With Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald coming out this November, I figured this was as good a time as any to revisit the Harry Potter films. And it’s the 20th anniversary of the release of Sorcerer’s Stone the book, so even more reason. I’ll be looking at the original eight one at a time, before finishing with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These won’t be regular reviews per se, but more of a review/reflection combination.
The review and subsequent rating will be based on the movie by itself; I won’t take into account how it compares to or differs from the accompanying book. But if there are notable people, scenes, etc. left out of the movie, I might make mention of those as more of something that I wish had been included simply due to my personal opinions.
And in the spirit of honesty, these look-backs won’t necessarily have the same structure. Some might be long and in depth. Others might be shorter and more light-hearted. Whatever I feel the day(s) I’m writing will be what comes out. Should make it fun. Keep it spicy, I like to say.
I don’t have any sort of release schedule planned for these. Just know that I will be done before Crimes of Grindelwald is released on November 16. These are also not in conjunction with Chris’s revisiting of the Harry Potter book series (as of this blog being published, he has written about Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban).
Rest of the movies
Sorcerer’s Stone
Chamber of Secrets
Prisoner of Azkaban
Goblet of Fire
Order of the Phoenix
Deathly Hallows Part 1
Deathly Hallows Part 2
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
*It shouldn’t be necessary given how long the movie has been out, but this will contain spoilers.*
As much as I love each and every one of the Harry Potter movies, through Order of the Phoenix, I would call them all “good not great.” And while Half-Blood Prince doesn’t quite reach “great” levels, it is the closest of the first six. The movie does a great job of giving that overwhelming feeling of impending doom. You know Voldemort is back, the Death Eaters are out and active, Voldemort surely has all sorts of sinister plans.
Going along with that “darker” theme, the movie itself is literally darker. The set pieces and the lighting are all darker here as well. Nothing special was really done with this. But it’s simplicity is part of what makes is so great. It was one of the better technical aspects of any of the movies.
Quick Hits
Harry reads the Daily Prophet in public
The Quidditch tryouts
My man Cormac got hosed! He was clearly a better Keeper than Ron. Who cares that Cormac was only 4/5 and Ron a perfect 5/5?
Can we talk for a sec about what an awesome addition Cormac was? He offered a good chunk of the movie’s comedic relief, and it was much needed. Yes, everything is dark and gloomy, but these are still teenagers. You have to have some amount of humor and silliness. And Cormac simply being Cormac felt perfect.
Speaking of comedic relief…
Slughorn is absolutely delightful. He’s definitely a quirky guy, has an air of self-importance. But he’s just a clown. Like Cormac, provides light-hearted moments that were simple and quick, but added a lot to the movie as a whole.
Dentistry in the wizarding world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvsM6zooODQ
But what about this shot back from Chamber of Secrets?
Mrs. Weasley’s clock that shows where everyone in the family is. You can clearly see “DENTIST” right there. Likely just a very minor continuity error, but still. It’s interesting to think about.
Why is Ron’s Quidditch performance so lauded by everyone?
As I’ve talked about before, Quidditch makes no sense. The Keeper is largely irrelevant in the outcome of the game. No fans should ever celebrate the Keeper.
Harry using the Sectumsempra spell is a wild move
He had no idea what the spell was going to do. It’s incredible that he would just try it out like that. And more importantly, how was he not in so much more trouble? Like, all of the trouble? It’s basically attempted manslaughter. Yet nothing happens to him? Wild. But still, what a bad-ass spell.
Felix Felicis
Liquid Luck is a kind of annoying plot device. Like the Time Turner, why isn’t this used more often? And what happens if two people in direct opposition to each other each take Felix at the same time?
That being said, however, it does lead to one of the better sequences in the movie.
Which then leads to this great scene in Hagrid’s house. It goes from fun and light to more intense and serious in what ends up as a really well-acted scene.
Bellatrix and the Death Eaters blow it
We know why they didn’t kill him, what with the whole “leave him for Voldemort” schtick. But why couldn’t they take him with? We later learn Snape’s reasoning for leaving Harry behind. But what about Bellatrix and the others? Harry was a sitting duck, it would have been all too easy.
Harry’s pride: Here we go again
Again, Harry’s initial plan is to hunt horcruxes on his own. Does he not realize who he is? He would have legitimately a 0% of succeeding going it alone.
