Under Harry's spell

There is no small amount of exhaustion to be felt at the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." Come on -- even the name gets you winded.

Ten years and eight movies later, 13 years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book in the U.S., the movie adaptation is finished. With "Part 2," the epic story of Harry, his friends Hermione and Ron, his teachers Dumbledore and Snape and Lupin and his mortal enemy, Voldemort -- all surely one-namers in the Cher tradition at this point -- ends in an operatic windstorm of emotion and closure.

Just as the previous generation or so fell in love with "Star Wars" -- only one of Potter's obvious antecedents, but the one that's all over "Part 2" -- so this modern myth is to their children and younger siblings. This is an event, people.

We open moments after the close of "Deathly Hallows: Part 1," which you really should see before venturing off to witness its conclusion.

Harry, Ron and Hermione are still looking for the final Horcruxes (which hold pieces of Voldemort's soul, thus rendering him immortal unless they are destroyed). Snape is headmaster of Hogwarts, surveying his students with a layered mix of the anxiety he feels and the scorn he must sustain for the complicated plot machinations to work, and the Dark Lord is gathering his forces. Director David Yates, who made the previous three movies, screenwriter Steve Kloves, who wrote all but one, and the three young leads know exactly what's at stake. The tone is operatic and deservedly so.

In this film publicity image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, from left, Josh Herdman portrays Gregory Goyle, Tom Felton portrays Draco Malfoy and Louis Cordice portrays Blaise Zabini in a scene from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Jaap Buitendijk)

Having stopped the previous movie about two-thirds of the way through the book, the rest is virtually all action, from the trio's invasion of Gringotts bank to break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault to a dragon ride to the apocalyptic siege of Hogwarts. Again, "Star Wars" is an obvious touchstone -- the vault scene is almost a tribute to the Death Star's trash compactor, while Harry and Voldemort's climactic wand battles are some of the best duels ever made.

But between the CGI battles of collapsed and dynamically beheaded snakes, there are genuine grace moments, largely because the teachers, so often relegated to a line here or there in previous movies, get to take little bows. Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall is given a wonderful moment as the leader she clearly is.

Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes chews everything in sight as the expressionistically evil Voldemort.

For such movies so reliant on visual effects, much of the supporting cast's character work has been done with voice, be it Voldemort's strangled wheeze or Alan Rickman's thick, clipped tones as Severus Snape.

Ah, Snape.

Fans (and probably Rickman, as well) have been waiting for the on-screen version of Snape's big reveal for years now, and they will be pleased to know Yates and company knock it out of the park. Rickman, long the dramatic heart and soul of the series, takes exactly the right tone for each crucial scene that Harry sees. It is to Daniel Radcliffe's credit that his quietly stunned reaction is his very best acting of the entire series. (There was pin-drop quiet in the theater as Harry contemplated his past, present and future.)

Indeed, Radcliffe (and Yates) shine in the final hour. Yates knows just how iconic these figures have become and knows how genuinely shocking it is to see Harry without his glasses, in jeans and a T-shirt -- looking like any other 21st-century teen about to become an adult -- in Harry's final, surreal conversation with Dumbledore.

Michael Gambon, who has done a yeoman's job as Dumbledore after the death of Richard Harris in 2002, provides a perfect postscript for the extraordinary power of fiction in general and J.K. Rowling's remarkable creation in particular: "Of course it's happening in your head, Harry; why should that mean it's not real?"

Amen.

Rating: PG-13, violence, frightening images. Running time: 2 hour, 10 minutes. Theaters: Cape West 14 Cine.

Read more from Joe Gross at Austin360.com