Harry Potter Review

I marathoned the Harry Potter films and liked them more than I expected to, even if there are still some problems. Most I hadn't watched since the last one released in theaters, and it's even longer since I read the books so I can focus on them stand-alone rather than as adaptions. I often hear how people like the worldbuilding but dislike the rest, but I'm more the opposite. The worldbuilding is very lax in areas, implying bad messages and working against some of the themes, while the overarching plot develops really nicely and a lot of characters get a chance to shine, with room for individual movies to focus on different aspects of the setting and characters. I did reviews on Letterboxd as I went along which are all (slightly polished) below, but mainly I'd like to share some thoughts on the series as a whole, starting with a ranking.

1. The Prisoner of Azkaban
2. The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
3. The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
4. The Order of the Phoenix
5. The Half-Blood Prince
6. The Chamber of Secrets
7. The Goblet of Fire
8. The Philosopher's Stone

- While the author is t(e)r(f)ash, I don't think it comes forth in the films very much. I can't speak to the books as it's been so long, but JKR's transphobia is at least entirely absent as far as I can tell. I don't think of artists as social workers, so I don't take issue with a straight white author writing straight white characters in her own work either. There's some stereotyping and tokenism though, like with the Patels and "Cho Chang", which are bad but very minor (Harry has more dates with Luna than with Cho). The goblins as an antisemitic archetype is worse, though they appear a whole two times. Slave apologia is pretty awful in the books, but in the films they never cover house elves in detail so it's just a weak subplot.

Thematically it's quite convincingly against bigotry; Petunia calling her sister and Harry freaks, and of course the whole mudblood not!racism which become straight up allusions to Nazism later on. On the whole then I don't find the characters, universe, or fictional framework to be distasteful in any major way (some of it doesn't even reflect poorly on JKR), though that's not to say the themes work out entirely.

- All the bad things happening to Harry are effectively glorified. His abusive foster parents, witnessing and blaming himself for Cedric's death, as well as the burden of being connected to Voldemort and being the Chosen One. Cedric's death is dealt with reasonably, as Harry's friends get him to open up and inspire others to fight back. On the other hand they never deal with his abusive childhood and what long-term effects that would have on him. Dumbledore relegates him to a life of abuse and then neglects him, all supposedly to protect him, yet all that results is Harry being temporarily sad and angry.

- On that note, the parallells to Tom Riddle as a bullied, miserable child who becomes evil don't work out very well. Harry has quite similar circumstances, yet he turns out completely differently even just by the time they enter Hogwarts. Tom is portrayed as too far gone when he asks Slughorn about the horcruxes, while Harry (despite his doubts about the Voldemort connection) never strays from the good path. He's also a really talented Quidditch player and magician (less so in the films) because duh, his parents were great at those things! Sure, Hermione is a great witch while being muggle-born, but it seemingly doesn't want to completely disavow blood ties and biological essentialism on the whole.

- The houses are a neat concept, but not great in practice. It's a way to create some (sometimes healthy) competition, camaraderie, and to section off the students. Nice dynamic mentorship programme as they hang around older students that are incentivized to help them out. In practice there's few cross-house friendships and it focuses a lot more on the competitive side, painting all of Slytherin as bad while Gryffindoor is the good guys.

- Class differences are a similar issue outside of Hogwarts (even if it's kind of the reverse, privileged rich people being seen as snobby while privileged Gryffindoor students are the good guys). The Weasleys are poor and Malfoys rich, always have been it seems, and they never do anything to change that. I blame a lot of this on lazy worldbuilding, magic exists because it's cool, without really considering how this society would work as a result. Their leadership is exactly like a muggle government, they should by all means be post-scarcity yet there's heavy intergenerational wealth inequality, they send their criminals to prison (to be tortured, even better!), and love potions and memory charms are presumably still commonplace even though full-on mind control is unforgivable. None of this changes by the end, it just returns to the status quo. Wealth isn't even very relevant throughout so they could drop that pretty easily, the death eaters threaten the families and lives of people very directly, not really using their massive wealth and power to bribe people or deprave them of whatever money provides them besides schoolbooks and candy.

