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[Blackhead]

Azkaban is the only decent one, the rest are all garbage. Fantastic Beasts is actually the best Harry Potters movie

 

[Cyan]

The Dumbledore divide is always interesting. I didn't much care for Harris, with his sort of Gandalf-with-a-foot-in-the-grave take on Dumbles, but he was serviceable. Gambon, especially in Azkaban, managed to pretty much nail the way I saw the book Dumbledore--powerful and intelligent, but also at times lighthearted and whimsical.

Honestly I can't imagine Harris pulling off the fight with Voldy in the fifth movie.

 

[JeTmAn81]

I've just been rewatching these for some reason. I've seen them all at least once before. They'll never touch the books, but the sense of camaraderie you get from watching all these actors hang out together on sets for 10 years is pretty amazing. If you haven't seen the later movies you're in for a wild ride, things get pretty serious.

Edit:

Great film series but I will never forgive them for turning the longest book (Order of the Phoenix) into the shortest Harry Potter movie. Complete bullshit.

Also, wtf was up with this:

As a huge fan of the books I was a lot more sensitive to stuff like this when the movies were new, but now I just appreciate them as a filmed version of the general experience that was the books. There are plenty of things that are consistent and don't ring true in the movies but overall the characters and story are there and it's a lot faster than reading the seven books again.

 

[JeTmAn81]

Edit: Thought someone else would've posted by now

 

[Violet_0]

having only read the first book, the more real word and out-of-school stuff there is going on in the movies, the worse they generally get in my humble opinion. The fans will see it different of course , but I think the Harry Potter series really doesn't do "epic" or "dramatic" all that well. Therefor, 1-3 are the best movies and I hardly remember anything about the rest aside from not liking them very much

 

[watershed]

The Dumbledore divide is always interesting. I didn't much care for Harris, with his sort of Gandalf-with-a-foot-in-the-grave take on Dumbles, but he was serviceable. Gambon, especially in Azkaban, managed to pretty much nail the way I saw the book Dumbledore--powerful and intelligent, but also at times lighthearted and whimsical.

Honestly I can't imagine Harris pulling off the fight with Voldy in the fifth movie.

Yeah I think Gambon was far better. Everything he did in POA felt like Dumbledore come to life. Harris, when in better health, was a fantastic actor but he was already ghostly looking in HP1. I think Gambon is marred for a lot of people because of his performance in GoF but everyone was awful in that movie and it wasn't his fault. He ended up nailing the role far more than Harris did.

 

[The Real Abed]

I highly recommend watching The Dom's "Lost in Adaptation" series on YouTube. He is currently finishing off the Harry Potter films with only one part left, that being the second half of his review of the last half of the last book. Deathly Hallows Part 2.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtiXdv7RoU8IkrJeNY73qw/videos

He goes into depth about all the changes between the book and movie versions.

For the early books he puts them all in one episode, but for the later ones he splits them into two episodes. One for what was changed and one for what was kept the same, or something. I forget. It's really entertaining if you get past the obligatory sketches Channel Awesome YouTubers feel obligated to put in their reviews.

Check him out for other book to film reviews too.

 

[Loxley]

The Dumbledore divide is always interesting. I didn't much care for Harris, with his sort of Gandalf-with-a-foot-in-the-grave take on Dumbles, but he was serviceable. Gambon, especially in Azkaban, managed to pretty much nail the way I saw the book Dumbledore--powerful and intelligent, but also at times lighthearted and whimsical.

Honestly I can't imagine Harris pulling off the fight with Voldy in the fifth movie.

I honestly like both takes on the character. The more gentile, "kindly grandpa" take that Harris brought was very fitting for when the main characters were children. But as they grew older I think Gambon's more energetic "Alright you little shits, the training wheels are off so suck it up" take made more sense.

 

[Platy]

I mean that's a cool side bit in the books but it makes sense that it was cut since it does lead nowhere

Spoiler

Voldemort defines the prophecy by his own actions by going after baby Harry. From that moment on Neville can't be the choosen one anyway

I love the whole theme of subversion of the

Spoiler

chosen one in the story and fitting even more Neville (specialy considering his role on the battle of hogwarts) is absolutely awesome when mixed to the whole "harry is only a chosen one because voldemort and dumbledore said it so"

 

[demosthenes]

Just wrapped up Azkaban, and I thought it was excellent, an improvement upon its predecessors on nearly every front.

I was very into how much darker it was, not only in tone, but in its visuals. The bleaker color palette was way more interesting than anything used in the first two.

