Harry Potter: A Retrospective

"IT......ALL......ENDS"........ These are the words boldly emblazoned across every poster and every television spot for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. "It all ends", those are some strong words, and as a die hard HP fan for 10+ years, they're some damn hard words to hear. And while I know that it's just a marketing ploy to make sure everyone knows that this is in fact the last Harry Potter film, I can't help but feel some pangs of loss every time I hear them.

It's bittersweet, to be sure. The emotional buildup to the other Harry Potter films has been 100% unabashed excitement. A new Harry Potter movie! There's so many of them! This series is going to last forever! I've got all the time in the world! Bring on the HP! Needless to say, this one is much harder to deal with. I'm feeling the same way I felt leading up to the release of the last book, only this is somehow worse. There's nothing else after this. No, I haven't been to the Wizarding World theme park yet, and yes, there's Pottermore (whatever that is), but let's not kid ourselves: this is it. This is the last hurrah, the big finale, the final battle, the end of days.

For me, and a fair number of other Harry Potter fans, the movies have come to be a huge part of the HP landscape. Yes, in the end, it's all about the books, but the Harry Potter films are so much more than adaptations. Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, they are the trio. I can't read a Harry Potter book without picturing those actors. The books and movies, in my mind, are inseparably entwined. Of course there are differences, and the movies take liberties with the books, but that's the fun of it. I'll never understand the people who complain about the movies being different from the books. How fun would it be if you knew exactly what was going to happen? 

But none of that matters now. If you don't like the movies, than you don't understand. If you haven't read the books, you don't understand. And I don't understand you. I maintain that the Harry Potter books are the easiest books to read of all time. No other books can make me want to stay home and do nothing but read quite like the Harry Potter books can. Harry Potter is a dynasty, and it all ends this week.

I remember vividly going to see "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" at midnight, November 16, 2001. I went to see it at the now nonexistent Westgate Mall AMC movie theater. I was ten years old, about the same age as Harry, and it was the first midnight screening I had ever been to. I wasn't dressed up, but I was jealous of those that were. Before that screening, I don't think I was as keenly aware of the widespread popularity of the series. But seeing all those dozens of people waiting in line for a movie about a boy wizard, wearing wizard robes and silly hats, I felt excited to be a part of such a ridiculous, devoted fanbase.

I've gone to see every other HP film at midnight as well, and intend to do so this Thursday. The movies have gotten darker as the series has progressed, and more mature, much like the books. There have been four different directors throughout the series, though David Yates has been at the helm since Order of the Phoenix. However, with few exceptions, the continuity in the film universe that David Heyman (the producer) has been able to maintain over the span of EIGHT films is nothing short of remarkable. Yes, Hogwarts looks a little different now than it did in Sorcerer's Stone, and it is pretty much laughable at this point that Dan, Rupert, and Emma are supposed to be seventeen, but really- who the hell cares?

The reality is, for all the "It's all over!" doom and gloom speak that I'm going on about, Harry Potter isn't going anywhere. This is the series that I plan on reading to my kids one day, and the series that gains new fans every day. This is the series that has its own amusement park, and an entire saga of movies to its name. JK Rowling put it best at the London premiere of the film: "Whether you come back by page or the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."