Rank the movies

[Hugh Kenrick]

With the newest film coming out in a month or so, I thought I'd start up a thread where people can stack-rank the films from top to bottom, and maybe give a few reason why they earned a high/low position.

My 2 cents:

Goblet of Fire: Has a good mix of action; interesting characters; and was generally faithful to the book, as far as movies go. Still fun to watch

Prisoner of Azkaban: Like Goblet of Fire, had a good mix of action and character development, while retaining the idea of the book well. Some oddities about it, but it didn't hurt the overall product

Sorceror's Stone: Faithful to the book, and captured that wonderment pretty well, while provided some good humor to keep it in the same tone of an '11-year-old stuck in a mystery' idea.

Chamber of Secrets: Too long, and took too long to develop. This was a case where faithful to the book didn't make more than an average film. Dobby wasn't necessarily Jar-Jar Binks, but coming on the heels of Gollum, he kinda loses me.

Order of the Phoenix: Could have been better. Seemed choppy, and left out some key elements that will have to be rewritten for the canon of the films to make sense. (House elves in particular). Best thing in it: Luna Lovegood. Whoever cast her has a good eye for this kind of thing. In fact, she was almost the best thing in the film. It was the weakest book, IMHO, so not surprising that it made a weak film.

Thoughts?

[Elwen]

OK, here are mine?

POA - this is the best designed of them all, IMHO: it looks beautiful, and the imagery actually underlines some of the crucial themes. The film also managed to take the most complex plot in the series and turn it into a film that still makes sense.

OOTP - I think it condensed the book rather well, especially given the fact that the book has some amazing ideas, but a lot of bulk that any good editor (or one not star-struck by the millions in sales) would have cut. The film remedied the situation and homed in on some central themes. I also thought that the acting of the kids was a lot better.

PS/SS - just because it was the first time we got to see Harry Potter, and it was woderful to see that woprld on the screen, I think Columbus did a good job in isualising the world (although i'd have wished that he could have got soem really creative artoists to come up with stuff that visuall matched JKR's inventiveness). As an adaptation its stifled by its rigid faithfulness, however, It may be depicting scene by scene, but somewhere between those scenes the flavour of the story gets lost a bit.

GOF: I love the end of GOF. The rest, IMHO, is not so successful. I think the whole World CUp scene is wasted: they should either have used it properly, or not included it at all. This is a weird half-way house that mainly seems to serve the purpose of showing off special effects. I HATE the LOOOOOOONG pointless dragon chase, and I think the tasks enerally are all a bit tedious. There is good stuff in betwee, especially watching Harry (Radcliffe doing a pretty good job, IMHO) coping with it all. The Graveyard scene is riveting. I wish they could have kept up that verve throughout the film - the book would certainly have provided the right material.

COS: this is where the wonder of the new wore off and all of Columbus' weaknesses came to the fore. It's the one I like least - I still like it, it's got its moments, but I don't think it's a very good film.

[Pearl]

In order of preference:

PoA
The best-made and the most beautiful: I love the darkly dazzling cinematography, I adored the new locations and loved Cuaron's approach to Harry's world. Only slightly marred by Movie Hermione (over-bossy). Or Pink Power Granger, as some of the more puristy types dub her ... I am not, in any shape or form, a HP purist, but I do think they have a point ... Dan's acting was better in this too.

OotP
Ties with PoA for my favourite. I liked the book a lot more on second reading but the film wisely got rid of all the stuff it didn't need. Loved the sly little touches of humour. Umbridge's kitten plates!!! -- I wants me some. :D

GoF
It's been nine years since I read GoF and some of the HP gloss was lost on me at the time (I had loved the third book). I actually preferred the film. :shrug:

CoS
Nobody likes this -- apart from the die-hard purists who hate Cuaron -- but I actually rather like it. :)

PS/SS
A nice children's film with some great touches, but the one I am least inclined to watch.

[Hugh Kenrick]

Daniel Radcliffe has been, in my view the most consistent in his style, as well as his ability to grow with the character over the various films. PoA had the strongest supporting cast of many of them and a strong Director told the story well.

[Elwen]

I think Radcliffe is a bit of a miracle, because he actually turned out to be a reasonable actor (and a good-looking one at that).

How on earth could they know that when they hired him aged all of ten or so?

[Haldomere Banks]

...(and a good-looking one at that).
How on earth could they know that when they hired him aged all of ten or so?

They probably had people bring old family pictures to the auditions.

http://www.knme.org/blogger/uploaded_images/MBJ_3-722953.jpg

Hjal

[Hugh Kenrick]

That was a prety good PBS series

[Elwen]

Yes it was. :)

[Hugh Kenrick]

Starting with #4, it seems that they've really departed from making the movies stand on their own. It will be interesting to see how these films hold up as new generations that don't read the book first are introduced to the movie. The dichotomy of people that don't know the 'full story' is pretty narrow right now. In other words, they will become truly classic in time.