I was slightly disappointed to see that Oldman's screen time was very limited, but he was as great as he always is. David Thewlis too was also a wonderful new addition, and I hope both characters reappear in the series.

I'll watch Goblet of Fire tomorrow, which seems to be the most hated on, at least by glancing on some of the posts here.

Someone claimed it seemed like an acid trip, so I'm curious to know how that goes.

Oh, and I miss the old Dumbledore. I found the replacement fine, since I'm always open to different interpretations, but Richard Harris was such a stand-out in the previous films.

Oh, and Ron still sucks.

Ignore Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire for the most part, he got some absolute shit direction.

 

[secretanchitman]

Because Mike Newell is a madman. Goblet of Fire is the only Harry potter movie that feels like it was made on acid (perhaps it indeed was).

Everyone acts like a complete lunatic (not just Dumbledore), everyone's hair is out of control, the colour palette and direction is more exuberant than usual, the books' most complex plot is rendered nonsensical by the cut-up script, and the pacing is just all over the place. Also, there's the scene with a midget crowdsurfing.

It's the weirdest movie of the series by far (and according to most people, the worst in the series).

Holy hell these are exactly my thoughts - HP4 is by far the *worst* movie in the series. I will watch any of the other films except that one because of how bad it is. There was something off about that movie and you summed it up perfectly. Compared to how great HP3 was, HP4 is trash.

 

[Indiana Jones]

Michael Gambon is great as Dumbles, he was just given poor direction in Goblet of Fire.

 

[Fou-Lu]

Holy hell these are exactly my thoughts - HP4 is by far the *worst* movie in the series. I will watch any of the other films except that one because of how bad it is. There was something off about that movie and you summed it up perfectly. Compared to how great HP3 was, HP4 is trash.

What's even worse is it might be my fave book in the series.

 

[TheYanger]

What's even worse is it might be my fave book in the series.

It's definitely my favorite book, was the one that got me into Harry Potter (Was the only thing in English I could buy while I was on a month long vacation in Germany and had a car ride ahead of me), and the movie just removes all of the charming aspects because it's got so much plot to try and ram into such a short film.

 

[Travo]

Michael Gambon was a disaster as Dumbledore compared to Richard Harris.

Yes he was.

 

[Forkball]

I've seen the first, fourth, and last two movies. That's all you really need when you think about it.

First movie: Voldemort is introduced
Fourth movie:

Spoiler

Voldemort comes back

Last two movies:

Spoiler

Voldemort dies.

The first movie is a pretty solid introduction to the WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, which is rather complex yet the story is focused enough so you know what's going on. I don't really remember what happened in the fourth movie, PROBABLY shouldn't watch it before movie two and three. The last two just seemed

Spoiler

so depressing. Everything was dark, you had Harry and crew hanging out at old English houses in the middle of nowhere, and then a huge battle. Everyone was sad when that elf died, but I felt nothing. What's his name? Gomby?

I never really got into Harry Potter, but then again I never read the books. When the first movie came out I didn't have much interest, especially because LORD OF THE RINGS came out around the same time and that was far more interesting to me.

 

[NHarmonic.]

First 3 movies really captured the magic of the world. I wish Christopher Columbus would have been given a chance as the actors matured and he could push for a more PG-13 film. Even giving Cuaron another go was better than the crap we ended up getting.

Should have just called the last 2 movies, Harry Potter and the battle at Hogwarts as the Deathly Hallows all but irrelevant.

Richard Harris also was the perfect Dumbledore. By the end, the cast looked like Abercrombie models who have wands that shoot white projectiles or red light against green light etc. All magic and wonder gone from the world. Watch the world building Columbus did in the first two and then watch by the end. It became a flat sprint from beginning to end. The ancillary stuff that makes the movie different from others was gone.

What more do you wanted from the deathly hallows? Even in the book they weren't that important aside from the fact they existed. The tale was recreated in the perfect way and they nailed, imo, the stone scene.

 

[Chuckie]

Spoiler

so depressing. Everything was dark, you had Harry and crew hanging out at old English houses in the middle of nowhere, and then a huge battle. Everyone was sad when that elf died, but I felt nothing. What's his name? Gomby?

Spoiler

Well Dobby only played a large part in Chamber of Secrets, a movie you didn't watch, so it is to be expected that you had less of an emotional response to his death

 

[Fata1moose]

Spoiler

Well Dobby only played a large part in Chamber of Secrets, a movie you didn't watch, so it is to be expected that you had less of an emotional response to his death

Spoiler

Dobby did a lot more in the books too, but they replaced him with Neville for some reason.

