No More Harry Potter: A Movie Goer’s Perspective
Its over, Harry Potter has had his final battle with he who shall not be named, and the Wizarding World has been saved. It took 10 years and 8 movies, but J.K. Rowling’s worldwide phenomenon of a book franchise will go down as one of the most successful franchises of all time. Book readers have known Harry’s fate for years now, but those of use with more stuff to do than time to read books, have enjoyed their movie adaptations. This is not an overview of the books, and its not an article that compares the movies to the books. If that’s what you’re looking for, go elsewhere. So save your “Oh, the books were better” arguments for someone else, they will not be entertained.
The initial hype surrounding the Harry Potter movies was huge; the Sorcerer’s Stone convinced Hollywood that the Potter name could be a bankable success. I initially tried watching it way back when it was first released on VHS, (that’s right, VHS) and couldn’t get past the children with British accents. I don’t know what bugs me about them, but the kids with accents just made the movie feel like it was for someone else. I didn’t pick the series back up for about 4 more years. After the release of The Goblet of Fire, I tried it again. I watched the first 2 movies and gained a passing interest in the series.
The biggest hurdle I had to get past was the silliness of the magic and the fact that any story that involves magic is inherently broken. With the number of spells available to the wizards, one would think that many of the things that get done by the characters would be much easier if they could just wave their wands to do them. The same thing happens in time travel movies, so putting on a veil of naivety and just enjoying the show was familiar enough. But even in The Deathly Hallows Part 2, I found myself self saying, “shouldn’t they have a spell for that?”
The Sorcerer’s Stone did a great job misdirecting the audience and revealing that Snape wasn’t a bad dude. As necessary, it spent a lot of time setting up the fiction and establishing the universe. The scene where the children are introduced to the moving stairs, stands out as a ridiculous slice of magic absurdity that is unfortunately needed to bring the scope of the universe together. In other words, I hate that scene and many others in the early movies where characters point out magic things that hold no relevance or a greatly contrived relevance to the story.
Despite this Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets have a charm to them that is distinctly different from the later movies. There’s a youthful innocence to the main three protagonists that leaves them seeming like they’re children playing in an adult’s world. Sure they ARE children, but the gravity of the situation hasn’t quite set in yet.
It wasn’t until I watched the Prisoner of Azkaban that I saw what everyone else was seeing. The story took a turn and real progress was made to bring Harry’s importance to light. Outside of Professor Snape, Sirius Black’s character was the most compelling person to have been introduced thus far. I was hooked and immediately watched the Goblet of Fire. To this day, I think the Goblet of Fire is the strongest of the first 7 movies. It’s the turning point in the series where the children have to deal with death and genuine heavy handed fear.
The Order of the Pheonix wrapped up the middle trilogy of movies nicely weaved the ministry of magic in with the overarching conflicts. Party lines were drawn and allegiances were defined. This was the beginning of the war and the major players were established. These three movies (Azkaban, Goblet and Pheonix) are the series at its best. They are balanced movies that cover a lot of story and give the world depth. The next two movies are disappointing for two very different reasons.
The Half Blood Prince, feels like the series is treading water. Important things happen in the story, but the movie’s odd focus on the personal relationships is a step backward for the maturity of the characters. The relationships (Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione) that were previously developing naturally were uncomfortably manufactured in Half Blood Prince. Also, considering the importance of the parallel story that kills Dumbledore, the love stories seem immature and tacky.
The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a movie that’s in a weird place. It’s the first half of a story that has all of the action in the second half. This creates a somewhat boring movie. A lot of stuff happens, and its not a bad movie, but watching it you get the feeling that Part 1 has to kinda suck so Part 2 can be amazing. Throw in the saddest death imaginable and the viewer is more than primed for the grand finale of the series.
I’m not going to review The Deathly Hallows itself, but I will say that if you have stuck with the series thus far, Part 2 will blow you away. How I made it 4 years since the release of the book without spoilers, is beyond me. The only bad thing I can say about the deathly Hallows Part 2 is that to fully appreciate it you have to watch over 15-16 hours of the previous Harry Potter films.
For a series to maintain such a huge success rate for such a long time is astonishing. The lack of missteps along the way is a testament to the talent and dedication of the production staff. The casting has been stellar, with the highlights being Alan Rickman as Snape, Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. I’m going to miss Harry Potter, but at the same time I hope the series if left dormant. The story was wrapped up nicely, so there’s no need to delve back into the universe. 8 movies is enough.
