Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange.
Movie series almost always peak in their first or second installments. But that hasn’t been the case with “Harry Potter,” which started off unpromisingly (if lucratively) — and, after a number of ups and downs, has reached a magical summit with its glorious finale, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”
Never a huge fan of the series — except for the third film — I’ve been especially critical of the greed-based decision to stretch J.K. Rowling’s final book into two films.
Certainly, the first part was a gloomy affair, full of endless bickering between the three leads and wall-to-wall exposition that made it seem like the world’s longest trailer.
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But Part 2, the shortest film of them all, turns out to be 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). After all, we’ve gotten to know them over nearly a decade (the first “Potter” film was released a couple of months after 9/11), and I’m happy to report the finale is definitely, positively worth the wait.
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) — whose spot-on casting was the main contribution of the series’ original director, Chris Columbus — often seemed to be going through the motions last time out. But they bring their A game to the finale, as their characters prepare for an epic battle with the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), the murderer of wizard Harry’s parents bent on world domination.
This brings them, and the series, back to Hogwarts where they try to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes — and with them, Voldemort’s power. The school is under a massive assault from Voldemort and his minions, defended by the magical might of the surviving staff lead by the great Maggie Smith’s Professor McConagall, who’s provided some of her best scenes in the entire saga.
That’s basically all you really need to know about the plot, which is kicked off by an eye-popping raid on Gringott’s bank (dig Watson’s impersonation of Bellatrix Lestrange) and includes trials by fire, water and snakes.
Part 2 has some of the best special effects I’ve ever seen (I can’t believe the 3-D conversion, which I’ve not seen, would enhance the experience). They are deployed with great narrative skill in spectacular set pieces by the series’ regular screenwriter, Steven Kloves, cinematographer Eduardo Serra, production designer Stuart Craig, and director David Yates.
I’ve not been a fan of Yates, a TV veteran who took over with episode five, but give the man credit: He more than lives up to the challenge of the memorable series ender. The acting is uniformly superb — better than in, say, “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” — especially Alan Rickman as the morally ambiguous Snape, who deserves an Oscar for his exemplary work here.
There are also terrific contributions by the many wonderful British actors who have sustained the series through the years. Ciaran Hinds — as the late Dumbledore’s brother — is the main addition to a cast that includes Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Julie Walters and many others.
Among the younger performers, Matthew Lewis gets a chance to shine as a heroic Neville Longbottom. Bonnie Wright returns as Ron’s sister Ginny, whose romance with Harry blossoms even as her brother continues to set off sparks with Hermoine (much to the annoyance of most of us, who would rather see Harry end up with Hermoine). It’s not giving anything away to report that “Harry Potter and the Death Hallows Part: 2,” like Rowling’s novel, ends with an epilogue set 19 years in the future. If its film dramatization could make a nonbeliever like me mist up, I can only imagine the effect it will have on the generation that grew up with this series in print and on film.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com