 

[Jarnet87]

Spoiler

Neville is the chosen one. He gets chosen into Gryffindor, he wins them the house cup, he finds the room of requirement, he destroys the last horcrux. The true hero of HP.

Half Blood Prince is my favorite of the movies

 

[GARlockSpiral]

Spoiler

Neville is the chosen one. He gets chosen into Gryffindor, he wins them the house cup, he finds the room of requirement, he destroys the last horcrux. The true hero of HP.

Half Blood Prince is my favorite of the movies

To this day, I'm still saddened that the last book isn't actually called "Neville Longbottom and the Surprise Ending"

 

[J_Viper]

Perhaps it was me going in with lowered expectations, but I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed Goblet of Fire. It's, by far, my favorite of the four I've seen.

This one finally completes the transition from kids movies that can be enjoyed by all ages to a much more serious fantasy tone that I find a bit similar to LOTR, that being my all time favorite trilogy.

I did enjoy how quickly this one "starts" as opposed to the predecessors. It takes maybe 15 minutes for Ghost BC to show up and start torching the Qudditch, instead of again wasting time with slapstick humor at Aunt Petunia's.

Even the humor here is much better. I found myself liking the scenes with Harry and Ron finding a date for the ball. It was a much better shot at levity, as opposed to the "HAHA HIS HEAD IS A MEATBALL NOW" found in the previous films.

Voldemort's rebirth scene was excellent. Ralph Fiennes was perfectly sinister in the role, and that makeup is just horrifying.

Maybe having zero knowledge of the books influenced my enjoyment of this one?

Anyway, I'm hyped to finish the series now that it seems the main tone and antagonist have been established.

Ignore Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire for the most part, he got some absolute shit direction.

I actually liked him a lot here!

 

[Tambini]

Yeah book 4 is so much better than the movie but the movie is still enjoyable, just some very odd directing decisions plus all the good stuff they cut from the book. Graveyard scene is great though.

 

[Cheerilee]

Maybe having zero knowledge of the books influenced my enjoyment of this one?

Yeah, when I was first starting with the series, someone advised me to watch the movies before reading the books (or to do them in parallel, watching a movie before it's equivalent book), because the books are better (Goblet of Fire is where that growing difference makes it's biggest leap), and the shortcomings of the movies are maddening to book fans. After reading the book, I can see the differences and tell that the book's way of doing things was better, but it doesn't upset me, it just makes the book more enjoyable.

IIRC, one of the directors (David Yates I think, the guy who directs the entire rest of the series) said that the series was starting to get so rich with detail that it was impossible for him to make a movie series that made sense by itself, so his movies are built on the assumption that you've read the previous books. You might want to hit the public library and grab yourself a copy of Philosopher's Stone, to see if the books are your cup of tea (the first ones are a fast, easy read). Or not, whatever.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

I was slightly disappointed to see that Oldman's screen time was very limited, but he was as great as he always is. David Thewlis too was also a wonderful new addition, and I hope both characters reappear in the series.

Oh they do, but they fucked up Lupin's story later on.

Oh wait, they didn't fuck it up because they didn't even attempt it.

Deathly Hallows 2 spoiler:

Spoiler

Harry giving a throwaway line to Lupin's kid when he was never mentioned before fucking infuriated me.

 

[Boss Doggie]

One thing that bothers me is that why did Harry reveal himself with the Beauxbatons headmistress when Hagrid invited him to have a first look at the dragons?

 

[nomster]

The Dumbledore divide is always interesting. I didn't much care for Harris, with his sort of Gandalf-with-a-foot-in-the-grave take on Dumbles, but he was serviceable. Gambon, especially in Azkaban, managed to pretty much nail the way I saw the book Dumbledore--powerful and intelligent, but also at times lighthearted and whimsical.

Honestly I can't imagine Harris pulling off the fight with Voldy in the fifth movie.

Totally agree with your Gambon take.

 

[DrForester]

Read the book, or do the audiobooks. UK Audiobooks are ready by Stephen Fry.

And yes, Gambon is the superior Dumbledore.

Great film series but I will never forgive them for turning the longest book (Order of the Phoenix) into the shortest Harry Potter movie. Complete bullshit.

Also, wtf was up with this:

Pretty much everyone sucked in Goblet of Fire. Director clearly didn't know what the hell was going on.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I swear everyone was shouting in Goblet of Fire.

