8- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
7- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
6- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Now that we've got the two big disappointments out of the way, it's time to start doing more praising. Even though I still think The Goblet of Fire and The Half-Blood Prince are serviceable, there's definitely a huge step up from here on out. The first two Harry Potter movies are pretty close to me. There's definitely an undeniable magic with the introduction of this series and although I have some issues with Chris Columbus' direction, which I'll get into more next, I still like these two movies quite a bit. The best part of The Chamber of Secrets is that it is actually fairly intense and mysterious. We have a mysterious monster roaming the castle that is petrifying many of the students. We learn about a dark secret of the castle's past that may involve Hagrid and his spiders that is coming to the forefront that may lead to the closing of Hogwarts. I really love this mystery element of the movie and the performance of Kenneth Branagh as the hilariously stupid Gilderoy Lockhart is perfect. The big problem here is that the movie kinda falls off a cliff with the ending. There are a whole lot of conveniences that lead to 12-year-old Harry rather easily defeating the legendary basilisk after he blindly goes into the Chamber with no plan. The final battle is also really cheesy and poorly choreographed. I don't blame young Daniel for this. Just the adults that were training him.
5- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
4- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
And now we jump from the first movie to the first half of the last and the biggest controversy surrounding this one is the decision to split it into two movies. Was this necessary? Absolutely! If not, we would've had The Goblet of Fire all over again because there is such much crammed into the finale that barely fits into two movies. Did every other young adult franchise need to follow their example? Heck no! But this one worked. And I loved both parts. Sure, there is more downtime in this first half as we spend much of the time with Harry, Hermione and Ron in the woods, but the thing that really made this worked were the performances of those three. They continually grew as actors throughout this series and by the time we get to this two part finale, they were seasoned actors who absolutely killed it as these three. There are so many beautiful character moments in this film that I loved and enough intense drama to keep me from being bored. One thing that stood out to me as I rewatched this series was that Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson just oozed in chemistry. The scene where they dance is one of my favorite scenes in this franchise. That same chemistry just isn't there between Emma Watson and Rupert Grint and certainly isn't there between Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright. Sure, the producers of the movie had their hands tied with this and they certainly couldn't predict how they would all turn out when they were initially cast as young kids, but Harry and Hermione belonged together. And J.K. Rowling now agrees with that.
3- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
As I mentioned earlier, there was a definite learning curve when it came to figuring out how to adapt these longer Harry Potter books. While The Goblet of Fire turned into a disjointed highlight reel of what the book was, The Order of the Phoenix might be the one instance where they improved on the book with movie. If I'm being honest, The Order of the Phoenix book is the second worst book in this series for me ahead of only The Half-Blood Prince and part of that is that it's about 200-300 pages too long. Not that I'm opposed to long books, especially since the Harry Potter books are practically double-spaced, but there needed to be some condensing with that book and the movie did it perfectly. From the moment I left the theater, I felt that they did a perfect job here of cutting what wasn't needed while included what was needed. That holds up upon rewatching it. This is a beautiful film. It's tragic seeing no one believe Harry that Voldemort is back and Daniel Radcliffe excels in presenting the emotion that Harry is going through. This is the first movie where Micael Gambon really worked as Dumbledore because Dumbledore is much more dark and mysterious from here on out and Gambon does that well. This leads to a beautifully emotional finale where everyone realizes Harry was right after an intense final duel with Voldemort and his death eaters. And yes. I. HATE. DELORES. UMBRIDGE. She was perfectly portrayed here.
2- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Decided my top two on this list was a real struggle. In this series of eight movies, there are two disappointing movies, four good movies and two masterpieces. I so wanted to make The Prisoner of Azkaban my top one, but instead it came in a close second. I mentioned earlier that Chris Columbus' portrayal of Hogwarts was flat and dull. Alfonso Cuarón's Hogwarts is truly magical. First off, it's on a hill. Having Hagrid's hut be on the bottom of the hill instead of looking like it was in the middle of the Quidditch field was perfect. And visually this movie is stunning. Every shot is breathtaking. And there is a HUGE improvement with our young three. Cuarón got that best out of them and I think this movie propelled all of them forward. And I loved how they often dressed in normal clothes. Then we have the storyline of the movie. This is without a doubt the best individual story that J.K. Rowling wrote. Many portray time travel as creating an alternate timeline. Azkaban portraying it on one singular timeline was genius. In fact, this may be my favorite time travel movie ever. Then we have Gary Oldman's Sirius Black. Terrifying villain at first. Until you learn he is not a villain, but a hero who was framed. So many beautiful story arcs as our main characters learn to accept this as fact and spend the finale trying to save his life. Genius. The glue holding this all together is David Thewlis as Lupin. I kid you not, the individual moments between Harry and Lupin almost made me cry when I rewatched this movie because they are so beautiful and emotional.
1- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
It's interesting to note that almost across the board The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is seen as the best Harry Potter movie. It has the highest IMDb score. It has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score for both critics and audiences. And it was the highest grossing film domestically and worldwide. That's not how I base my opinions, of course. I go against the grain all the time. In fact, I was so close to putting The Prisoner of Azkaban first. But in this instance I agree with the masses. The final movie is the best. In beautiful contrast to Part 1, which is slow-paced and character-driven, this finale is fast-paced and action-driven. From the opening scene in Gringotts to the final battle at Hogwarts, this movie doesn't slow down. And the finale is perfect. We have the emotional reveal of Severus Snape and his tragic death. Then we have Harry making the decision to sacrifice himself, becoming a true metaphor and symbol for good. The scene where he talks to his parents, Sirius and Lupin right before he gets killed gets me every time. The conversation with Dumbledore at King's Cross was perfect. Then Harry comes back and we have the epic final battle between him and Voldemort. Yes, they changed it. But to be honest, I had more issues with him snapping the Elder Wand at the end than I did with the extended Voldemort battle. You can nit-pick it if it you want, but for me this did everything I wanted it to do. It was my favorite book and favorite movie.
In case people are curious, here's how I would rank the Harry Potter books:
ReplyDelete1- The Deathly Hallows
2- The Prisoner of Azkaban
3- The Goblet of Fire
4- The Sorcerer's Stone
5- The Chamber of Secrets
6- The Order of the Phoenix
7- The Half-Blood Prince