Beyond how these systems harm wizards, there's also muggles who presumably suffer with wars and poverty yet wizards do nothing to help. Clearly JKR doesn't think humans are simply inferior to wizards and don't deserve help (terrorism and murder of muggles is clearly seen as a bad thing), it's just about lazy worldbuilding that doesn't consider the implications and consequences of its disparate elements.

- Fuck Quidditch. No tension, terrible game design. Also one of the most consistently dangerous things happening on campus, with no real security, it's remarkable that nobody died.

- As adaptions they skip a lot of romance faff, which is good, but they also skip Dudley being cool (the most anti-blood ties arc in the series!), Draco throwing his wand to Harry, Ron not just being comic relief to start, and probably a bunch of other neat things I don't remember.

- The overarching plot is quite good. It's pretty railroaded with Dumbledore's master plan in the last films, but it's only the broad strokes and still cool to piece together. Establishing magical mechanics like wand inheritance and horcruxes, it drip feeds information to build up mysteries that don't just result in Harry vs the bad guy as a pure power struggle. 7-1 is all about finding the horcruxes which as a structure allows them to do so much, and a more multifaceted approach to victory means other characters get to shine as well, like Neville's poetic snake kill.

The Philosopher's Stone

Quite basic with child actors and a generic setting. The boats are a nice visual introduction to the school, and Snape is strong from the get-go. The yearly structure is good at introducing Hogwarts even if it's quite mundane, as we see e.g. Harry's first Christmas that isn't just watching his cousin open presents. The dark forest is absurd as a punishment for staying out late, as are the rewards for getting themselves into trouble and almost dooming the whole world (Neville is the only one that deserves the points he gets).

I dislike the overarching plot, how Quirrell has no chance at getting the stone without the protagonists foolishly trying to stop him from doing so. To make things worse, the final confrontation is a complete asspull as Harry destroys Quirrell by touching him, to everyone's surprise. Can't expect the mortal vessel for the Dark Lord's soul to know Avada Kedavra I guess.

The Chamber of Secrets

It should not be as long as it is, with few remarkable scenes, but it's honestly quite solid on the whole. Decent underlying mystery, and the bloody messages and progressive threat of a monster on the loose build up to the heroes actually saving the day this time. Harry grappling with his identity throughout and the ultimate message that it's our choices and actions rather than heritage that make us who we are is great.

The Prisoner of Azkaban

Very well directed and shot, and so well paced. I used to take issue with some things that I now don't particularly care about, or that are more about the overarching series. The ministry continues being trash, but that's something that could have been dealt with in later entries for this to act as solid build-up. A lot of conveniences allow the rat to escape, but the film focuses so much more on the personal side and what is gained, rather than on defeating a villain. The time travel is set up poorly and doesn't work too well within the setting, but for this narrative in and of itself it's wonderful.

There's tons of work made to foreshadow and build up the film's identity, showing key locations multiple times and focusing on Harry's relationship to his parents (e.g. the very first scene, usually comic relief, is about Harry talking back when his parents are insulted). The camerawork with long shots brings a lot of life to the school and the action, and loves to play with glass and mirrors. The Boggart scene is just masterful, perception being a recurring theme with the deterministic time travel and uncertain loyalties. The main characters have a nice sense of camaraderie, even intimacy, and it's with Hermione at his side that he finds the resolve to save himself.

The Goblet of Fire

The whole situation is so contrived, none of the plot really works, it's just about the spectacle and action of the contest, which itself is undermined by how staged it is. The romance and angst is meh, and the whole "people think poorly of Harry" was already done better in the second film. Ron also thinks poorly of him, but that's just the both of them being fools for a cold minute. Neville and Cedric are nice, the climax works quite well, and as a turning point it has some charm in nostalgically looking back at better days they can never return to.