 

[J_Viper]

Caught Order of the Phoenix today

This one was...alright? Aside from the great magic battle at the very end, it felt like filler.

Neither the Ministry Intervention or Harry training the students plot lines were at all compelling. There was nothing terrible about the film, but most of it is just kinda there, as if the series is spinning its wheels for the next big event.

It was nice to see Oldman again even though

Spoiler

his death happens out of nowhere

. What's equally disappointing is David Thewlis returning without any lines of dialogue or really anything at all to do.

I wasn't surprised to see this entry was written by someone other than Steve Kloves, whose talents were sorely missing. I hope his return in the next entry gets the franchise back on track.

I also read about how Yates films tend to look rather plain, and I see it. The previous two films have their own distinct visual style. This one, though? Not sure much.

I hope Half-Blood Prince is better, also Order is a let down coming off the previous two.

 

[Deleted member 465307]

I think the fifth was my least favorite film, OP. So far, your tastes have aligned pretty well with mine. I think my favorites in the series are 3 and 4, but I also might be short-changing the quality of 6, 7.1, and 7.2 since I don't remember them well.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Perhaps it was me going in with lowered expectations, but I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed Goblet of Fire. It's, by far, my favorite of the four I've seen.

This one finally completes the transition from kids movies that can be enjoyed by all ages to a much more serious fantasy tone that I find a bit similar to LOTR, that being my all time favorite trilogy.

I did enjoy how quickly this one "starts" as opposed to the predecessors. It takes maybe 15 minutes for Ghost BC to show up and start torching the Qudditch, instead of again wasting time with slapstick humor at Aunt Petunia's.

Even the humor here is much better. I found myself liking the scenes with Harry and Ron finding a date for the ball. It was a much better shot at levity, as opposed to the "HAHA HIS HEAD IS A MEATBALL NOW" found in the previous films.

Voldemort's rebirth scene was excellent. Ralph Fiennes was perfectly sinister in the role, and that makeup is just horrifying.

Maybe having zero knowledge of the books influenced my enjoyment of this one?

Anyway, I'm hyped to finish the series now that it seems the main tone and antagonist have been established.



I actually liked him a lot here!

This is my favorite of the books, and I like the movie a lot, too. (3 still reigns, but 4 is a solid follow-up).

The first two are by far the weakest, IMHO. The second being worse than the first, but both being overly bland. I suppose 5 is a weak entry too (although the book is great).

I never really understood the hate for Goblet. I happen to love Gambon in the part, and nver liked Richard Chamberlin that much. He wasn't bad, but he was boring.

 

[JonnyKong]

I think I'm always bias towards the 4th film because it's my favourite book. I'm not saying it's the best film of the series (Azkaban will always win that title), but it has a lot of good, small moments I'll always remember, such as Cedric's dad soul piercing cry when he sees his dead son, or Hermione getting upset over Ron at the Yule ball.

Overall though it's a superb series of films. They'll always hold a magical, nostalgic flame to my heart, and I really, really miss going go watch them every Christmas at the cinema.

OOTP is definitely the one I've seen the least, although the last half an hour is really kick arse.

 

[J_Viper]

Just finished Half Blood Prince, and it's a much better film than Phoenix by far.

Events actually unfold, the set pieces are exciting again, and it's paced well enough that it feels shorter than the previous film, despite being twenty minutes longer. Much more than Phoenix, this truly does feel like the true next step of the franchise after Goblet of Fire.

There didn't seem to be much in terms of forwarding the main plot along until the last act of the movie, but even still, I was entertained all throughout, thanks to the strong writing, performances, and top notch visual design. This one certainly did not look as sterile as Phoenix did, despite sharing the same director.

I'd probably place this one behind Goblet and Azkaban as my favorites so far. Here's to hoping the series ends on a great note with Deathly Hallows.

 

[the_firewithin]

Spoiler

Neville is the chosen one. He gets chosen into Gryffindor, he wins them the house cup, he finds the room of requirement, he destroys the last horcrux. The true hero of HP.

Half Blood Prince is my favorite of the movies

HBP is one of my favs. Good mix of humor and setting up the end

 

[DrForester]

HBP is my favorite book. Not only did I love the Voldemort backstory,but it's also the only book that feels like a normal year at hogwarts. How villain, no real mystery.

Then the movie screwed it up by just going overboard with teen angst and barely going into Voldemort backstory.

 

[Jigorath]

Great film series but I will never forgive them for turning the longest book (Order of the Phoenix) into the shortest Harry Potter movie. Complete bullshit.

