The first two Harry Potter films, as directed by Chris Columbus, were perfectly adequate but uninspiring replicas of the novels. The third film felt like a real feature film, with all that an auteur’s vision can bring to a big-budget film franchise. The fourth film felt like a slight step back, but was propelled along by JK Rowling’s ever-expanding universe and ever complicated ongoing story.

The fifth film probably suffers the worst of all the translations from book to film – and probably the single book that should have been made into two films, no matter what you think of the final book getting that priveledge. A lot of information excised here would affect the rest of the movie franchise, at least for those of us who know the books pretty well. But it’s still a damn good movie.

Film six, like book six, feels like all set-up without pay-off and it is. Even now, the most I remember about The Half-Blood Prince is the ending and how well Rowling laid out the final moments – which is actually botched by David Yates’ direction in the film.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I was easily my favourite film in the franchise since Prisoner of Azkaban – especially because I couldn’t really see how the first half of the novel could be translated to the big screen. But sweeping visuals, moody music and some quite character moments allowed the lead three actors to shine in their roles like never before.

And all of a sudden, the idea of splitting the problematic final novel into two films started to make a lot of sense.

Part II is on par with Part I because it has the emotional resonance of a final chapter. The plotting pushes nearly all the characters but Harry off screen – even Ron and Hermione feel like background characters, especially once they are back at Hogwarts and Neville and Luna are around to help as well. In fact, Hermione unfortunately fills the role of the sidekick’s girlfriend, which is a huge pity since to me the series always worked best with Harry and Hermione centre stage – with Ron as comic relief.

I’m glad the film (apart from the final moments of Part I being replayed) was a short of Snape overlooking Hogwarts, since Severus’ story in this final chapter forms the heart of the emotional resonance for me. The film suffers from Rowling’s maddening structure in showing Snape’s final moments and the recounting his life story – but somehow the montage works here better than the chapter in the book. (Also, knowing what that moment means for Snape, having read the book, I was in tears by default.)

For me, Rowling’s missed opportunity is the emotional resonance of Snape looking into Harry’s eyes and seeing Lily’s eyes one last time. His death scene becomes richer only once you know that – and by then he’s already dead and Harry is consumed with his betrayal by Dumbledore. As much as Harry’s compassion with a dying Snape is laudable, I’d have much rathered we already had Snape’s full story before that point. Taking his tears and learning it through the penseive feels like an opportunity lost – and a heap of exposition in the worst place. I was hoping film could have somehow fixed this structural deficiency, but that would have required a lot of rewriting of Rowling and the series was not known for that at all. Excision, yes. Re-writing, no. (Well, sometimes, but in the oddest of places.)

The battle of Hogwarts was visually gorgeous, though this didn’t make the off-screen deaths any more palatable. I guess I preferred the fact we saw Lupin and Tonks lying there, rather than – as in the novel – just being listed off as another in a line of bodys Harry noticed. Of all the characters to get short shrift in the final two films, those two got it the worst.

In the pantheon of great British actors in this series, obviously Alan Rickman gets the juciest role here, but Maggie Smith also gets a couple of moments to shine. Helena Bonham Carter’s best moment isn’t as Bellatrix Lestrange but as Hermione playing Bellatrix Lestrange. And even two minutes of Julie Walters is pure joy.

But the films are called Harry Potter and... and Daniel Radcliffe gets to continue his evolution into one of the great actors in his generation. The weight of Harry’s responsibility in this film shows in Radcliffe’s face and the way he holds himself. If this is a series about growing up to accept adult responsbility, this film shows us the final transition from boy to man.

And even the epilogue, which I detested in the novel, actually works remarkably well in the film. I don’t get the criticism of the ageing makeup at all, but regardless, the scene is all worth it for underlying the themes of becoming an adult, passing on your responsibilities to your children – and in some ways about breaking the cycle. Harry’s speech to his son about Snape and Slytherin house makes the scene essential, though – especially as the casting out of the Slytherin students rubbed me up the wrong way both on the page and on screen.

And so, the film franchise comes to an end in spectacular style. Not quite a great film on its own, but a satisfying final chapter for an eight film series that has lasted a decade.

Now, what do you think Rowling was getting at by making Severus Snape and Lily Potter’s patronus the same animal?