First my confession : I haven’t read the books! Yes I know start the stone throwing, vitriolic forum posts, upload videos to YouTube denouncing me, and get the rabble ready to storm the cyber battlements with poorly articulate and spelt brickbats.
All done? Feel better? Good. Now, I may not have read the books, but I have watched all the movies, and thoroughly enjoyed them. J K Rowling has created a complete, all encompassing, all absorbing world, and a protagonist in Harry who is both sympathetic and strong, with reactions to the overwhelming events that populate his life realistic and ringing true. He is a true hero, and as concerned with those he loves, as the ideals he believes in and will fight for.
In this movie, all of that comes to the fore, and it wraps up the most profitable saga in movie history with sincerity, heart, and action that leaves you breathless. But most of all, it neatly captures who Harry was, is, and who he becomes, and that life does move on beyond the epic great events of life, yes even with someone as iconic as Harry, and that it all makes much more sense when viewed in the context of all of life, and even death at one point. He is a true hero in that he truly believes in what he must do, and he finds out what the price is, doesn’t waver in paying it if it means that what he believes in, and those he loves are safeguarded.
This is exactly the ending you want for any series – it answers outstanding questions, gives the hero his defining moment and then shows you what results from that, reunites you one last time with the characters you love, and leaves you feeling sad that they will be gone, but happy that their world is intact and they are safe. I couldn’t ask for more.