and Where to Find Them coming out in a little over a year. And today, I wanted to go through

all 8 Harry Potter films and give my mini-reviews, deciding which is the best and which is the

worst. Now a few things to note up front. Firstly, much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe

films, there is not a single movie in here that I think is actually bad. Some are better

than others, but all of these I really enjoy, and I’ve seen all of them at least three

times. Secondly, major spoiler alert for all of the Harry Potter movies. If you haven’t

seen one and you don’t want it spoiled, I’ve put the titles of the movies with their

times in this video in the description, so if you don’t want something spoiled, just

skip to the next film. Ok, with all of that out of the way, let’s start.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone/Philosopher’s Stone

So this is the one that started it all. Before I get into the specifics on this film alone,

let me just talk about some stuff that this film started that continued throughout the

series. The music by John Williams. John Williams is my favorite film composer, he’s a genius.

And this music fits so perfectly with Harry Potter. It’s whimsical, it’s mysterious,

it’s intriguing, it’s magical. It’s one of my favorite film scores. Secondly,

the characters and casting. Harry Potter is a great and interesting character, he just

is. Is his backstory very unique, not really. A kid who is orphaned by the villain who is

destined for greatness. But he’s still one of the most iconic characters in all of fiction.

Ron and Hermione are great as well, we get to see them become friends over the course

of the film and you really believe them as a trio. The Dursleys, Harry’s complete jerk

relatives that he has to live are just so damn despicable but that’s why they’re

so great. There’s also Malfoy, Tom Felton plays the upper class-ish bully really well.

And as far as the rest of the cast, they got the top British talent. Like, the A plus listers.

Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Julie Walters, Warwick Davis, Richard Harris who is perfect

as Dumbledore. Even little roles with John Cleese, everyone is top notch and they give

great performances. Even the child actors are pretty good. Total stand out though, Alan

Rickman as Professor Snape. Best performance in the series in my opinion.

That’s another thing, everyone and everything is just so accurate to how I imagined them

in the books. The kids, the castle, the Quidditch, the spells, the teachers, the Dursleys. It’s

like someone looked into my brain because they are disturbingly on point to what I’d

pictured. I’d say that’s the one thing this movie does better than all of the others.

Is it the best Harry Potter probably not, but it started it all and it’s so full of

iconic moments. Everything in this just, I didn’t phrase it like this but I will, feels

magical. I was in awe the whole time watching it. Also, just seeing this magical world for

the first time, seeing Hogwarts and that first Quidditch game which is always a great scene,

and Harry getting rid of the glass in the zoo. It’s an experience. It also has a cool

know. As far as my complaints with this? Some 2001

CGI doesn’t hold up that well. The whole scene with Neville on the broom, it’s fun,

but nowadays it is noticeably computer animated. Same with that troll, it’s a cool scene,

yeah, but still, doesn’t really hold up. Yeah, that’s pretty much all that bugs me.

So overall, this is a classic and an extremely entertaining one, especially if you’ve read

the books. I might be looking at it with some nostalgia, but I watched it quite recently

and it’s still good. It’s an awesome start to the series with fun characters and performances

and exciting action and magic and I’ll give it a 9.7/10.

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets So this is actually the longest Harry Potter

movie, which is surprising for the second shortest Harry Potter book. And this is a

lot like the first one, except there isn’t that factor of “oh wow, this is the first

time we’re seeing this world.” Let’s start with the positives. They introduce Dobby

in this movie, and he’s a really funny nice new addition to the series. Dobby becoming

a free elf is one of my favorite Harry Potter scenes. The film is also a bit more creepy,

for a PG Harry Potter film I mean. For example that giant spiders scene is awesome but I

also hate it because as a small child I was terrified of it. I just don’t like spiders,

especially when they’re enormous and speak English. The whole climax in the Chamber of

Secrets is pretty cool, you find out that Tom is really Voldemort, and the giant basilisk

chases Harry, and Harry stabs it in the mouth. That ending is pretty awesome. It’s also

still in that realm of kid friendly, fun lighthearted Harry Potter movie, not too much serious stuff

happening yet. It’s still a bit silly, with the flying car and all that, and some people

won’t like that, but I like to see the Harry Potter films grow along with the audience.

