Posted 10:12 PM by Gene

"How can they tell?" quipped Dorothy Parker when told of the death of Calvin Coolidge, and it's tempting to ask a similar question about this, the boy wizard's last hurrah. It's not so much that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows feels at times largely indistinguishable from the six outings preceding it, nor even that part one offers so little in the way of resolution (part two will surely take care of that). It's simply that it's hard to mourn the demise of a franchise that was never more than half-alive to begin with.

TRANSLATION: The popcorn restaurants will fill with ZOMBIES!!!!! (In honor of that head zombie Mr. BEWKES, who never has to run PEOPLE WARNER more than half-alive.)

How will it end and what comes next? There's no doubt the Potter spin-offs have been a reliable cash dispenser for Warner Bros, and no denying that they are deeply loved by the legions of fans that flock to see them. What remains to be seen is how they fare once the final credits roll; how they will stand up 10, 20 or 30 years down the line. Try as I might, I can't shake the suspicion that these films are too obviously built for purpose and too lacking in wit, warmth and humanity to survive much beyond the moment.



Look, why should I waste our customers' time with relics like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? We want TENTPOLES! We want PROFITS!