Gosh, I'd have to disagree. It's close to my favorite book. I love all the extra background. But I was a kid in the midst of Potter book mania. None of us who read the book the week it came out were unhappy with the length or pace.
In fact, as I sat there reading it in 2003 as a young high schooler after buying it at midnight in my Potter costume, I wished it were longer. Lol. Probably read it a dozen times at least.
I was the same age/intensity of fandom, too. It's not a bad book (I don't think any of them are), but I always felt like there was too much flab with the OWLs and Hermione's House Elf crusade, etc.
That's why I like the movie so much. It really pares down the novel's excesses and focuses on the meat of the story. There's a lot of good stuff in the novel, there's just... a lot of everything.
1. Deathly Hallows (I consider them as one film)
2. Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Goblet of Fire
4. The Half-Blood Prince
5. Chamber of Secrets
6. Sorcerers Stone
7. Order of the Phoenix
1. Goblet of Fire
2. Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Half-Blood Prince
4. Order of the Phoenix
5. Deathly Hallows
7. Chamber of Secrets
8. Philosopher's Stone
Fixed it for you.
Yeah I actually love the 8 film franchise for the most part but the first 2 films are just there to lay the foundation. It's everything else that follows that's much better.
Yeah I actually love the 8 film franchise for the most part but the first 2 films are just there to lay the foundation. It's everything else that follows that's much better.
I tend to agree. I enjoy the lightheartedness of the earlier stories, but I prefer the gravitas of the later ones. The higher the stakes, the more I'm invested.
1. Goblet of Fire
2. Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Half-Blood Prince
4. Order of the Phoenix
5. Deathly Hallows
7. Chamber of Secrets
8. Philosopher's Stone
Fixed it for you.
Here is a light hearted look at why I consider goblet my favourite/most rewatchable.
Haven't re-watched any in almost a decade but I used to be a huge fan back in the day.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Goblet of Fire
3. Half-Blood Prince
4. Philosopher's Stone
5. Deathly Hallows Part II
6. Order of the Phoenix
7. Deathly Hallows Part I
8. Chamber of Secrets
Don't care much for the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
1. Order of the Phoenix
2. Deathly Hallows
3. Half Blood Prince
4. Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Sorcerer's Stone
6. Goblet of Fire
7. Chamber of Secrets
Movies:
1. Deathly Hallows 2
2. Half Blood Prince
3. Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Deathly Hallows 1
5. Sorcerer's Stone
6. Chamber of Secrets
7. Order of the Phoenix
8. Goblet of Fire
Here is a light hearted look at why I consider goblet my favourite/most rewatchable.
There's a lot of cheese that you have to endure in the first two acts (and I hate that all the boys are in dire need of a haircut), but once shit hits the fan in that graveyard... c'etait magnifique.
I was the same age/intensity of fandom, too. It's not a bad book (I don't think any of them are), but I always felt like there was too much flab with the OWLs and Hermione's House Elf crusade, etc.
That's why I like the movie so much. It really pares down the novel's excesses and focuses on the meat of the story. There's a lot of good stuff in the novel, there's just... a lot of everything.
My absolute favorite is Half-Blood Prince and my least favorite is Order of the Phoenix.
Yes, yes, and yes.
My ranking (including the Fantastic Beasts movies):
1. Half Blood Prince
2. Chamber Of Secrets
3. Deathly Hallows Part II
4. Prisoner Of Azkaban
5. Sorcerer's Stone
6. Goblet Of Fire
7. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
8. The Crimes Of Grindelwald
9. Deathly Hallows Part I
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3)
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (5)
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (8)
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (7)
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (6)
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1)
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4)
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2)
This is my all-time favorite film franchise, so this thread is right up my alley. I actually love all 8 movies, but they each have their strengths and weaknesses.
1. Deathly Hallows: Part 2
After The Wizard of Oz, this is my all-time favorite film. I know as an adaptation, a lot of people were peeved that this modified certain plot elements to be more action-oriented, but I thought that was absolutely the right decision. Harry needed to be more proactive here than he was in the novel, and the reinterpretation of key moments takes advantage of the visual medium of film. Despite all the exciting action, the film knows when to stop and breathe and has some truly effective emotional beats. I remember before seeing the movie, there were certain things I was hoping they would do, and I was so pleased to see they did them (among these, use "The Prince's Tale" and King's Cross sequences as a way of filling in holes from the previous films that only book readers could fill in, use "Leaving Hogwarts" from Sorcerer's Stone for the epilogue, give us the original "Hedwig's Theme" for the credits, etc.). I do wish the "Why do you live?" moment from the teaser had been left in as well as Ron asking Harry about the mirror shard and Hagrid being taken away by the spiders (said to have been in a few test screenings). Plus, Bellatrix vs. Molly suffers from the same sloppy editing that permeated Order of the Phoenix for some reason. But, honestly, these are minor quibbles. This movie is as close to perfection as I could ask for, a magnum opus for this series.
2. Deathly Hallows: Part 1
People have questioned the need for making Deathly Hallows two films, accusing this movie of being nothing but camping scenes. In a 2.5 hour movie, there's only about 40 minutes' worth of scenes with just the trio in tents. The film manages to be structured beautifully where it has very specific story points of action (the seven Potters, the Ministry break-in, Nagini in Godric's Hollow, The Tale of the Three Brothers, the last 20 minutes) that all take us away from the gritty road movie thread. But that thread helps build up a sense of dread with Voldemort's rise to power and how things are changing. Smashing this with Part 2 into a singular 3 hour movie would've resulted in the type of "Aw, you ditched the story but kept the action" accusations people throw at Goblet of Fire. There were too many plot points that both needed to be tied up and set up, and this installment does a remarkable job at getting into the heads of its characters. I do think cutting out the reveal of Tonks' pregnancy at the wedding was a mistake, though, as was the explanation of Voldemort's name now being taboo.
