The Harry Potter Series, Part 2: Order of the Phoenix through the Deathly Hallows

This is the second part of my reviews of the entire eight-film series of Harry Potter adaptation from the novels by J.K. Rowling. The first part, covering the first four movies, is here.

Harry gets worked over by Dolores Umbridge, one of the most
detestable, of not exactly horrific, adversaries Potter and his
pals face off in the series.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Director: David Yates

Potter's fifth year was his roughest yet. Still recovering from seeing a fellow Hogwart's schoolmate killed in front of him by Voldemort himself, Harry now must deal with other threats. Hogwart's is gradually taken over by an authoritarian bureaucrat who wishes to stifle the merest suggestion that Voldemort exists, which puts Potter, his friends, and the entire wizarding community in grave peril.

This fifth movie is another strong one, though still not quite as good as Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban. It features a thoroughly dislikable, though rather different, nemesis for Harry in the form of Dolores Umbridge, the quietly sadistic, ultra-conservative Ministry of Magic employee who slowly but surely takes over the school. In my view, she is the most despicable character in the entire series, due to the fact that she is not truly "evil," but rather that equally dangerous type of person who denies their worst traits by doubling down on a rules and order. This does offer no small satisfaction when she gets her comeuppance, to be sure.

The other elements of the movie are on par with Goblet of Fire - a plot that is entertaining and fast-paced, and that holds up well enough if you don't start looking too closely at it (this is always the case with the Harry Potter series, both books and movies). The visuals and effects are as good as any thus far, including some striking set pieces and costumes. As has been the case for the whole series, the themes and tones get a bit darker and more mature, with this film including more notable loss for Harry. It also features him grappling with exactly who he is and facing some of the more negative, destructive aspects of his personality. As a side note, I also enjoy that we are finally let in on a little more history of Severus Snape, one of the most complex and compelling characters in the entire Potter series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Director: David Yates

Year six and Harry's penultimate year at Hogwart's is hardly much fun anymore. Although it is now clear to the wizarding world that Voldemort has truly returned, vindicating Harry, Potter and his friends now face the encroaching threat of Voldemort and his sinister Death Eaters. These dark forces begin to kill and attack anyone they deem a threat, including Hogwart's and its esteemed and powerful headmaster, Dumbledor. In the middle of this, Dumbledor enlists Harry to ferret out of a returned professor some key information about Voldemort's past - information which they may be able to use to put a true end to the malevolent wizard.

At this point, the fun and games are essentially over for Harry and his pals. The darker elements that have been encroaching on their world since The Prisoner of Azkaban are now in full attack mode, and the tone and plot reflect it. The dialogue, story, character development, and even set designs reflect the gravity and even terror at work at this point in the epic story. While it may not be the stuff of highly sophisticated movie-making, it is rather impressive for a "family" movie to have transformed its quality so dramatically. Yes, there is still an entertaining little quidditch match and a silly little sub-plot involving Ron's budding romance(s), but the movie never wanders far from the sinister elements lurking around every corner. Whether it's a fiery, destructive attack on the humble home of the Weasleys or the grim, fatalistic desperation around Draco Malfoy, there is less buoyancy in this film than in any previous Potter entry.

Personally, though, I think that all of these elements make it a better movie. After several movies that set up just how magical and valuable the wizarding world is to admirable people like Harry and his friends, the attacks unleashed in this movie have more power. If there is any notable weakness, it is that, at this point in the series, the film cannot stand alone. Any viewer who hasn't seen most or all of the previous movies will be missing out on so many backstories that the movie will be confusing at best and incomprehensible at worst.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione are joined by house elf Dobby and
a troll for a daring break in at Gringott's bank. It's one of a few
action scenes that come between several overlong,
slower scenes that felt a bit like busy work. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)

Director: David Yates

School is out at this point. In the wake of Voldemort and his Death Eaters' direct attacks on their enemies in the magical community, including their killing of Dumbledore, Harry Potter cannot afford to return to Hogwarts for his seventh and final year. Instead, he goes on the run with Hermione and Ron in order to find several magical items which will help them defeat the seemingly-invincible Dark Lord. The three are forced to stay light and mobile, as they desperately search for the items, often with little or no information to go on.

Of the entire Potter series, this is the lone movie that feels overly padded with unnecessary or drawn-out scenes. The filmmakers were, admittedly, in a somewhat tough spot. Author J.K. Rowling's final book in the series was a massive one, making a single movie adaptation virtually impossible (unless they wanted to make a four-hour film). So they opted to divide it into two movies. This was understandable, but the result is that Part 1 consists far more of buildup, plot points that go mostly unresolved, and several scenes which take the already-somber and relatively slow-paced movie and drag it out even more. To be sure, there are still the hallmark revelations and plot elements that make the story compelling, but the nearly two-and-a-half hour film could probably have been a good 15 to 20 minutes shorter and been the better for it.

