Harry Potter Movie review

Movie Review:

1) Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was renamed as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States. Presumably because American audiences didn’t know that something called “the Philosopher’s Stone” is actually a piece of folklore, and also because “Sorcerer”sounds significantly cooler than “Philosopher.” 

The movie does make it clear that some of their motivation stems from a sort of bitterness over the fact Harry’s mother was a wizard, but perhaps that’s not unreasonable. 

We know, for instance, that Harry’s father was just a bit of a prick, and the series does feature quite a bit of casual racism towards non-magic-folk (I don’t know about you, but I want to reclaim the world “muggle”). McGonnigle assures Dumbledore that “these people” are “the worst sort of muggles imaginary.” Not that they’re not the worst people, they’re the worst muggles, which seems to imply the lowest of the low. 

2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The movie opens with the distinctive Harry Potter logo set against a relatively clear evening sky, with more than a hint of blue. Every subsequent film would erode away at the gold brand and set it against increasingly troubled horizons, but here it seems like everything is going to be all right. 

However, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is simply too long for its own good. It runs at over two-and-a-half hours, which is a genuinely long time for a family adventure film, and it isn’t nearly consistent enough to maintain interest over such a long period. That said, the movie isn’t without its charms, but the best is most definitely yet to come.

3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban isn’t the best in the series, but it’s certainly one of the stronger instalments, and perhaps the best looking and best executed. I don’t really think the underlying story is strong enough to support the entire film, but it’s a very well-made family adventure. It’s smart and a little bit witty, while hosting some absolutely wonderful production design. What’s wrong with that?

4) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Goblet of Fire might not do everything perfectly – it’s production design lacks the beauty and nuance of its predecessor, for example – but it does pretty much everything well. It isn’t as painfully saccharine as the movies that came before, nor as relentlessly grim as those that followed. It is economical with its story points, but everybody gets their moments – indeed, it perhaps does the teen angst better than those that would follow. If we were to describe the movie in fairytale terms, this would be the one that’s just right.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is perhaps the best in the series. It’s not just a superb Harry Potter film, it’s a very well-made piece of cinema on its own terms as well.

6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price

The movie has a variety of different plot threads going, as seems to be the norm in the later instalments. Perhaps the most successful follows Professor Horace Slughorn. It’s notable that this time the new recruit isn’tteaching “Defenses Against the Dark Arts”, or “the lowest job security in the history of the world”, as it is probably know in wizard circles.

On the other hand, there is a thread that sprouts from this which doesn’t really work as well as perhaps it should. While Dumbledore is fascinated by a mysterious incident from Slughorn’s past, he also reveals little bits and pieces about Tom Riddle to Harry. For those unaware, Riddle is the boy who would grow up to be Lord Voldemort. So we get a scene of Dumbledore collecting Tom from the orphanage where he grew up, and one or two other brief moments scattered throughout the film. 

7/8) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part-1/2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, we simply get a first act and what feels like the majority of the second. it’s quite a solid little addition to the franchise, with the sense that everything is sort of settling into place, and the films are starting to feel quite comfortable with themselves.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II is probably the strongest entry in the film series, and offers a fitting code to the saga of the famous boy wizard. 

the movie suggests, is a fact of life. As we grow up and we learn and see more, we come to realise that those key and important figures in our lives were somewhat more than the two-dimensional heroes we original saw them for. We come to realise that they were people, with their decencies and their faults, their beauty and their ugliness, their great successes and their horrible failures.