Harry Potter 7-2

All good things must come to an end. That even felt desirable after the dreary cinematography, tired acting and muddled plotting of the seventh Harry Potter movie. It's hard to believe that the eighth and final instalment was made at the same time, with the same director (Peter Yates) this time achieving a level of imposing block-busting action-adventure almost as award-worthy as Peter Jackson's final TLOR spectacular. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is a fitting conclusion to cinema's all-time best-selling franchise.

Yates shouldn't get an Oscar nomination, however. Far too many times, he pauses the action and the narrative flow for a ponderous rear view of Potter thinking or nothing happening. If the resultant static frame contained eye-catching designs or 3D effects, fine. When they didn't, they were like soft flicks from a towel dotted with masonry images.

The lead trio remained a constant reminder of the crucial initial success of the franchise's first director, Chris Columbus, to oversee the assembly of the appropriate mood, cast and visual style (all of which were deliberately designed for the long haul rather than short-term spectacle). For a decade, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson gave many months of their young lives to the franchise. They've earned good money, satisfied Potter fans and may manage to create new cinema personas.

The likeliest non-technical Oscar nominees could be Best Supporting Actors Alan Rickman (his Snape a commandingly complex character for a decade) and Ralph Fiennes (an increasingly mesmerising evil presence as Voldemort). Compared to them, or the roles Rowling created and they personified so well, other fine British actors have just been having fun, playing cameos for laughs or titters.

Above all, though, the most deserving Oscar nominee is screen-playwright American Steve Kloves, one of the few non-Brits to be accepted into JK Rowling's circle of trusted interpreters of her words into big-screen validity. An Oscar and BAFTA nominee (for his acclaimed adaptation of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys in 2000), his only other previous award-nominated work was his original screenplay for The Fabulous Baker Boys back in 1989. His adaptations of the Potter series have steeped surely, albeit stodgily at times, through Rowling's fantastic blend of children's fiction, ancient myths, sorcery and teenage angst. Inevitably, he couldn't adjust any of her less skillful plotting, such as Voldemort's unbelievable belief that Potter had died or the Malfoy family's last-minute changes of hearts or Snape's willingness to simulate loyalty, kill Dumbledore and sacrifice himself.

Has 3D added strength to HP 7-II? It's worth finding out; the 2D version was good cinema, and it is nice to imagine that it might be even more thrilling.