You watch the first ones when you’re a bit younger, and then as you grow up you watch

the rest of them and they become progressively darker, but you don’t mind because you’re

getting older. So for this one to be a bit more silly, I’m fine with it. Also, I gotta

touch on this, the best part of the film is hands down Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart.

He’s over the top, he’s arrogant and he just really cracks me up. I feel like they

used just enough of him so you got what you wanted but he didn’t become obnoxious.

Now for the negatives. For one, again, the CGI and special effects are good, but there

are some that still are a bit unconvincing. This film is also filled to the brim with

conveniences and plot holes. It’s not like the other films didn’t have plot conveniences

but this one is the worst offender. It is also noticeably the longest Harry Potter film,

there are a few things that potentially could have been cut out.

But in the end, another movie in the series I enjoyed. It’s a step down from the first

film, but not a huge step down. You could still watch these two and be like yeah, that’s

a good continuation of the story. I’m gonna give it an 8.5/10.

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. So with this third installment Chris Columbus

was taken off the franchise and it was handed over to Alfonso Cuaron. In case you don’t

know, he went on to direct Children of Men and Gravity, so he’s a pretty great director.

And he might have made the best Harry Potter. This movie is pretty distinctly different

than the last two. You can tell this is a different director. I wouldn’t say it’s

necessarily a lot darker, although I would say this is the transition between the kid

friendly first movies and the more adult later films. It has a bit of a more weird, gothic

element to it. As far as what I liked, well everything. The movie starts with that awesome

scene where Harry’s aunt gets blown up. It just sets up the tone of the movie so well.

Also, just for the movie in general, the visual effects are astonishing especially for 2004.

Any sort of hokey CG is gone. This movie also added some new characters, like Professor

Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, all of whom work really well. Gary Oldman

and David Thewlis give good performances, and Peter Pettigrew, going back to something

I said earlier, is exactly how I imagined him reading the book.

Unfortunately, Richard Harris passed away between these movies so they got Michael Gambon

to take over and he was pretty great. He definitely was a bit meaner and less cheerful than the

previous one, but I think he fit well with the new films. I can’t really imagine Richard

Harris pulling off these sorts of scenes. The Dementors are introduced and they are

goddamn terrifying. Nightmares. Nightmares everywhere. The movie is sort of packed to

the brim as far a bit of varying style and tone, which sometimes can ruin a movie, but

in this one it absolutely works. It’s funny in some parts, it’s scary in some parts,

it’s everything. There’s this sense of wonder around the whole film. It’s also

pretty emotional, more so than the first two. Then there’s the climax, or at least the

lead up to the climax, it’s the whole thing where Lupin turns into werewolf, which is

one of if not the best scene in the entire franchise. The visual effects are outstanding,

and seeing this character that you’ve grown to like turn into this monster, it’s awesome.

The whole time travel thing at the end, sure it doesn’t make any sense why they don’t

use it again, but it was still really interesting. And also the big Expecto Patronum at the end

is undeniably pretty cool. *clip* There are just too many good things to say about this

film. I love this movie, I’ve seen it more times than most films, it’s the best fantasy

film I’ve ever seen and needless to say Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban gets

a 10/10.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire So for this movie the director changed again,

now going to Mike Newell. And another change was that, while the previous 3 films had been

rated PG, this one was going for some more adult themes and therefore got a PG-13. And

yeah, this one is more dark than the others. It’s not very dark or anything, but there

aren’t gonna be any pixies in this one. The kid actors have also grown up a bit now,

and the romances that play a big part in the rest of the series start in this movie. Now

this film is essentially about the Triwizard Tournament, where 3 kids go through 3 insanely

dangerous trials because Dumbledore loves child murder. And I have to say just in general,

I like seeing those kinds of insanely dangerous trials. It’s why I really liked Catching

Fire, I just find it really entertaining watching people have to face extreme challenge after

extreme challenge. As far as the challenges themselves, they’re really good. The dragon

one is the best of them, and it’s fantastic. The visual effects at this point are now really

awesome, and the dragon looks amazing. The entire chase with it was great. The underwater

challenge is good, but it nothing really stood out about it. And the maze was good, but it

was a lot better in the book. In the book they’ve got giant spiders and Boggarts and

a bunch of stuff lurking around the corners, in this, there isn’t much besides...Voldemort.