Dumbledore’s death
Here we go. The big one. This is one of the few times (maybe the only time?) where I slightly wished I hadn’t read the books before seeing the movies. Reading Dumbledore’s death was my Red Wedding. It was devastating. And while you feel some of that in the movie adaptation, it’s for sure lessened when you know that it’s coming. But still, a powerful, emotional scene. Seeing Dumbledore beg Snape with only a simple “Severus, please.” To those not in the know it comes off as a desperate attempt to save his life.
But of course, that small line meant much more than that. Dumbledore was, in fact, urging Snape to follow through killing him. It’s an intense scene whether you know all the facts or not. You either have Snape, trusted ally, finally showing his true colors by murdering Dumbledore. Or you have what amounts to a goodbye between two allies who have worked so closely – closer than anyone knew – for years on end.
I don’t know if their relationship could be classified as a friendship, but trusted partnership for sure. It’s impossible to imagine what Snape had to be feeling in the moment. Truly great stuff here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1aUZnuGlYk
Complaints
I don’t like to be too negative in these. I know I tend to point out plenty of plot points, character arcs, etc that are weaker or don’t make much sense. But those typically aren’t real, legitimate complaints. But here, I do have two big-time complaints.
Attack on the Weasley’s house
This is an easy one, a common complaint, so I won’t spend too much time on it. This was probably the only time I saw something happen in one of the movies and had a “That wasn’t in the book!” reaction.
Some of the reasoning was that this scene was to replace the short battle at Hogwarts that happens at the end of the book. There was a desire to avoid repetition, because of course there’s the massive battle at Hogwarts at the end of Deathly Hallows. And yet, we still see an attack on the Burrow in the beginning of Deathly Hallows Part 1? That wasn’t repetitive? It also didn’t really add anything to the movie. The house is attacked, a brief fight follows, and that’s it. It comes off as nothing more than filler. That time easily could have been put to better use.
The Death Eaters fly…
This is the big one. In the movies, it’s fairly common to see apparition seen as a form of human flight. I admit it does provide some cool visuals. But doing this denies the filmmakers a chance at adapting one of the most intense parts of the entire book series. I’m jumping ahead a bit here as the book part is the beginning of Deathly Hallows. When the Order is traveling to the Burrow, they face a Death Eater ambush. Once they figure out which Harry is the real Harry, they peel off so Voldemort can pursue him. And he does so by flying.
It’s a quick, but important moment. Wizards aren’t supposed to be able to fly. So the fact that Voldemort has developed this skill is terrifying to those fighting him. We still see Voldemort fly in Deathly Hallows Part 1, but it doesn’t have anything close to the same impact as it did in the book because we’ve seen other characters do this before.
Not included from the book
They never explain Snape and the Half-Blood Prince name
It’s explained with nothing more than a throwaway line by Snape as he is leaving Hogwarts with the Death Eaters. The movie didn’t need a long, detailed explanation into the origin of the name, but I mean, come on. It’s the title of the movie. The Half-Blood Prince has a significant contribution to the movie’s events. It deserved at least a little more time that it received. Maybe take out the attack on the Weasley’s house?
The Cave
Oh my goodness what a chapter this was. One of the best single chapters in the series. Yes, the cave scene in the movie was still pretty cool. I mean, come on, look at this.
It probably came down to me just having too big of expectations for this scene, because as good as it was, I was still left slightly disappointed the first time I saw it. But I have come around
Voldemort’s past
Harry and Dumbledore’s sessions learning about Voldemort’s early life were some of my favorite parts of all the books. I love a good backstory or origin story, and this was perfect. Realistically it would have been difficult to do this properly without inflating the movie’s runtime by a good 40 minutes or more. You would either have to leave it out – like they did, though with a few quick exceptions – or go full bore into it. But if they had found a way to effectively include this, HBP could have been the best of the series by a country mile.
Honestly, I would have been okay with Half Blood Prince being split into two movies, if one of them was only a Voldemort origin story. That would have been amazing. I would still be on board for that today.
The Muggle Prime Minister
This was a fun little addition to the book. We didn’t often see how the wizarding world’s current events affected the Muggle world. It offered a cool little peak into how the two worlds might interact. But the decision to leave it out makes sense. They couldn’t include this without coming back to it to some degree later on. It would have been a nice piece of fan service, but nothing more.
Well, we’re almost there. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is next up. Spoiler alert: It’s the worst one (but it’s still not a bad movie).
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