3. Half-Blood Prince
This one I feel is the most controversial one for book fans because it plays fastest and loosest with the material. In my opinion, that's for the better. Half-Blood Prince the book is my least favorite in the series because it doesn't have much in the way of a central plot. It exists to explain backstory on Voldemort and pave the way for the finale of the next book. The producers use the lack of plot to their advantage by making the film focus on character and atmosphere in a way we haven't seen since Prisoner of Azkaban. Yeah, it's tonally bipolar as when it's dramatic, it's super dark, and when it's funny, it's hysterical, but both elements I feel are really strong. I do feel the film could've dwelt more about Snape both as the titular character and his connection to the prophecy.
4. Prisoner of Azkaban
This is the breath of fresh air the series needed after the two Chris Columbus films. The film moves at a perfect pace and doesn't suffer from the bloat that the prior one in particular did thanks to the lean approach to the material. Alfonso Cuaron fills every frame with genuine magic in the background as opposed to making it all foreground focus, and that makes the world feel more lived in and less staged. Azkaban has the best cinematography with Cuaron's signature long, flowy takes, and the best score with John Williams really pushing himself outside of his comfort zone. I do think the middle act could use some slight beefing up (which it did before trims were made regarding Sirius breaking into the boys' dorm) to make it seem more eventful since the film's entire third act is a replay of half of act two.
5. Goblet of Fire
I find it amusing how polarizing this one is because people seem to absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. I'm in the former category as I think it boils the essence of the novel down to its major essential bullet points while still feeling substantial. The action is some of the best in the series, and there's a good sense of red-blooded adventure about it. It's also the first time we see the kids acting like teens and all the baggage that comes with that. I do think, however, that Mike Newell's direction is kind of ham-fisted with performances that are either uncharacteristically overwrought like Emma Watson's and Michael Gambon's or just freaking weird like Roger Lloyd Pack's and David Tennant's. You also get super broad humor as well as storytelling beats that are about as subtle as a semitruck. Still, it's a heck of a blockbuster, though the Priori Incantatem explanation needed to be left in.
6. Chamber of Secrets
This one gets a lot of flack, and I understand why. Belabored is the first negative thing that comes to mind. The film is so determined to fit in as much of the novel as it can and in the most showy way possible that it gets bogged down by all the plot, plot, plot. The whole thing is rather overblown. And yet, when you watch this after Sorcerer's Stone, you can see that the filmmakers learned a lot. They develop a sense of cinematic flair in some of the storytelling, punching up the action in some scenes and finding inventive ways to stage dialogue scenes. The cinematography with its beautiful steadicam approach makes this world feel more open than it did in the first. The kids are more seasoned this time around, and that allows for longer takes. The visual effects are a massive step up as well since the team decided this time around to work on them as the film was being edited so that post-production wouldn't be as crunched. All in all, while it may be bloated, it's also a more confident affair than the original.
7. Sorcerer's Stone
The one that started it all. When watching this, I get the sense of responsibility the filmmakers felt about handling such widely beloved material for the first time, and with that, the sense of nervousness. This is a very literal adaptation of the book and as such, there's not a whole lot of translation going on. The few times the film does decide to deviate from the material, it becomes...weird (Neville's broom acts worse than Harry's during the quidditch match, Harry and Ron both become unconscious from falling 2 feet, etc.). But one can't discredit the enormous talent collected here and how important it was to get all that on board to pave the way for what was to come. A+ casting, breathtaking production design, and a magical, grandiose score. Yeah, the episodic nature of the book doesn't quite lend itself well to a literal adaptation, but Steve Kloves does his best at making it feel like a cause-and-effect narrative, and Chris Columbus' warm family film approach makes this one of the more easily rewatchable entries in the series.
8. Order of the Phoenix
So this one's a head scratcher. I think most of the content in this is very strong, and I agree that it was wise to excise so much fat from the meandering book. But, good lord, the editing in this is atrocious. I find it laughably ironic that of all the films in the series to have a bonus feature about editing, THIS was the one they chose. They even explain their horrifying method of "speeding things up" when a take seemed to drag: cut out the middle of the take and smash the bookends together. This approach results in all sorts of continuity errors and jarring flows. I also think that David Yates' discomfort at handling such a big picture shows in the first third as the performances are stilted and awkward, but thankfully it gets better as it goes along. The climax (even with its nonsensical editing) is still rousing and exciting, and the one editing trick that does work is the use of montages to convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. I just wish there was a rhythm to this movie that wasn't staccato, and the bungling up of both Snape's Worst Memory and the prophecy are unforgiveable (the former can be fixed as it was originally shot, but I don't know if the latter was ever properly handled in earlier cuts).
The Harry Potter books honestly lend themselves better to a serialized show than they do to films. Each book can be a season, and there'd be plenty of room for both plot and atmosphere. That said, the feat the films pulled off is astounding, to say the least. For all my caveats with each installment, they're all immensely entertaining and do represent the books well with the type of fidelity and love that a lot of other properties could only dream of.
Prisoner of Azkaban is easily my favorite. I wasn't the biggest fan of the Yates movies. They were fun to watch once or twice, but they felt like action films to me and I found the Jedi/Sith wizard duels to be kind of cheesy.
Movies:
Chamber of Secrets
Deathly Hallows Part 1
Prisoner of Azkaban
Goblet of Fire
Deathly Hallows Part 2
Half-Blood Prince
Philosopher's Stone
Order of the Phoenix
Books:
Order of the Phoenix
Deathly Hallows
Half-Blood Prince
Goblet of Fire
Prisoner of Azkaban
Philosopher's Stone
Chamber of Secrets
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