when i saw that harry potter 7 part 2 was getting something ridiculous like 97 percent on rotten tomatoes, i was pretty skeptical. don’t get me wrong — i’ve liked most of the hp movies and they’ve all been pretty decent. but 97 percent? that’s legend status.

one note. we saw this movie in 3D by accident. we thought it was just a regular screening, not a 3D version, but we got stuck with the 3D since the next regular showing wasn’t for another two hours. but can everyone agree that 3D is friggin’ overrated? there has only been one movie that i think lives up to the 3D hype and that was avatar. no other movie has come even close to touching it. so let’s just let this whole 3D thing die so we can get back to watching movies without idiotic-looking glasses, and save ourselves the extra four dollars.

okay, anyway, so after watching hp 7.2 last night, the real question is, was it legendary? yes… and no. on the one hand, i think this was easily the best movie of the franchise, hands down. and when you stop and think about how far the hp movies have come and how much they’ve evolved since the very first movie, it’s really like night and day. no more corny kids stuff, no more quidditch; the movies have become much darker and, as ridiculous as this sounds for a movie about wizards and witches, it’s also become much more real.

it’s kind of like when you compare the batman movies of the mid-90s, the ones with val kilmer and george clooney, to the most recent batman films with christian bale. whenever i watch the kilmer and clooney batmans, part of me dies. they’re so freaking awful and over-the-top lame. you can’t take any of it seriously. (remember, these movies also featured tommy lee jones as two face, jim carrey as the riddler, and the governator as mr. freeze). but the christian bale ones? you actually feel like batman could really exist in real life.

the same goes for the older hp movies. the first three or so were kind of just there for fun, and the kids in the movie were.. well, kids. it was hard to really feel like the movies were serious on any level. but the last few? much darker, much more emotional, and damn… you feel like you could cast some spells on some fools. also, i really felt sorry for snape. i think we always knew that he was a good guy, because he played the role of the ambiguously good/bad guy, but because harry was so convinced he was a bad guy, he had to be a good guy. you know what i’m saying? no? whatever. too lazy to explain it here. we can talk later.

(by the way, speaking of superhero movies, before hp 7.2, we saw a trailer for the new spiderman movie which is basically following the same mold as described with batman and hp: the new spidey is going to be a lot darker and not as cheesy as the original ones. but the first spiderman came out less than 10 freaking years ago. seriously, hollywood? this is what it’s come to? re-making a movie before it’s even started to collect dust on our dvd shelves? mind you, this isn’t like batman where they made a completely new movie; this is the exact. same. movie. just with different actors and slightly different tone. actually, you know what? i take it back. we’re not even waiting 10 years anymore. we’re waiting less than 10 months. we just had no strings attached, followed closely by friends with benefits. ashton kutcher/justin timberlake and natalie portman/mila kunis. honestly, no one’s even attempting to hide the fact that they recycle movies.)

okay, sorry, got a little sidetracked. so while hp 7.2 was the best of all the hps, i did have one complaint. that last scene, where they’re supposed to be 19 years older… they USED THE EXACT SAME ACTORS. what the hell?! the entire theater was giggling at how ridiculous the whole idea was. they’re supposed to be what… 18 when they kill voldemort? so they would be 37 in that last scene. THIRTY-SEVEN. with harry, ron, draco, and ginny, the filmmakers actually did make them look somewhat older. not 19 years older, but you could tell what they were going for. but hermione? dude, they didn’t even TRY with her. she seriously looked exactly the same. if hermione actually looks the same at 37 as she did at 18, all the women in the world should be hunting her down to kill her. now look, i understand why the filmmakers did it. you have to end the series with the original three protagonists. you can’t end it with three actors who are supposedly the three protagonists when they get older. it wouldn’t really be right. but still, it felt like the audience’s intelligence was being insulted.

anyway, in spite of this bumpy landing, i was really pleased with how hp ended overall. the re-watchability of this movie is easily the highest of any of the films, and i’m sure that it will be well-loved by all hp fans, even as they wipe the tears from their eyes that the franchise is over. keep your heads up. or should i say… wingardium leviosa!