The Harry Potter franchise may be in its final stages, but it's about to attempt a heavily scrutinized gambit: the late-in-the-game extension of a series by splitting its final chapter in two. (It's a strategy so seemingly win-win -- please the fans who want everything included, and please the studio bean-counters who never want this exciting money train to stop -- that the Twilight franchise may employ the same thing.) How does the newly released teaser for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sell it?
By having it both ways, of course! The clip touts the gotta-see-it factor of a franchise-ender, but skimps on most of the stuff that actually does end the franchise (Voldemort, Snape, and Hogwarts). For that, you'll have to wait for the Part Two teaser, which will no doubt be released alongside Part One, due in almost a year. It's the beginning of the end, all right -- it's just not the end of the end.
VERDICT: But who are we kidding? Sold.