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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.

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