In this film we’re introduced to new characters, 1 being Edward from Twilight, who isn’t

that bad in this. Another is Mad Eye Moody, kind of, the plot twist that it’s actually

Barty Crouch Jr. wasn’t mindblowing but it works. And finally we get to see Voldemort

for real. I was wondering how they were gonna do Voldemort, and Ralph Fiennes just perfectly

ecompasses what I wanted this character to be. Sure he doesn’t have a ton of backstory

yet and so he’s more just kind of an albino bald guy, but he’s a really creepy albino

bald guy. In this movie we also get to see more of the magic world, which I liked. Like,

there are other schools and other types of wizards in this world, not just...British

ones. For what I didn’t like, besides the Triwizard

Tournament, nothing is super memorable about this, which is ok because the Triwizard Tournament

is the main part of it. But I was rewatching this and I was like, “Oh, this also that

Quidditch match and oh this also has Mad Eye Moody and oh this also has the Yule Ball.”

Those things weren’t bad, but they just didn’t stick out to me is all. The plot

doesn’t make a ton of sense, which is a given for a Harry Potter film, but in this

one it’s just really illogical. So they’ve got this cup that you can’t put your name

in unless you’re like 17 or something like that. And there are only supposed to be three

contestants. Tri-wizard, get it? But so after the three contestants have been announced,

Harry Potter’s name pops out, and Dumbledore and the teachers are like, this is obviously

trick, someone’s trying to kill Harry Potter just like in every other year he’s been

at this school….but what the hell, let’s do this anyway. And so they just let him compete.

I get it’s a fantasy film, but just some explanations could’ve been nice.

So ultimately, this is the real start of the darker Potter films, some can argue it was

Prisoner of Azkaban, I say it was this. This is when the main villain of the series officially

returns, it’s got a lot of cool moments, it’s got some downtime as well, which would

be bad if I wasn’t so invested in these characters. This all adds up to an 8.9/10

from me.

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix So for the 5th film the director changed yet

again, but don’t worry, this guy sticks for the rest of the series. I know a lot of

people who say this is their favorite Harry Potter film and a lot of people who say it’s

their least favorite. And I don’t think it’s the best, but it’s still a pretty

great entertaining ride. Well, specifically, what I liked. Hands down, best part of the

film is Umbridge. Professor Umbridge is a fantastic villain, she is so despicable and

I actually wanted to punch her in the face. Like with Voldemort, you’re like yeah, bad

guy, bald guy, better stop him. But this woman is just so much of a jerk on a more human

level, and it’s a lot more relatable because I think we’ve all had the Umbridge teacher

in our lives. If you haven’t, you will. At the end, when she gets, let’s say her

“comeuppance,” it is so satisfying. Another thing I really love is the end climax in the

Ministry of Magic, and the whole thing is cool but when Voldemort and Dumbledore have

their showdown, it’s intense, it’s amazing, the visual effects are phenomenal. Voldemort

makes a fire dragon, Dumbledore puts him in a bubble of water, you can see the parallels

between the two, and you finally get to see why everyone says they’re these great wizards.

That whole scene where Fred and George crash the exam with fireworks, awesome. Dumbledore

also does some pretty cool things in this film, although he disappears about halfway

through. As Kingsley says, “Dumbledore’s got style.” It’s also an interesting side

of things to have the press and the government be against, that wasn’t something I was

necessarily expecting. Also, Sirius dying was a pretty effective punch to the gut moment.

Now for what I don’t like. Well it is a very packed movie. It’s taking the longest