The Harry Potter Films

As you can imagine, since I write a movie blog, I love movies and I watch a ton of them. However, there is occasionally a popular film or even a whole franchise that never piqued my interest. This was the case with the 'Harry Potter' movies. People would frequently recommend them to me, but all I knew about the series was acquired through a sort of pop-culture osmosis; My brother is a big fan of both the films and books, I knew of actors like Daniel Radcliff and Emma Watson, I knew that it was about some kids who do magic, and I knew that the franchise made boatloads of money (over 7.7 billion dollars at the box-office). Unfortunately that never was enough to convince me to put in the 19+ hours required to watch them all. Plus, I've never been that big on fantasy films in general.

Then recently it happened. I gave in. I crumbled under years of people telling me that I needed to watch these movies. Well, better late than never I suppose. I picked up the 8-film Blu-ray box set and, over the course of several nights, finally watched the 'Harry Potter' films. I've gone into many individual movies with no expectations and little-to-no prior knowledge of the source material before, but never a whole series of films... so this was going to be an interesting experience either way. None of them are bad, and a few I actually really enjoyed. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but I jotted down a couple of my thoughts after each one.

 Now, I never read the books, I've never taken a deep dive in to any Harry Potter lore, and I obviously have no personal nostalgia for any of these films. So, if you're a diehard fan of these movies, don't get upset if I didn't like a couple.

Let's start with 2001's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. There are a few parts that drag a bit as characters have to spout off a bunch of exposition in order to build the world but, I never read the books so some of that was helpful.  I thought this one was decent.

Next up is the 2002 film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. While there are a few good moments in the film, this was one of my least favorites of the bunch. It feels about a half hour too long, and a lot of stuff just seems to happen regardless if it's important to the story or not.

And now we move on to the third film in the series, 2004's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The first two films in the series were fine, but this is the first one that I really, whole-heartedly enjoyed. It's a little darker in tone, and the plot seems more focused. Sirius Black (played by Gary Oldman) first appears in this one and he's one of the highlights of the series for me. I'll definitely re-watch this one in the future.

Halfway there. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released in 2005 and is the forth film in the franchise. Having just watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which I really liked, just a few days earlier I was ready to be impressed. As it turns out this one was a 50/50 split for me. At times I thought this was the best one so far, and at other points I felt the complete opposite.

Moving on to the fifth film in the series, 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and... I didn't care for this one. It's not bad, just kind of boring. It has one of the shortest runtimes in the series (about 8 mins shorter than the series average) but the film feels like the longest to me. It's hard to put my finger on, but I just wasn't into this movie. This one did have a different screenwriter than the other seven, so maybe that was it.

Released in 2009, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth film in the series and I think it's one of the better ones. Not much to say about this one, it's a good blend of style and substance, and I was pretty entertained throughout. 

Movie #7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 from 2010. I'm never a fan of splitting a film into two parts because part 1 never has a satisfying conclusion, and that's the case here as well. With that being said, I didn't dislike this entry in the series. Some of the quieter and exposition heavy scenes can drag a bit but, I thought it was still pretty engaging throughout... and I was kind of glad when Dobby died.

Now on to the thrilling conclusion, 2011's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. This one has a lot of action and tying up loose ends going on. As a result, it was one of the only films in the franchise that didn't feel as long as it's runtime. This one wasn't my favorite, but I feel like it was a solid end to the series.

My general reaction when the end credits would roll after each of these movies ranged from "Hey, that one was pretty good" to "Well, maybe the next one will be better". However, while some of the films in the series feel a bit too long and there are some unintentionally funny moments scattered throughout, I did get invested in the story, I liked a number of the characters, and I enjoyed the movies overall more than I expected to. I found the series as a whole to be an intriguing balance of whimsical fun and drama. It stumbles on more than one occasion but when it works, it really works and I can see why so many people kept coming back for each new installment.
I'm obviously not a die-hard fan of these movies, and I should probably see them all at least one or two more times each before giving a definitive ranking, but after going through the series once here's how they stack up for me:

1) Prisoner of Azkaban

2) Deathly Hallows Pt.2

3) Half-Blood Prince

4) Goblet of Fire

5) Deathly Hallows Pt.1

6)  Sorcerer's Stone

7) Chamber of Secrets

8) Order of the Phoenix 

As always, if you have a suggestion for a review leave a comment below. Also, I'm curious as to how others rank these movies -and- Is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and it's sequel worth checking out?