MANILA, Philippines — Ever since “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” first came out in 1997, J.K. Rowling's band of witches and wizards have kept a firm grip on contemporary pop consciousness, rewarding Rowling not only with critical acclaim, but also with financial returns to the tune of 450 million copies sold worldwide. and a brand worth in excess of US$15 billion.

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” was first screened in 2001 and the movies have only consolidated that hold on the public's imagination.

The franchise has US$6 billion and has made superstars out of its topbillers Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.

But more than 10 years after the publication of the first book and the screening of the first movie adaptation, this blockbuster franchise finally comes to a close with the opening of the film “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” this week. If any of the early reviews of the film are any indication, the last movie seems to be a fitting end to the series as well.

But as with any book adapted to the silver screen, the constant question is how closely the movie version stuck to the book.

With the first half of this adaptation hewing as close to the book as it could and even introducing deviations that improved on some aspects of the book, expectations are high among fans and purists that this eighth and final movie will not just be a successful movie, but a successful adaptation as well. Will the film rise up to the challenge?

All important scenes in the book? Check!

With more or less just a quarter of the story left to tell, it was pretty obvious that at the end of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” that much of the second movie would focus on the climactic Battle of Hogwarts, the conclusion of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's search for Voldemort's horcruxes, and the final confrontation between Harry and his nemesis.

The movie jumps right into the thick of the plot, kicking off with the terse negotiations between Harry and the goblin Griphook to get into Bellatrix Lestrange's Gringotts' vault, where Harry and his friends suspect one of Voldemort's horcruxes is being kept.

From there, the movie moves at a quick pace, ticking off all the important points in the book that devoted Potterheads are bound to recognize and appreciate. From the trio's daring escape from Gringotts, to the gains and losses made at the Battle of Hogwarts, and even all the way to the divisive epilogue “19 Years Later”, the movie makes sure to include all the things that made the last book in Rowling's septet such an exciting and emotional read.

With quite a bit of the books making it onscreen, compounded with the fact that this is the last time Potter will be on the big screen, it's easy to get caught up in these final moments. As characters who meet their end in the book finally meet the same ends onscreen, it's doubtful that any Potter fans who have followed both versions of the story will be able to hold back their tears.

For the most part, the few scenes from the book that were discarded in the movie made sense. Deciding not to further explore the complicated family situation of Albus Dumbledore in this movie is completely expected, as the opportunity to lay the groundwork for that particular subplot was already passed over in the first “Deathly Hallows” film.

Schizophrenic tone

However, the problem with the faithfulness to the book that this final film has attempted is that it brings into even sharper focus the uneven quality of the past seven films in the series. Seen as a whole, the series only ends up looking a jumbled mess, barely approximating the richness of the experience of reading – and most especially, growing up with – the seven Harry Potter books.

Because of the schizophrenic tone of the movies and the sometimes atrocious handling of some characters that would turn out to be important in later books, most of the emotional scenes in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” are robbed of their impact, most especially when one has calmed down and looked at it objectively.

For instance, how can one mourn the death of two characters who barely made an appearance, much less any impact, in the previous films? How can one properly appreciate the poignancy of certain flashbacks the movie makes when the characters involved have slowly begun to fade in the background in the past installments?

Any emotional impact that these scenes may have on viewers may just as well be attributed to how well fans have imbibed the Potter canon rather than on any of the previous films' achievements.

Seen without the emotional baggage that comes with growing up with something so intimately, one might even say that this series ends not with a bang but with a whimper.

While these last two installments are no doubt the most faithful among the lot and will probably be remembered with fondness by most fans, the verdict is still out on whether the entirety of the series itself will have as long a shelf life as the books that inspired it. Maybe we can look back again 19 years later?

(“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” is now showing in theaters nationwide.)