Also, wtf was up with this:

Dumbledoring manhandling Harry was the dumbest thing. Dude was ready to attack Umbridge for putting her hands on one of his students in OotP. But I guess that's what happens the director doesn't read the books.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

HBP is my favorite book. Not only did I love the Voldemort backstory,but it's also the only book that feels like a normal year at hogwarts. How villain, no real mystery.

Then the movie screwed it up by just going overboard with teen angst and barely going into Voldemort backstory.

Pffft. Who cares about Voldemort back story when you can have Death Eaters randomly attack the Burrow?

 

[Kordelle]

HBP is barely watchable for me.
The many love scenes are extremely cringey and they fucked

Spoiler

Dumbledores death

up.
For me its the worst of the movies.

 

[empyrean]

Anyone else feel that the first two films particularly were really badly lit? Some of the lighting in hogwarts was horrendous, made everything look over exposed and washed out?

 

[Viewt]

My thoughts on the series:

Sorcerer's Stone
- Very solid kids movie that seems built for fans. It really felt like a 1:1 adaptation, and despite some awful CG and uninspired direction, I think it delivers on the premise of the series.

Chamber of Secrets
- Columbus wasn't able to pivot with the series' darker turns, and it showed. I'll always love Kenneth Branagh in it, though. He plays an amazing ham.

Prisoner of Azkaban
- Really kicks it up a notch, and sets the color palette for the rest of the series after the perma-Christmas look of the two previous movies. Oldman is great, Lupin is great, the Dementors are suitably freakish, etc. High marks all around.

Goblet of Fire
- Turns my favorite book in the series into the worst of the films. Everyone's characterization is all over the place, and while I wasn't a fan of Ron's brief heel turn in the book, the film made it look even worse. The dragon was pretty dope, though, and honestly, that scene where Diggory's dad yells "My boy! That's my boy!" usually puts a knot in my throat.

Order of the Phoenix
- Kind of a forgettable movie, honestly. There's the whole prophecy angle, which I was never super interested in, and the Dumbledore/Voldemort duel wasn't as exciting as I was hoping.

Half-Blood Prince
- Really impressive cinematography, and wonderful performances by Alan Rickman and Michael Gabon. Even Draco showed up and turned in really solid work.

Deathly Hallows P1
- This is my favorite Harry Potter movie. Full of great character work, great cinematography, and an eerie build-up of suspense.

Deathly Hallows P2
- All crescendo, which is exciting, but ultimately a little exhausting, and the tie-everything-in-a-bow epilogue never sat well with me.

Overall, though, the HP film series still has good credit with me, and while I had some issues with Fantastic Beasts, the heart of the franchise is still there, so I'm willing to follow along.

 

[Cheerilee]

Pffft. Who cares about Voldemort back story when you can have Death Eaters randomly attack the Burrow?

That's one of my biggest peeves about the movies.

Like, I'm potentially okay with "Harry did yah put yah name in da goblet of fiyah?!" because the movies don't have an unlimited page count, and the director may have felt that he didn't have time for a restrained, subtle, powerful, complicated Dumbledore, or he didn't have time for something which escalated the threat level so he needed to find some other way to show that things were spiraling out of control (or maybe the director was just stupid or high, whatever). But the basic sense I got is that the people making the movies just didn't have a big enough canvas to match the quality of JK Rowling's books.

But then, the first time these movies went for one of these "added scenes", I was watching a behind-the-scenes piece on the making of it, and after so many years of adapting someone else's ideas, they were "so proud" to be adding something that was uniquely their own to Harry Potter.

But they're still fundamentally adapting somebody else's idea. What they mean is, after so many years of adapting Harry freaking Potter, they're so proud to be listening to someone who isn't JK Rowling.

And they were fools to listen to this other person, because those scenes don't fit, they're out of place, and they suck. At a time when the movies were suffering from a shortage of screen time and literally didn't have enough room to include any number of things that actually mattered.

 

[ienjoyrawfish]

Hold up. You think Camping: The Movie is the best Harry Potter movie?

It's one of the only Harry Potter movies that isn't paced too fast.

I agree with Half Blood Prince being the worst though. They cut out a lot of the scene's involving Tom Riddle's past. I don't demand completely faithful adaptations, but if there's one element you shouldn't skimp on it's that: those were BY FAR the most important scenes in the book. Some of the ones which were cut were actually necessary to properly understand what was going on in Deathly Hallows, so you're pretty much fucked if you haven't read the books. This is particularly inexcusable when you consider all the superfluous romance that they left in to appeal to the Twilight crowd.