I expect it will be a lot like LOTR though. People that never read the books will take them up and enjoy them after seeing the films. I haven't let my daughter see more than the first two, so now that she's read and re-read all 7, I'll be interested to hear her opinion on the changes/differences as she grows older.

[Elwen]

hmmmm.... I think we won't be able to tell before a new generation of kids grow up. It takes a long tiome to see whether soething becoems a classic.

My guess is that the books might, but the films probably won't.

[Hugh Kenrick]

hmmmm.... I think we won't be able to tell before a new generation of kids grow up. It takes a long tiome to see whether soething becoems a classic.

My guess is that the books might, but the films probably won't.

I agree with you, although these movies would be difficult to re-make in anything short of a couple of generations; the kids will be too identifiable for a looooong time.

Almost as difficult as it will be for someone to remake LOTR in the next 25 years. The advantage to LOTR is that there are other stories that could be exploited.

[Elwen]

If we are thinking of the current system, I think you are right. I am just not sure whether the current system will stay the same.

It's difficult to tell how thinsg will develop in the next ten, twenty years, let alone longer in the future. I don't quite see where the film business is going to goe. I think that big tentpole film productions will stick around, but anything below the huge blockbuster scale will perhaps change quite a bit.


TV miniseries can now use pretty impressive special effects - and accessibility to decent effects is getting better year after year. .... With digital cameras replacing actual film, even fan-made films (the Hunt for Gollum) can look pretty decent these days, at a reasonable price. I think this trend will continue, too. (in some cases, the rights-owning companies actually allow this already - e.g. there are a few Star Trek spinoff episodes (bad quality, IMHO) made by fans which were allowed by Paramount, under the condition that it is not-for-profit)

Thus, I think we can't tell who is going to make what, and under which conditions in the next two generations (even the next decade, I'd say). If fan-film making takes off, we'll be in for a lot of Potter-related stuff... at least for another few years, till the crunch point comes, and we'd have to see whether the Potter fandom can retain its strength without a new input of enthusiasm and hype that each book release and film release brings.

In fact, as far as I can tell ffrom traffic on mugglenet/Chamber of Secrets the number of active fans is actually shrinking at the moment, and has been for a while.

[Telchar II]

Prisoner of Azkaban was far and away the best of the movies so far.

Cuaron did amazing things with the themes of light and darkness, and illusion and reality, and (above all) time.

There are scenes in PoA that still give me the chills -- the one about Lily Potter, for instance, with Lupin looking out from the bridge, to the past, and Harry in the other direction, to the future....

Truly beautiful film-making.

[Lembas]

I cannot pick between them, I love them all! There are moments, however, from various films that I love:

Luna Lovegood's overall appearance in OotP was awesome. I think the actress did a wonderful job and pretty much matched my idea of what Luna should look and act like. The battle at the Ministry of Magic was great fun. Helena Bonham Carter was great as Bellatrix, although the role was smallish. The thestrals were cool.

It seems that CoS is less liked more than the others, but I especially love Kenneth Branagh's performance in that film as Prof. Lockhart. The flying car was fun, the debut of Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley and her importance in the film's plot, Aragog and the spiders and Ron's excessive fear of them, the cool basilisk, the polyjuice potion.

Yes, PoA is indeed a fine film, and I was very excited when I learned that Gary Oldman would be playing Sirius Black. And he didn't disappoint me. Loved Buckbeak, the Whomping Willow (which was given a much more prominent role than in the book, to fun effect), and David Thewlis as Lupin. And although I missed Richard Harris greatly as Dumbledore, I think Michael Gambon did a fine job in the role and continues to do so.

SS/PS kicked things off very nicely, I think, and for some reason I still think of all the holiday scenes in the movie in the Great Hall. And I always think of Hagrid dragging the huge Christmas tree through the snow. And I thought Emma Watson outacted Radcliffe and Grint in this movie at least.

Love GoF, especially for the serious turn things take with the fate of Cedric Diggory, the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in corporeal form, MadEye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) and Barty Crouch Junior's tale, all of the dangerous challenges in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Sorry, but I just couldn't pick a overall favorite. I like them all very much and the new one looks to be no exception.

Here's a picture of Bonnie Wright I couldn't believe. She's has really grown up! I feel so old. :( You can arrow backward or forward through these, but I started on my favorite pic first:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20246950_20263257_20290736_5,00.html

EDIT: Hjal, is that Kim Cattrall in the picture with Radcliffe? I know she's only in her early '50s, but man---they must have really plied the makeup to her, or backed off of the makeup. Don't mean to be cruel, but I can't believe this is the same person from "Big Trouble in Little China." :no: I know, I know, it's been over 20 years, but...I dunno. *sigh*

[Hugh Kenrick]

I would now place #6 either second of third on my list:

HP4
HP3
HP6
HP1
HP5
HP2

Although as lembas said, I have some favorite moments in all the films, too.