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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.

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