First, a tiny bit of background: I read the first Harry Potter novel when it was first released and I was age-appropriate for it. I remember enjoying it yet for whatever reason I never bothered to continue the series. Flash forward to the fifth movie being released and me having nothing to do. I went with my friends Oliver and Stefan (whom I worked with a a book store where Harry Potter fever was indeed in full swing). I dug the movie and went back and read the first 6 books in fairly rapid succession. At this point that's as far as I went, I've never read the 7th book (it's really long) but I have seen all the movies more than once at this point. I tell you this because I've noticed that moreso than most franchises the Harry Potter fans are REALLY generous about the movies. If you were to ask my sister they all should have won all the oscars each year (including best Documentary Short.) So I am a fan of the franchise, but I'm not exactly I lunatic die hard. (For die hard lunacy; see my defense of the Star Wars prequels.) Aw heck, I dun' introduced this enough...
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (not fucking sorcerer's stone dammit...)
Directed by Chris Columbus
Grade: C
Disappointing. You have an amazing world of magic and creativity and you give it to Christopher Columbus. A very forgettable, middle-of-the-road kids movie that is saved by good casting. Can you imagine if they'd given this flick to someone with some style and creativity? Like Terry Gilliam? That's the first Harry Potter movie I wanted...
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Directed by Chris Columbus
Grade: C+
See all my comments from above. Slightly better because the story of the second book was better than the story of the first. Still, very lowest-common-denominator adaptation. Possibly could have been higher but it also introduced the fucking "Jar-Jar Binks" of the Harry Potter universe in Dobby The House Elf.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Grade: A
BOOM! That's more like it! A director with some vision and style takes the reins and we get the first Harry Potter flick to be worthy of its source material. Continues the trend of having great casting to round out a very well paced and directed flick. I'd put the last 30 minutes of this one up against almost anything. Extremely well done.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Directed by Mike Newell
Grade: D-
It's hard to imagine I'd miss Chris Columbus, but even his crappy Harry Potter movies were better than this piece of shit. It's 100% unintelligible. I can't imagine a person who hadn't read the book having a clue what the fuck was going on. It's a complete train wreck. The only good thing I can say about it is that the cast does it's best and David Tennant is in it for about 6 minutes towards the end. Let's just forget this one ever happened.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Directed by David Yates
Grade: B+
My first Harry Potter movie and the one that got me to go and read the books. I like this movie. David Yates does a good job of deciding what to keep in and what to gloss over. Stylistically it's not quite as great as Azkaban, but it's still very good. Highlights for me are Gary Oldman as Sirius Black and Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge (she is fucking FANTASTIC in this role.) It loses a point though for being the film that introduces Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lastrange, easily the worst cast character in the HP universe. Apparently she thought her husband was directing this one and does this insanely annoying Edward Scissorhands bullshit and is so over the top that it's really distracting.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Directed by David Yates
Grade: B-
Another good Harry Potter movie. Not as good as Azkaban or Phoenix but still very good. Yates nails the darker tone and there are some really memorable sequences (the cave scene with Harry and Dumbledore looking for the horcrux comes to mind) There are a couple things that hold this one back. The biggest being the ending is very anticlimactic, it could have been a lot more exciting and action-centric but instead the ending just sort of lies there. Also the scene at the barrows in the middle where Beatrix Scissorhands shows up and blows up a building is completely out of place and makes no sense whatsoever.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Directed by David Yates
Grade: B+
I've already spoken about this but I'll say it's possibly the best one next to Azkaban (it's pretty close to Phoenix, but I'd have to see it again to decide which was better). The tone was just dark enough, there was enough going on that it didn't get boring (considering it's a lot of set up) and the acting is really good. Thank goodness those kids grew up talented. Once again Helena Bonham Carter's ridiculous over-the-top performance distracts me from an otherwise very good movie.
So there you have it. Bring on part 8!
No comments:
Post a Comment