Perhaps the standout contribution of this episode is the animated sequence that tells the story of the titular ''Deathly Hallows," magical items of lore that play a significant part in the final chapter of the epic series. The tale is visualized using computer-generated silhouettes, which creates a brilliant narrative and visual effect unlike any other in this special-effects-heavy series. Generally, though, this movie is really only a satisfying when you have Part 2 ready to fire up immediately after the credits roll. And I did...

In the final film, the fun and games are a thing of the past as
the little kids we first saw a decade earlier are now locked
in a deadly war with Voldemort's forces of evil.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011)

Director: David Yates

And so the decade-long, eight-film adaptation of the most successful children's book series in history ends. Well, they did it justice.

It's been long enough since I've read the final book (roughly seven or eight years ago) that I didn't remember a great many details of final chapter in the series. This probably aided my enjoyment of the movie. This final movie, when viewed shortly after the slightly hobbled previous film, makes up for that earlier effort's shortcomings

The final chapter sees Harry, Ron, and Hermione tracking down the final horcruxes that house Voldemort's soul and using them in a grand final battle between the "good" and "evil" forces in the wizarding world. Harry, obviously, sides with the group who feel that their abilities do not and should not raise them above "muggles," or normal, non-magical folk, while Voldemort and his allies seek to dominate the normal human world and eradicate any sympathizing magicians.

The scale in this final movie is understandably much larger than the earlier ones, and it is handled very well. Whereas Deathly Hallows, Part 1 was bogged down in many places, Part 2 has more than enough action. It culminates in some very satisfying final confrontations, and the story fortunately retains the more challenging elements from Rowling's source novels (challenging for a children's book, that is). Maybe my one takeaway from this viewing is just how interesting a character Severus Snape is. He is arguably the deepest, most fascinating, most romantic, and most tragic figure in the entire series. When one knows his entire story arc, it makes watching the earlier movies that much more engaging.

So this was a fun little OCD movie project of mine. I anticipate that these movies will have an incredibly long life in world popular culture. While the first couple of movies' effects and overall techniques are already a little dated and tired, the remaining half dozen films in the series have the look of ones that will remain relatively timeless. 

The Harry Potter Series, Part 1: Sorcerer's Stone through Goblet of Fire

A few weeks ago, having fallen ill for about four days straight, I felt the urge to watch something that was entertaining, comforting, and didn't strain my foggy brain. Upon realizing that I had actually never seen the final film in the Harry Potter series, and I had my answer. I had seen all of the first seven movies, but not since they had originally been released in theaters.

I'm not going to go into the minutiae of the various plot points that run through the 7-novel/8-movie tale. I'll keep things rather short, assuming that most people already know the basics or would rather just watch the movies for themselves. Here's how I found them upon this rewatch:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Director: Christopher Columbus

In this first movie, we meet Harry Potter, a mistreated orphan boy who is informed that not only is there a secret world of magic and wizards, but that he is a rather special young man who is destined for great things within this wondrous landscape. He is brought to Hogwart's School of Wizardry, where he befriends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. The three eventually foil a plot by one of the school's teachers to help revive Voldemort, the presumed-dead evil wizard who killed Harry's parents 12 years prior.

Still an entertaining and faithful-to-a-fault adaptation that hasn't aged particularly well, The Sorcerer's Stone introduced all who hadn't read the books to the world of Harry Potter and the witches, wizards, and other dazzling elements around it. There are certainly clumsy elements to the story, and the three primary child actors had not really found their footing as performers. The special effects also haven't held up very well, with the CGI now looking rather garish and clunky. Director Christopher Columbus goes for fairly broad dialogue and comedy, as he's done in his other movies, which doesn't serve us older viewers terribly well.

All the same, the world that author J.K. Rowling created is still a lot of fun, and it provides enough wonder as it is revealed to us, even if the pacing is overly brisk. The plot also features enough amusing turns to keep things lively, and the adult actors are all absolutely perfect, as it's difficult to go wrong with actors the caliber of Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and the like. The movie isn't flawless, but it is a solid enough beginning to this movie franchise juggernaut. 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Director: Christopher Columbus

Chapter two of the Potter series sees Harry return to Hogwarts and become embroiled in another mystery - this one involving various students turning up literally petrified around the campus. As Harry digs deeper, he learns a little more about his own history as well as the history of Voldemort, with whom he seems to be inexplicably linked.

