Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Blu-ray Review

4.6 Stars (out of 5)

Synopsis

The final chapter begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their quest of finding and destroying the Dark Lord's three remaining Horcruxes, the magical items responsible for his immortality. But as the mystical Deathly Hallows are uncovered, and Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again. Buy Now $19.99

Listen to the Podcast

Starring:

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Robbie Coltrane

Director:

David Yates

Blu-ray Release Date:

November 11, 2011

Subtitles:

English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese

Rating

Overall rating weighted as follows:
Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt

Audio 5.0 Stars (out of 5)

Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison

• Subwoofer - 5.0 Stars
• Dialog - 5.0 Stars
• Surround Effects - 5.0 Stars
• Dynamic Range - 5.0 Stars

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1

Once again Harry Potter does not disappoint in the audio department. This film is filled with unique magical sounds that sound amazing in this DTS-HD Master mix. Blasts from wands explode with heft, fires roar in all channels, and bombastic explosions fill the room. The LFE performance is jaw dropping. Dragons, trolls, explosions, thunder, and falling rubble all test the structure of your house by rattling it to extremes. Watching this film with decent surround speakers is a joy. The vault train zips around the room, the dragon roars come from all directions, creepy screams seam to come from behind you, and Lord Voldemort's whispers rule all speakers letting you know there is no escape from him.

Video  4.5 Stars (out of 5)

Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison

• Color Accuracy  - 4.5 Stars
• Shadow detail - 4.0 Stars
• Clarity - 5.0 Stars
• Skin tones - 4.0 Stars
• Compression - 5.0 Stars

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

The last few Harry Potter movies have a signature look and fit the tone of the film. The Deathly Hollow films are dark. When I say dark I don't shadowy, I mean black and dreary. Its too dark at times, lots of detail gets lost in the shadows, but I believe this is how it was intended to look. It helps convey the emotion of impending doom. The colors are cold, and have a bluish green tint to them, which makes skin look pale. Clarity is fantastic and help feature detail on corduroy jackets, Harry's bushy eyebrows, and the creepy veins Voldemort's pale bald head.

Bonus Features 4.0 Stars (out of 5)

• Maximum Movie Mode (Disc 1, HD, 167 minutes): Cast and crew host Warner's latest Harry Potter Maximum Movie Mode experience. It's a Picture-in-Picture track that offers interviews, behind the scenes, production design details, and more.

• Focus Points (Disc 1, HD, 26 minutes): Eight different production featurettes giving more detail about key scenes in the movie.

• Final Farewells (Disc 1, HD, 3 minutes): The cast and crew bid a bittersweet goodbye to the Harry Potter franchise.

• A Conversation with J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe (Disc 2, HD, 53 minutes): Rowling and Radcliffe chat about the Harry Potter franchise.

• The Goblins of Gringotts (Disc 2, HD, 11 minutes): The series' creepy, pit-eyed goblins in all their... glory

• The Women of Harry Potter (Disc 2, HD, 23 minutes): A look at the strong women in the Potter movies.

• Warner Bros. Studio Tour London (Disc 2, HD, 2 minutes): Behind the scenes of the UK attraction.

• Deleted Scenes (Disc 2, HD, 7 minutes): Eight different deleted scenes.

• Pottermore (Disc 2, HD, 1 minute): Rowling introduces her new website, Pottermore.

• BD-Live Functionality

• UltraViolet digital copy

Movie - 4.0 Stars (out of 5)

Review

This is the Harry Potter movie we've been waiting for since the series started in 2001. We've seen the cast of kids grow up before our eyes, and watched as their adventures become more dark and dangerous in each progressing film. Compared to many of the previous Potter movies, this one moves much faster, and has lots more action. Even though I sort of knew what would happen, they were still able to surprise me and made me look at the entire series in a new light. The Harry Potter franchise is not one of my favorites, but the magic of the movies never fails to entertain me. The world of Harry Potter is huge, and is filled with much history and lore that it's easy to get lost in it. However, this movie is focused on it's ending. Every major story line is completed and all burning questions have been answered and it feels satisfying. It's so rare to see a series of films that are actually able to end the story the way it was intended.  Thank you Harry Potter for not letting me down.

Comments

[Michael]

You comments on tolerating the dark picture in exchange for an amazing soundtrack reminded me of my laserdisc days. Uncompressed PCM stereo sound run through a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder and played back on a decent surround loudspeaker array could distract the viewer from most of analog composite video's picture qaulity problems.