It's hard to believe we've now been living with Harry Potter for going on 12 years for Americans, and 13 years if you're British since the first book was published in the UK as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 1997 and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the US in 1998. In the first installment of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, the entire Harry Potter enterprise has literally come-of-age. The story and characters have matured along with the writer, her readers/film-goers, as well as the actors in the primary roles. Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and Daniel Radcliffe in the roles of Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter have grown up along with their youthful wizards, and the actors themselves are fast-earning the right to be regarded as A-list talent. Hopefully, they will have fine careers ahead of them, assuming they won't be forever type-cast as the Hogwarts wizard students of the Harry Potter novels. And of course, the ultimate credit of the series belongs to J.K. Rowling who has created a universe as recognizable as JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth, Stephen King's Dark Tower, and Anne Rice's 18th and 19th-century vampire societies.

The rest of the cast of "HP and the Deathly Hallows", aside from the young leads, comprises bona fide A-list actors who were already demonstrating the heights of their craft long before J.K. Rowling was penning Harry Potter in tea shops as a single mother on welfare in Britain. Ironically, the names topping the list play the villains and dark characters: Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. Special recognition has to be paid to Fiennes as Voldemort whose demonic persona makes the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster appear more like bank robbers by comparison. Fiennes, despite the warped face and absent nose, is entirely believable as the sworn enemy of Harry Potter and an adversary to all that is good in the Wizard World.

However the crux of the tale (as with the rest of the series), surrounds the three young leads inside an incredible production. The first couple of installments were written more for a younger age group. Now the characters and their respective actors have grown in complexity and subtlety. They reside inside the skins of their characters in ways which make you believe they understand and appreciate them more. No longer the smart class show-off of younger years, Hermione has grown into a young woman beginning to appreciate more fully the powers she has been taught which can transform the world rather than simply being the most-liked by her teachers. Weasley has a better sense of himself and is now dating Hermione which would have been unthinkable in the first few Harry Potter stories. And Harry Potter is nearing the moment when he can face Lord Vortemort as a near-equal without cringing at the sound of the name.

The plot of the present installment is the most complex and compelling yet. Voldemort has gained power over the Ministry of Magic who are running the wizard government akin to Nazism of the 1930's. Anyone with "muggle" (i.e. non-wizard) blood risks being expelled and/or subdued by high-ranking officials in kangaroo courts. They have even placed a roman-inspired relief in the wizard town square showing muggles being subdued by magic. Although the wizard ministry and government are run by mortal wizards, Lord Voldemort is pulling the puppet strings like a demonic equivalent of the Godfather. He is on the verge of gaining complete immortality through the Horcrux's, amulet artifacts which also have an interesting side-affect of making the wearer become more self-absorbed and selfish, not unlike the Ring of the "Lord of the Rings". Dumbledore had begun the mission of destroying the Horcrux's as a means of defeating Voldemort; the mission now is passed onto Harry Potter and his friends. Harry Potter along with allies escort him to a refuge but are immediately besieged by the soulless dementors. There must have been a traitor among them which tipped off Voldemort.

The three young wizards then engage in a two-fold quest: to obtain and destroy the Horcrux's to stop Voldemort from permanently gaining immortality thereby becoming the absolute-ruler of the Wizard World for eternity. Think of Adolph Hitler wielding a wand. Unfortunately, the Horcrux's appear indestructible, and they must obtain an artifact willed to Potter from the late Dumbledore, a sword, Godric Gryffindor, which Hermione realizes may contain enough power to destroy the Horcrux. During their quest, they keep stumbling upon a strange triangular symbol, which even appears on one of the stones of a cemetery at Harry Potter's birthplace which is also his parents' deathplace.

A brilliant and compelling film all the way around despite having been absent from Hogwarts, with absolutely phenomenal effects which neither impedes the story nor hinders the acting but enhances the Wizard World and the story contained within. The acting is some of the best I have seen for a fantasy film/story, it's only rival Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings". The best which can said of this film is that it never appears like the filmmakers were relying solely on the Harry Potter name for success. They have forged a brilliant film to climax the series, one of the best all-time in fantasy-filmmaking.