Although still containing a few of the weaknesses of the first film, this second entry made some marked improvements. Main child actors Watson, Radcliffe, and Grint show a little more comfort with their roles and acting chops, even if they're not completely natural yet. Also helping matters is that the already-considerable adult cast is assisted by the inclusion of other top-notch actors like Kenneth Brannagh and Jason Isaacs. The effects are noticeably better, although the Quidditch match CGI still looks too artificially glossy and awkward.

As with the source novels, the tone and sophistication increases ever-so-slightly. This second volume features higher stakes, involving a bit more menace and some intriguing insight into the still-mysterious arch-villain Voldemort. The little plot turns reveal more clever updates of familiar myths and fairy tale elements. 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003)

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

This film sees a 13-year-old Harry in his third year at Hogwart's dealing with the presence of the ghastly Dementors as they hover around the school on the lookout for an escaped wizard convict. The convict, Sirius Black, has some sort of tie to Harry's dead parents, and strange and dangerous events start to unfold around the school.

I always remember this third film in the series as the strongest one, and this repeat viewing didn't diminish that opinion. Directed by highly accomplished director Alfonso Cuaron, Azkaban almost immediately offers a darker look and tone, quickly introducing the horrific Dementors, grim reaper-like beings which siphon the happiness away from those unfortunate enough to go to near. These terrible creatures are a serious part of a grimmer chapter in the Potter series, one which sees the inclusion of great British actors like Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, and a few others. 

Other improvements over the previous chapters include dialogue which is less clumsy and an overall reduction of sentimentality. The plot, still highly faithful to Rowling's novel, also shows a bit more care with its details. Of course, a savvy and mature fan of science fiction and fantasy tales can pick many details apart, but if one keeps in mind that this is a family movie, then it clearly stands superior to its passable predecessors.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Director: Mike Newell

The fourth movie in the series gets into the action more quickly than the previous installments, soon getting to the titular and lethal "Goblet of Fire" tournament in which Harry unwillingly becomes a competitor. Now 14 years old, Harry is dealing with not only the stresses of the tournament but also questions about romance and friendship. These latter life elements eventually take a back seat, though, as Harry ultimately comes face-to-face with Voldemort himself. 

Goblet of Fire is something of a blend of the strengths and weaknesses of the previous three movies. It generally overcomes some sappier elements in its first two acts with some deadly serious consequences and repercussions in its third act. While some of the first two-third of the movie is given over to teenage angst, the final act makes it clear that play time is over. Over in a way that includes a full-on murder right in front of Harry's face. Not exactly the stuff of kiddie movies, which is quite welcome to any of us viewers past puberty. 

The three primary characters of Harry, Ron, and Hermione are now acting as moody as nearly all 14 year-olds. The interpersonal drama can be a bit tedious at times, but it does create a deeper sense of character. Even if the sappier parts of the drama become a tad thick, they are dispatched in the final part of the movie, when the long-teased nemesis Voldemort finally makes his first true, full appearance. He brings with him the sense of terror that's been building through the previous three films, to be sure, and it sets up the rest of the series extremely well.

So the first half of this eight-film series was solid enough, although the earliest movies haven't aged as well. Fortunately, the general trend was that the quality improved, which boded well as I headed into movies five through eight (review coming in a couple of days).

New Release! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Spoiler-Free section first)

Director: David Yates

Spoiler-free Section

An entertaining popcorn fantasy movie that brings us back into J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter-verse.

The story takes place 70 years before the events in the Harry Potter books, in the United States of the mid-1920s, where a peculiar Englishman named Newt Scamander (Eddie Redgrave) disembarks at Ellis Island with a strange briefcase. Scamander is a wizard who looks after exotic magical creatures which are under threat of death or even extinction. He keeps the beasts he finds in his traveling case, which thanks to magic, opens into a massive set of rooms and open spaces which can easily contain the many critters under his charge. Scamander has come to the U.S. to return one of the creatures to its native habitat. However, a few of the creatures in his case manage to escape and begin to run amok in New York City. While all of this happens, the wizarding community in the United States is in crisis, as a bizarre and mysterious destructive force has been killing and causing damage around the city. The devastation threatens to reveal the U.S. wizarding community to non-wizards, leading to a likely war which most wizards understand would have disastrous consequences for all involved. Scamander becomes wrapped up in this affair while he tries to track down and recapture his beasts.

