Well, that happened fast! It seems like only yesterday we were doing our best to ignore creepy middle-aged weirdos in striped scarves reading Harry Potter on the subway, and now they're all growns up! Tonight at midnight, the big-budget Hollywood adaptation of the popular fantasy novels concludes with The Deathly Hallows 2. Does it live up to the hype?

We caught an advanced screening earlier this week, which for some reason Warner Brothers flacks decided to do in 2-D, non-IMAX. (An outrage!) But in any dimension, it's still a hell of a spectacle, and an undeniably satisfying end to the saga, even for those who've never been that interested in tween magicians riding around on broomsticks. Until Deathly Hallows Part 1, we hadn't seen any of the Harry Potter movies or read any of the books, and though the penultimate installment had a bit more heart (we're still broken up over brave little Dobby's death), the conclusion is a suspenseful and beautifully photographed adventure. Ralph Fiennes is absolutely riveting as Voldemort, Alan Rickman shoots the glass as Snape, and the action barely pauses for breath all the way through the apocalyptic destruction of Hogwart's. Of course, it's already breaking box office records. Here's what the critics are saying, not that it matters:

• Manohla Dargis at the Times wept, and she calls it "tightly focused and as somber and unsettling as it should be, considering its apocalyptic events. It’s also often beautiful, washed in gray and so drained of other color that at first it looks as if it’s in black and white."
• Roger Ebert says, "I dare not reveal a single crucial detail about the story itself, lest I offend the Spoiler Police, who have been on my case lately. Besides, you never know. Maybe they've completely rewritten J. K. Rowling's final book in the series. Maybe Harry dies, Voldemort is triumphant, and evil reigns... What I can observe is that this final film is a reunion of sorts for a great many characters we've come to know over the years. These films will be around for a long time."
• The Hollywood Reporter calls it "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... Technically, nothing has been held back. The eventual sight of Hogwarts as a crumbled ruin is striking, Eduardo Serra's cinematography outclasses what he accomplished the last time out, and some of Nick Dudman's makeup effects—especially with the goblins and a shocking glimpse of a fetal Voldemort—are sensational."
• New York's David Edelstein declares "the last 45 minutes are fully realized: the blitzkrieglike destruction of Hogwarts; the revelatory 'pensieve' flashback showing Snape’s tortured past; and the final duel between Harry and his nemesis, light on suspense but rich in mythic splendor. The dénouement, nineteen years in the future, was an excrescence in the novel but rounds the movies out beautifully."
• Nick Shager at the Village Voice says director David Yates’s latest "boasts an almost classical attention to mood and composition, with the director allowing shots to breathe for more than five seconds at a time, conveying emotion through careful framing, and—notwithstanding a somewhat visually subpar airborne flight from fire—imbuing his CG-heavy centerpieces with grace and majesty. As before, however, performance trumps spectacle, especially with regard to Alan Rickman, capping off his iconic turn as Professor Severus Snape by slowing his dialogue down to a sinister crawl, and Radcliffe, completing his portrait of Harry’s transformation from wide-eyed naïf to selfless adult with intense conviction and heart.

The movie opens tonight at midnight, and there are even screenings in the middle of the night, at 3 a.m. (City Cinemas 86th Street). The last we checked the AMC Loews 34 now has 3D tickets available for 12:01 a.m. and 12:02 a.m. screenings, Court Street Cinema in Brooklyn has 12:01 a.m. 3D tix available, and the UA Kaufman Astoria has tickets left for 2D and 3D tickets after midnight. Act now, people, because low-budget art house films like this don't stay in theaters for very long!