageant that sets its bespectacled hero in the midst of vast forces, yet never loses track of who he is — a brave boy, to borrow both parts of Dumbledore's fond phrase, on the way to becoming a wonderful man." — Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
The Split
"Splitting the final 'Potter' volume into two films was also to the advantage of Part 2, as was the fact that this film deals only with roughly the final third of the book. This enables it to avoid the tiresome teen angst that hampered Part 1 and devote almost all its time to action and confrontation, starting with the film's initial image of the dread Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) pointing the all-powerful Elder Wand to the sky and creating ... the Warner Bros. logo. Once this bit of business is out of the way, the plot kicks in with a vengeance." — Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times
The Final Word
"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. These films will be around for a long time." — Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
Box Office Sales:
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” the final movie in the series based on J.K. Rowling’s books about a boy wizard, opened with a record $168.6 million in weekend ticket sales.
The film, in which the title character meet his nemesis Lord Voldemort in a final showdown, also set records of $43.5 million for midnight showings and $92.1 million in single-day sales, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement.
“Deathly Hallows 2” ends a series that has generated more than $6.62 billion in worldwide ticket sales for Warner Bros. as of July 15, according to Box Office Mojo. The film, the first in the series to be shown completely in 3-D, is getting a lift from higher prices charged for the three-dimensional format and its placement in more Imax theaters.
The movie was expected to have weekend sales of $151 million, the forecast of Box Office Media LLC.
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