First Impressions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Halows, Part 2 Hit the Web!

In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort.

"It ends well," he wrote. "After eight films in 10 years and a cumulative global box-office take of more than $6.3 billion, the most successful franchise in the history of movies comes to an obligatory -- and quite satisfying -- conclusion in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2."

"This is an exciting and, to put it mildly, massively eventful finale that will grip and greatly please anyone who has been at all a fan of the series up to now," he wrote. "If ever there was a sure thing commercially, this stout farewell is it."

"Perhaps the greatest triumph of this final film is its ability to overcome the deficiencies of J.K' Rowling’s writing," he wrote. "In the last Harry Potter volume, she failed singularly to muster the epic feel needed; as a result, on the page, the concluding battle at Hogwarts was a damp squib. But Yates here transmutes it into a genuinely terrifying spectacle, as bloodied students fight desperately against a horde of screaming black-robed Death Eaters."

"It's an epic movie dust-up with schoolkids and a handful of good witches and wizards fighting to the death against seemingly superior forces of evil," he wrote. "Imagine a more spectacular battle than that of Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings. It is dizzying and thrilling, even before the story reaches the monumental climax between the brave orphan and Ralph Fiennes' noseless fiend (villain Voldemort)."

His only quibble was with the cast, saying star Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) is capable of better acting and that Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) haven't shown any improvement over the past three years. Yet he praises Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), who "steals their thunder."