The movie is plenty of fun, if not quite as tight or consistently creative as the best Harry Potter movies or other fantasy adventure films aimed at wide audiences. The tale of Newt Scamander is a pretty thinly veiled advocacy of "green" sensibilities, with Scamander playing the part of the concerned zookeeper who is the only one who seems to care for creatures misunderstood and feared. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it's not exactly the most original concept. It does help that the creatures that he's chasing are amusing to watch and consider. The concurrent tale of turmoil in the U.S. wizarding community uses a darker element which Rowling didn't use in the Harry Potter books, but also isn't the most novel idea, either. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll write no more than to say that I quite literally saw exactly the same story idea used in an episode of the CW show Supernatural in an episode earlier this season. Due to this, I was able to anticipate the "twists" in the story fairly easily. This doesn't torpedo the story, but it did take away a bit of its punch for me.

Queenie and Kowalski, probably my favorite part of the film.
The relationship between the two is the most deftly handled
and the most touching.

In such fantasy tales, characters can make or break the story, and Fantastic Beasts does a solid job with its people. Scamander is, while twitchy and uncomfortable, likeable and quirky enough to carry much of the film. The U.S. witch Tina, played by Katherine Waterston, is also solid enough, although her character is never fully fleshed out enough to be much more than a capable and noble figure. And the attraction which develops between her and Newt never feels totally organic. In contrast, the relationship between Tina's witch sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) and the "no-mag" aspiring baker Kowalski is as endearing a romance as I've seen in such a family picture. Thanks to brilliant acting by both Sudol and Dan Fogler as the earnest and amicable everyman Kowalski, I found myself truly hoping that they could find some sort of happiness together. There is even a very affecting moment of loss pertaining to their relationship that I surprisingly found quite touching. Most other characters are fairly black-and-white, which suffices well enough.

The visuals are what you would hope from a big-budget Hollywood flick. They're captivating enough, and I imagine would be enhanced by a viewing in 3D (I watched it on in standard format). I am generally a fan of using people, makeup, and costumes over CGI for effects, and Fantastic Beasts does lean a bit heavily on the latter more or less out of necessity. Fortunately, it doesn't rob the film of too much texture.

So this was an enjoyable return to J.K. Rowling's most wildly successful world. I just read that this is meant to be the first of a five-film series. Fortunately, it mostly feels like a self-contained movie, rather than one meant to be a setup for several future films. It's a great way to test the waters and see if you enjoy this foray into the past behind one of the most titanically popular fantasy worlds created in modern times.

Spoiler Section - You've Been Warned

For a guy so concerned with the well-being of his creatures, Scamander sure doesn't put much stock into getting the clasps on his briefcase fixed. I know, I know. It's sort of a necessary plot device, but it felt like a type of carelessness that runs counter to everything else we learn about his character.

Tina helps Newt out of one of several jams in which he finds
himself. It's just a shame that the film didn't dig a bit deeper
into Tina's skill as a field investigator for her ministry.

There are a few questionable plot points that get completely railroaded, presumably for the sake of pace, many of them regarding Tina's place at the Ministry of Wizarding in New York City. We learn that she was demoted from her position as an investigator - or "auror" in Potter parlance - because she reached out to a rather unfriendly no-mag, but that's about it. But I feel as if we never get to see her truly flex her skills as an auror. She does save Newt's bacon more than once, but the implication is often that she is far more capable than the film ever fully depicts. This seemed like a missed opportunity. Not to mention just how easily and repeatedly the other investigators dismiss her out of hand, despite Tina's clearly being a level-headed and dedicated member of their organization.

In that vein, things do feel a bit rushed at several points of the movie. Perhaps this is based on the filmmakers' assumption that most viewers are already familiar with the basics of the Potter universe and don't need a refresher. This may be true, but Fantastic Beasts throws a fairly high number of characters, creatures, and concepts at viewers in relatively short order. Several of them seem quite interesting, but they are never given more than a few moments of screen time, and so they are often little more than window dressing  - a pack of colorfully-dressed folks waving wands around and either destroying or fixing things.

There are also a few clumsy moment in the plot. A little over halfway through the movie, Tina finds a picture of a woman who seems to have significance to Newt. Tina raises the point, and Newt's response hints as some unresolved relationship, but the entire story remains extremely vague about it. And at the end of the movie, Newt acts as if he's had some sort of soft breakthrough and gotten past her. It's a tad awkward and watered down, making the entire sub-point seem of little to no value. There are a few other points a bit like this, where an element which has potential to add depth to the characters or plot goes unexplored. None of them is tragic, but they do weaken the movie just a bit.

My gripes basically arise from several sloppy or overlooked details that keep the movie from being as tight as it could be. Again, I did enjoy the movie, and I'll certainly watch it again at some point in the future.