 

[DrForester]

I liked most of Deathly Hallows 1. Second one messed up the climax pretty badly, so I didn't like it too much. It was OK.

I did absolutely hate that dancing scene from DH1 though.

 

[The Real Abed]

THe Burrow attack only bothers me in hindsight because it makes no sense. Voldemort isn't supposed to know they're there until the last book during the wedding. You'd think after they randomly attack and know they keep coming back that he'd be focusing his efforts on that location. It's made even worse when you know the fact that in the last book they choose the Burrow as Harry's hiding place out of a bunch of other locations. But with the scene from that movie being added in it basically confirms to Voldemort that it's the most likely location to attack so don't even bother with the other clones, just go after the one heading to the one place we know he spends a lot of time at.

Sure I assume the last book wasn't out when they wrote the film but J.K. could have mentioned something like "don't put the action scene there wink wink" like she did when they wanted to give Dumbledore a female companion and she had to tell them he was gay.

The film adaptation of Order came off as the most changed to me. But it makes up for it by having my favorite love to hate villain. Shame they leave out all the Quiddich stuff and Dobby warning the Order and the way they held their meetings and what could have been awesome with George and Fred leaving school with a bang. Well it was there's but it was changed so much. And I believe the next book even talked about some of the aftermath that they leave out. Maybe I'm misremembering.

 

[mrklaw]

I wasn't a fan of the way the books changed in tone. I read them to my kids after they were all out and when you read them like that it feels quite abrupt and also a hit dark for bedtime reading for a little' un

 

[Davide]

As someone who never read the books Goblet of Fire is my favourite. All eight were way better than Fantastic Beasts.

 

[Snagret]

I'm watching the series for the first time with my partner. I stopped reading the books as a kid after the fourth one and never saw the films.

We just finished Chamber last night, so far they've both been pretty weak. I know a lot of people champion the world-building, but there are a lot of tediously whimsical scenes that don't really service the plot in any significant way and bring the pacing of the films to a complete halt. Most of the scenes in the classrooms or on the quidditch fields drag on far too long without any significant narrative or character contributions, and only exist to drench you in the "magic" of the world. It's fine as a kid's movie, but as a cynical, jaded adult these moments are hard to ignore and even harder to enjoy in the face of a 2 1/2 hour length.

It's also interesting how similiar the first two movies are in terms of pacing. Both movies spend about the same amount of time establishing Harry's abusive family situation in the beginning, about the same amount of time reintroducting him to the magic world, watching them learn about magic with some comic relief sprinkled in in the classrooms, playing quidditch, sneaking around in the invisibility cloak, venturing out into the woods, discovering a secret location within Hogwarts and getting some light action scenes as they face some environmental hazards while exploring said location before a final 1-on-1 confrontation with the villian where Harry defeats them, then the story gets wrapped up in a scene where Gryffindor wins the house cup.

I get that at the time Rowling was probably not anticipating the direction the series would take as she was writing the first two books, but the stories in the first two are just waaaay too similar. There's very little escalation in terms of the stakes of the overarching series narrative (or indeed anything but the thinnest indication that there will really even be one aside from continuing to establish that Voldemort...exists I guess). It just felt like the same plot with a new coat of paint. Which was fine in the first movie, but I left the second movie feeling a lot more critical of the experience. The first movie got a pass for me on these issues since it was tackling the job of introducing a LOT of concepts and characters, but I still feel the same way I did after watching the first one which is that I'm ready for a punchier, tighter story with this setting and these characters rather than dedicating so much screentime to the fulff and just retreading the same themes and plot points again.

We're watching the third movie today, which has me excited. I hear great things about it and I'm a huge fan of the director. I'll report back on it after I've had some time to digest it.

 

[Laieon]

As someone who never read the books Goblet of Fire is my favourite. All eight were way better than Fantastic Beasts.

I like how divided Fantastic Beasts is. I know someone who thinks all the HP movies were mediocre as hell and hasn't read the books in however long it's been since Deathly Hallows came out (10+ years?) but loved Fantastic Beasts and thinks it's by far the best. Says he already cares about Newt and his gang way more than he ever did movie-Harry.

 

[Symphonia]

As someone who never read the books Goblet of Fire is my favourite. All eight were way better than Fantastic Beasts.

I actually really enjoyed Fantastic Beasts, and look forward to seeing what happens next with Newt and the gang. I cared more about them in one film than I did with the original trio over all eight.