At long last, the final film in the Harry Potter franchise has hit the theatres. I went with a friend who had seen all the previous movies but had not read the books upon which they were based, and his wife who had seen the movies and read all the books but not recently. We viewed the regular version rather than 3D. Caution: for those of you who have not already read the book, some of the following may be considered spoilers.

While the first seven movies could probably be enjoyed individually without knowing the rest of the story line, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” picks up exactly where the previous film ended with no introduction, so you really do need to view Part 1 first to be up to speed. In fact, it would be helpful to know the whole saga up to this point because all the major details that have gone before have their resolution here. It’s much more exciting to root for the good guys when you remember why they are the good guys.

The evil wizard that Harry Potter is destined to try to defeat, Lord Voldemort, has succeeded in acquiring one of the Deathly Hallows, a wand that according to legend is the master of all others and may indeed make him invincible. So certain is Voldemort of his own greatness and immortality that it never occurs to him that someone might know his secret, that he has stored bits of his soul in various meaningful objects to make him more difficult to vanquish. These objects, called Horcruxes, must all be destroyed before Voldemort will be vulnerable.

Voldemort has no idea that Harry, along with his two loyal friends Ron and Hermione, have been hunting throughout the wizarding world and beyond to find these Horcruxes and that three of the items are already “dead” (Voldemort does know of one, his diary, which Harry destroyed five years ago). The Dark Lord believes that once he finds Harry and uses his new wand on the boy, the last obstacle in his rise to power will be removed.

In the meantime, Harry forges an uneasy alliance with a goblin in order to break into a bank vault. While the plans go rather awry, the basic goal is achieved, and Harry, Ron and Hermione escape intact enough to embark upon their next journey: the return to Hogwarts, their old school, to find one more Horcrux. But Voldemort finds out about the heist and races toward the school too, and there, the final confrontation takes place.

Harry, who has seen family and friends perish while defending him, does not confide in anyone but Hermione and Ron, thinking this will spare the lives of innocent people. But at Hogwarts, most of the professors and students are not willing to stand idly by while Voldemort and those loyal to him, the Death Eaters, destroy all that is just and good. And so the epic Battle of Hogwarts proceeds.

One of the first orders of business in this battle is confronting the headmaster, the vile Severus Snape. What becomes of him and the truth that is discovered about him is one of the most pivotal points of the movie. Alan Rickman, who portrays Snape, is truly outstanding here.

All those in their final year of school are considered to legally be adults and are given the choice to either evacuate safely or to fight against the Death Eaters and their Dark Lord. Some of the more minor characters of whom we’ve become fond in the previous movies behave most heroically, and this is enormously rewarding. But the Battle of Hogwarts, being a war, also has casualties before the end. Some of these casualties seemed a bit glossed over to me, but that may have been to preserve the movie’s PG-13 rating and avoid being too graphic.

Harry, like his heroic friends, must make decisions befitting someone much older. As he confronts his destiny, we realize how far the character, and Daniel Radcliffe who plays him, have come since we were introduced to The Boy Who Lived. He is now a man who accepts his fate.

“Hallows Part 2” is the shortest of the films in the series, running just barely over two hours. While the battle at the school is lengthy, complex and stunning, much of the material from the book was compressed and modified, and I would have been okay with a longer movie. Most of what they did include, however, was excellent.

Is the movie appropriate for kids? The PG-13 rating is pretty accurate, but parents should consider their children’s emotional maturity level. Some younger than 13 may be okay with it, particularly if they have read the books. There are dark themes here, but most of the worst of the violence is only implied.

As Harry Potter leaves childhood behind, we leave behind the most successful movie series of all time, and it is bittersweet. I don’t know if anything else will so well capture our imaginations and do such magic with them. For me, the spell is not broken, even now.

Review written by staff writer, Karen Brauer

Karen Brauer is a happily married woman in her forties living in a little house on the prairie. Her passions include: photography; classic and some modern literature; classic, foreign and some modern film; and music of all kinds. Her blog is called “browser life”: http://browserlife.blogspot.com/