A-List: Ranking the Harry Potter Movies
By J. Don Birnam
June 9, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
So, I deftly put two and two together and decided to try and rank the top five of the eight Harry Potter films. Hey, I’ve done it for Star Wars, so why not this series?
I’ll start off by saying I like all eight of the movies, but, then again, I’m a huge fan of the entire series. It is also difficult to do this entirely divorced from the book. Everyone knows which ones are the best and the worst books, and the relationship between that source material and the strength of a particular film are undeniable. Still, the relationship is not an exact match - directors and screenwriters do have a choice in terms of what scenes to cut from the long novels, who to cast, and how to tone the movie overall. And, in that sense, noticeable differences do emerge by the end.
All of that is to say that my rankings are based on a combination of those factors - choices made from the books, tone, style, and casting picks. I will not make any honorable mentions today because that would give away which movies I’ve selected for the top five. I’ll just reemphasize that you can never go wrong with Harry Potter, which I did name my favorite movie franchise of all-time, after all.
If you have murderously different opinions, you know where to find me. Please note that this contains heavy spoilers.
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Widely considered the worst of the seven books due mostly to its verbosity, the editing job alone warrants giving this movie one of the top spots. But once you consider the brilliant casting of Imelda Staunton (and her riveting performance) as Dolores Umbridge, then the deal is sealed.
This movie was pivotal in its own way - it was the first of the second half of the series - and the first to be directed by David Yates, who then turned into the guy that closed out the franchise behind the camera. Yates has a steady, unpretentious style that worked well and did not interfere with the storytelling in this or other films. He also did his best with the somewhat weak storyline underlying the movie - the whole business with the mysterious prophecy - by focusing on the stronger points of the film such as the Umbridge/Potter relationship, as well as the climactic scene in the Ministry of Magic. The death of Sirius Black was particularly well portrayed, and Yates also made strong use of Helena Bonham Carter, who dazzled throughout the franchise but in particular here as the macabre Bellatrix Lestrange.
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Chris Columbus’s second and last foray as a director of what fairly began as a children’s franchise deserves the next spot.
Again, you really have to credit Warner Bros. and the people behind these films for their impeccable selections, which rarely missed. The plot of this movie is much more straightforward in its adventure and mystery, and Columbus was the perfect man to lead them through it.
The story does rise in intensity and danger as it goes on and as it’s meant to, and Columbus has just enough of a sinister touch to suit the movie well without overblowing it. Most impressive is the ever important scene with the Basilisk, all of which goes off smoothly.
Finally, it must be noted that Columbus is undoubtedly to thank for helping the young actors mature a bit from their mostly childish first turns to a much more promising sophomore outing, which was an augur of very good things to come.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Although the entire gimmick of splitting up the last book for double the ticket sales was as annoying then as it is today, the finale of the series blows most of the rest of the movies out of the water, again because of how the filmmakers were able to distill complex plot lines into on-screen stories that were not too hard to follow.
The teenagers that lead the cast have, at this point, grown awkward, but at least Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe show maturity as actors by the end of the franchise. The bone-chilling finale of the wand battle between Radcliffe and the pernicious Ralph Fiennes (a brilliant choice as Voldemort) worked well in ways that perhaps presaged the upcoming film Warcraft. Overall, the last few sequences - the invasion of Hogwarts, the death of Snape, and the redemption of Dumbledore - are all done with precision, sentiment, and good movie-making.
The film, of course, closes more playfully 19 years into the future. And who would have guessed that Domhall Gleeson would become such a star? But, before we could get to all of that, of course, the filmmakers had to give us a final adventure - from Gringotts to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry itself, and they undoubtedly did so.
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Goblet of Fire is widely considered the best of the seven books - the pivotal, central novel in this complex and fascinating story. It’s when a major character first dies in the end when you know it’s gone from cute to dark in the blink of a portkey.
One really cannot say enough about all the sentiment, all the brain, all the excitement behind this novel.
But one really has to say a lot about the brilliant way in which it was adapted for the screen. For one, the plot is by far the most intricate of all, with several twists, clues, and reveals to be had. From Barty Crouch to Mad-Eye Moody, few people are who they seem in this movie. Mike Newell, an expert storyteller and the director of this film, did it well.
But it’s not just plot-trimming that makes this movie so great. The craft is stunning, which is saying a lot for a series full of stunning craft. The Quidditch World Cup scenes are grander than I imagined them, and the Triwizard Tournament event sequences - from the dragons to the lake to the maze and the Yuletide Ball - are all superb.
You also get impeccable casting. We’ve mentioned Fiennes, but there’s also Brendan Gleeson as Moody, and of course would who forget Robert Pattinson’s debut, years before he became a pale, blood-sucking **.
In the end, though, it is of course the tragic, the tear-jerking, the absolutely shocking denouement that makes this film so good. Voldemort returns, Diggory is killed, and Harry Potter’s world is upturned for good. This movie is leagues above the rest, and it is fair that only one in the series beats it. Barely.
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The third film in the franchise is a brilliant film on its own right. Directed by the Oscar-winning Alfonso Cuarón (who later did Gravity), it is the one that combines all elements - story, tech, acting, and symbolism - into an exquisite, near perfect product.
The twist in this movie has to do with temporal time-travel, of course. In the end, the characters find out that certain events they had lived through may have been caused by themselves in some form of cosmic paradox that we should not bother ourselves too much with. Cuarón was brilliant, however, in shooting these scenes, so that the viewer really did not know that the “future” characters were there the first time around, then reshowing the shots from a different angle. It's great camerawork that shows why sometimes movies can be better than even fantastic source material.
Cuarón also made the strategic choice of showing his teen actors mostly without Hogwarts uniforms but with muggle clothes. This worked because the actors themselves had grown so and no longer looked like the cutesy children that we had seen in the first two films. And it worked because it began to give us the sense that this was more than just a kid story.
Then there was the casting. Two consequential if not central characters, Sirius Black and Professor Trewlaney, were introduced via Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson. Both knocked it out of the park.
The best part about the best film in the best franchise in movie history, however, turns out to be a rather simple trope. The theme is time, so Cuarón plays with it well - huge clocks are seen throughout, and the soundtrack has a tick-tock rhythmic aspect to it. The references to time and the notion of its passage are alluded to in the script without being overwrought or corny. Cuarón simply knows how to put a good movie together, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban may be one of his most finest masterpieces in a transcendent career.