Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at Richmond Cinema

I read most of the Harry Potter stories to my son when he was a child (he’s now at University) – sometimes we would be so gripped by the story that the 20 minute bed time story stretched into two hours. I felt I needed to go along and see how it all ended even though I hadn’t been very impressed with Deathly Hallows Part 1 which reminded me of the Moonlight films – all those teens skulking around in the woods in a mood.

Anyway, I went along with some friends – including a six year old and a 17 year old. We choose the 2D version because small people don’t do the glasses very well. The trailers – whilst not entirely appropriate for the young audience - promised some interesting films ahead: The Iron Lady (Merryl Streep looked convincing as Mrs Thatcher), The Smurfs ("like Avatars, but smaller" we explained to the six year old), another episode of Sherlock Holmes (who cares about the plot when there’s Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law?), War Horse (everyone says the stage play is fantastic), another Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson isn’t to my taste but most small people adore him) and – what got the adults’ pulses racing – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – featuring Colin Firth amongst others. Looks like I’ll be a frequent visitor then.

So, the story opens with a visit to Gringotts in the continuing quest for those horcruxes. There was a great chase on a trolleys through caves (I do hope the various Harry Potter theme parks produce a ride based on this) and a daring escape on the back of a dragon. I was hooked by all the action.

Then it was back to Hogwarts and a reunion with all those well loved characters there – I still admire Maggie Smith, is there any character she can’t play brilliantly? Snape (swoon!) is now headmaster and we still haven’t worked out yet whether he’s a goodie or a baddie.

There’s a prepare-for-battle scene that felt remarkably like the one in Bedknobs and Broomsticks – remember when they bring all the suits of armour to life? In Harry Potter DH2 they do the same with soldier statues. There was another flashback when the gathering of the Dark Lord’s forces felt rather similar to some of the Lord of the Rings scenes. Still, let’s not be picky – the overall battle was pretty exciting. The six year old hadn’t moved an inch – ‘sfunny how they manage to raid the popcorn carton on auto-pilot with their eyes locked onto the screen isn’t it?

The final twist in the story unveils – to everyone’s horror - and I admit I got a little bit lost - exactly who died and who didn't?. Ron and Hermione finally get some lip action (aaahhh!) and those final pesky horcruxes are destroyed. I was particularly pleased to see the end of the snake. And I was cheering Julie Walters as she put an end to Helena Bonham-Carter – if only it were that simple in real life. The fire scenes were great – that must have been fun to film. And expensive.

At last we see the old gang all grown up – and sending their own little ones off from the magical platform at King’s Cross. Mind you, I don’t suppose that they’ll have half as much fun now that Harry Potter is a portly middle aged Dad and the Dark Lord is no longer around to scare us.

So. It was well worth going along. If you were deterred by the dullness of Part One, please think again and get yourself down to the cinema. The effects just won’t be the same if you want for it on DVD.