+++Warning, this contains a minor spoiler from the previous movie and book. So, if you have not seen or read "The Half-Blood Prince", proceed with caution. ++++
This is the Ultimate Edition of the last two Harry Potter movies, which split the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into two movies. In the first movie, Harry, Hermonie, and Ron, try to track down the remaining Horcruxes (with a bit of help from items that Dumbledore bequeathed to them in his will), while trying to evade the death eaters. The second movie is the showdown between Harry and Voldemort which takes place at Hogwarts. I will not spend a ton of time reviewing the movies themselves as most people who are likely to read this by now have seen the movies and/or read the books multiple times. However, as you can imagine, not every character makes it out unscathed, and more characters, including major ones, die in the movie. The movies do deviate some from the books. I would say that Part I follows the story from the book's first half closer than Part II follows the book's second half. I do think that the final battle (and the setup to it) at Hogwarts, including everything involving Snape and the Harry v. Voldemort confrontation, is done better in the movie than it was in the book.
The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray transfer was great. The parts of the movie where the scenes were visually dark (and there are a lot of them) are very dark in the transfer, but in the portions where it was not, the colors really pop, and it shows off the great cinematography. And, the special effects look nearly seamless. Where the set really shines is in all the extras and bonus material you get. First, there are two physical extras in the package. A set of lenticular image cards and a hardcover book with images from all the different movies showing how the actors literally grew up during the course of filming the movies. As for the discs, there are six in all, each movie on a Blu-Ray disc and a DVD disc, and then two Blu-Rays with extras/bonus features, one for each movie.
Each movie allows you to play them in Maximum Movie Mode, in which picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes material pops up during scenes as well as sidebar "focus points" that have some interactive material while you watch the movie. For extras, each movie has over two hour's worth of making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes (11-minutes for part 1, and 7-minutes for part 2), then there is an almost hour-long conversation between J.K Rowling and Daniel Radcliff, a preview of the Pottermore website, the trailers, and more. So, if you like going through extras, there is a TON there for you, all of it very good.
Overall, the set is really for the most hardcore Harry Potter fans, because you are going to be paying much more than just getting the individual movies, but you get a lot more. My only real quibble is that unlike the Ultimate Edition sets for the first couple of movies in which the deleted scenes were incorporated into the movies in an extended edition of the movie, on this one (as well as I believe movies 3-6) there is no extended edition. You can only watch the deleted scenes separately and not see how they would have been incorporated into the movies. It is only a small nitpicky point about an otherwise perfect set, and not worth dropping it down a star, but it would have been nice if both the theatrical versions and extended versions of the movies were included. But, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, this is well worth the pickup.
This is the Ultimate Edition of the last two Harry Potter movies, which split the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into two movies. In the first movie, Harry, Hermonie, and Ron, try to track down the remaining Horcruxes (with a bit of help from items that Dumbledore bequeathed to them in his will), while trying to evade the death eaters. The second movie is the showdown between Harry and Voldemort which takes place at Hogwarts. I will not spend a ton of time reviewing the movies themselves as most people who are likely to read this by now have seen the movies and/or read the books multiple times. However, as you can imagine, not every character makes it out unscathed, and more characters, including major ones, die in the movie. The movies do deviate some from the books. I would say that Part I follows the story from the book's first half closer than Part II follows the book's second half. I do think that the final battle (and the setup to it) at Hogwarts, including everything involving Snape and the Harry v. Voldemort confrontation, is done better in the movie than it was in the book.
The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray transfer was great. The parts of the movie where the scenes were visually dark (and there are a lot of them) are very dark in the transfer, but in the portions where it was not, the colors really pop, and it shows off the great cinematography. And, the special effects look nearly seamless. Where the set really shines is in all the extras and bonus material you get. First, there are two physical extras in the package. A set of lenticular image cards and a hardcover book with images from all the different movies showing how the actors literally grew up during the course of filming the movies. As for the discs, there are six in all, each movie on a Blu-Ray disc and a DVD disc, and then two Blu-Rays with extras/bonus features, one for each movie.
Each movie allows you to play them in Maximum Movie Mode, in which picture-in-picture behind-the-scenes material pops up during scenes as well as sidebar "focus points" that have some interactive material while you watch the movie. For extras, each movie has over two hour's worth of making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes (11-minutes for part 1, and 7-minutes for part 2), then there is an almost hour-long conversation between J.K Rowling and Daniel Radcliff, a preview of the Pottermore website, the trailers, and more. So, if you like going through extras, there is a TON there for you, all of it very good.
Overall, the set is really for the most hardcore Harry Potter fans, because you are going to be paying much more than just getting the individual movies, but you get a lot more. My only real quibble is that unlike the Ultimate Edition sets for the first couple of movies in which the deleted scenes were incorporated into the movies in an extended edition of the movie, on this one (as well as I believe movies 3-6) there is no extended edition. You can only watch the deleted scenes separately and not see how they would have been incorporated into the movies. It is only a small nitpicky point about an otherwise perfect set, and not worth dropping it down a star, but it would have been nice if both the theatrical versions and extended versions of the movies were included. But, if you are a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, this is well worth the pickup.
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