In honor of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opening wide in a few hours, I decided to repost my rankings of and opinions on the first five Harry Potter movies. I'll also be adding my thoughts on HBP sometime after Wednesday.
1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Oddly enough one of my least favorite books in the series has become the best movie to date. OotP is by far the most grown-up movie so far, not just in terms of theme and story, but it terms of how the film is shot. David Yates really made the Harry Potter Universe his own and has created the most visually appealing film. Sure, it's not a perfect adaptation because there were elements that had to sacrificed, but overall this latest installment is by far the best.
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - The PoA movie will always be my all-time favorite HP flick mostly because it was the movie that got me hooked on Harry Potter. Up until Prisoner of Azkaban I had only watched the movies. I did try reading the book prior to this movie, but I couldn't get in to it. This story had some great themes and plot twists that just drew me in. I read the book after watching this movie (at least 5 times in the theaters) and I was a goner.
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - GoF is by far my least favorite book in the series. I was not intrigued by the Tri-Wizard Tournament stuff and don't get me started on the whole SPEW subplot. I just felt the book strayed too far away from the whole basis of the series, Voldemort. Sure he's there at the start and the end, but very little is said about him throughout the book. So why is the GoF movie so highly ranked? First, the visuals were fantastic. While the book was a bit boring, I always knew the movie would be action packed, and I wasn't disappointed. I also applauded the graveyard scene because I feel that's where the series really takes off. Also, the scene where Harry brings Cedric's body back still gives me chills. Sure, I would have kept the whole Impostor Moody twist closer to the book, but that's just me being nit-picky. Plus, it's the HP movie with the most humor.
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - It was Chamber of Secrets that convinced me that the Harry Potter stories were not just for kids. This film shows how dark the world of Harry Potter can be. The ending of CoS will always be one of my favorites. There is just something uber creepy about Tom Riddle and how he uses the diary to posses Ginny.
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - The movie did a decent job at translating the book on to the screen. Chris Columbus did a good job at setting up the foundation with a fairly spot-on adaptation of the book. Overall, it was a decent film but nothing too spectacular in my opinion.
I'm excited for the new film, but I did hear that there is a lot of romance, and I'm not quite sure how that's going to work itself out. In the end, I really liked the book, and I just hope that the movie does it some justice.
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