Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the latest entry into a franchise that is below average at best and lacks the, pardon the pun, magic of the Harry Potter films both in terms of story and characters.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is another lackluster movie of this new franchise that, especially when we go to Hogwarts for a short time, made me wish I was watching the Harry Potter franchise instead of this one.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a solid entry into the franchise, the first of the five from Mike Newell, and does a decent job balancing the dark elements with some brighter scenery, a departure from Alfonso Cuarón’s Prisoner of Azakban.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is perhaps one of my favorites of the series and kind of a shame director Alfonso Cuaron didn’t return to do more of these and it was a nice, and necessary, change-up as Harry’s storyline advances to darker territories.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is my least favorite of the series yet it’s still entertaining with a compelling enough mystery surrounding the plot and it was nice seeing the young cast becoming comfortable in their respective roles while the addition of Kenneth Branagh gives the darker tone, compared to Sorcerer’s Stone, some levity.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone might not be perfect, it was however the perfect way to introduce audiences to this world and characters we would follow for the next several years. Even so, I was thoroughly entertained and they really did a great job casting the three unknowns and surrounding them with some excellent talent.
The final chapter in the Harry Potter saga, Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a fantastic ending highlighted by an intense, action-pakced, third act and nicely closes out giving a fitting conclusion to our favorite characters.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a good start to the final film in the series that started a decade ago and I can only hope it ends in the bang most have promised it would. It’s certainly the darkest of the franchise but also one of the best especially with the performances of the three leads.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince didn’t quite grab me compared to a few of its predecessors, it’s still an entertaining entry leading way to an intense two-part finale.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix isn’t great but still quite good and highly entertaining, excelling due to its amazing ensemble cast as we see the young ones grow up right before our eyes.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the type of movie one can admire the technical aspects more so than the story or characters, but that admiration only goes so far. Like The Hobbit before, this just seems like a needless spin-off and I cannot imagine how the material can be stretched into a sequel let alone FOUR more.
Although I enjoyed J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and movie adaptations, for whatever reason The Casual Vacancy failed to strike a chord with me. I don’t know if it the adaptation work was lousy or what but outside of the likes of Michael Gambon, Rory Kinnear and Julia McKenzie there wasn’t very much that grabbed my attention.
The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2 Ultimate Collector’s Edition release will complete most people’s HP collection. Both movies are amazing and are a wonderful conclusion to the series, the features are incredible and the audio/video transfers aren’t half bad either.
Although the Harry Potter Wizard’s Collection is quite expensive ($345 on Amazon as of this writing), for fans of the series, it might be worth it. I know fans will have already owned it but there might be enough here to make it worth your while. As for the set itself, there’s an enormous amount of features including some new featurettes which expands on the behind-the-scenes world and how the franchise was made.