The Order of the Phoenix

This was the first HP book I read and I won't say this is a great adaption, but it manages to capture some of its strengths. Harry starts shutting himself off from others due to trauma and fear, but his friends help him open up and inspire others to not give in. It's a solid overall arc, the students standing up for themselves against the corrupt establishment, with Harry as a driving force rather than the lone savior. They needed to go all the way though, not just taking out the bad actors but reforming the systems that allowed those bad actors such influence and power. The finale set in the Department of Mysteries is still cool, with stand-out sound design, though the visuals only get worse.

The Half-Blood Prince

So mixed. The visuals are destroyed by color grading, the editing is poor, I hate the sound mixing, and it's got some real tonal whiplash. Starting off right where the last one ended, it makes it seem like it will keep focusing on Harry's nightmares and messy politics and how shit everything is. Then it turns straight whimsical, and silly romance is a big thing throughout. Despite the introduction, and to quite good effect, it moves to focus more on a few underlying mysteries, building up in the background of everyday school activities and interactions. Draco's mission, his wavering will to fulfil it. Harry's blundering attempts to get Slughorn's trust and confession. Finally the titular half-blood prince, and Harry's perception of him.

It leads to a couple of really nice final plot points, first the eerie cavern where Harry force-feeds Dumbledore poison, and then Snape's betrayal back at Hogwarts. The only serious scene that doesn't build up to the climax is the kind of edgy and pointless holiday scene where the Weasley house blows up. I'm also not into Tom being portrayed as too far gone when he's only like 14 years old. He deceives Slughorn about his reason for asking about immortality; he's 100% assured of what he wants and he knows it's bad. On the other hand Draco struggles with doing what his evil master asks him to, and it seems like Dumbledore manages to reach him with his speeches. He has toxic ideas instilled in him, but he's not an unfeeling monster. The parallels between Tom and Harry also fade, as while both "want to prove themselves", 14-year-old Harry wasn't working on a plan to achieve immortality through mass murder.

While not as blustering in its pacing as the last one, there's still little room to breathe, and one of the few scenes that do get some time is with Ginny and Harry very awkwardly being themselves. Even Hermione, with her jealous and competitive approach to romance (which Harry nicely goes against, asking Luna to the party instead of leading on a fangirl), is preferable to the complete lack of chemistry in the main pairing. Besides the romance, I quite like the slice of life scenes though, there's some great humor like "but I am the chosen one".

The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

The series has shifted towards being darker and more mature, but those ambitions are shackled by the school structure and plot. Here they act outside of that familiar setting to be more proactive but also more vulnerable, relying on each other for success and survival, as well as for comfort and meaning.

There's thankfully little action, as it's got the same dull visuals, shaky camera and jumpy cuts as the last few, and it works ok while reserving it for the most pivotal moments. Outside that the visuals are nice, traveling around the place does wonders for varied backdrops to what's happening. Its emotional moments really hit home, and the dancing scene is a stand-out in the whole series.

The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Very solid overall, good score like the last one, not much pure action even if it's very climactic, more focused on flashy magic (some bad cgi, but some good shit too like the shield and Severus vs Minerva) and environmental interaction. Also more about what happens than the graspability of how, like I don't care how Molly outmanoeuvres Bellatrix, just that she blasts the bitch to bits. Harry's battle is naturally not about action at all, little spellcasting or battle tactics, more about delivering on the build-up and mysteries from the past movies as it comes down to which wand belongs to whom and how horcruxes work. It all fits together very nicely, there's some asspulls through the series but everything here is justified I think.

Seeing payoffs for a multitude of characters - Minerva, Neville, Snape, Ron and Hermione, Draco - it's remarkable that it doesn't feel rushed, even if they skip out on Dudley. I think the sad moments are a bit mixed though, Snape is only redeemed posthumously in a kind of backstory dump, and the offscreen deaths feel arbitrary. 19 years later is weird, and kind of self-indulgent, and drives home the reinforcement of the status quo. Wizards are still hidden from muggles, leaving them to suffer. There's still familial class differences as far as we know, the department is still the same, they still torture criminals. There's also an earlier scene where they put all of Slytherin in the dungeon so they can't help the death eaters, which kind of undermines Harry's epilogue speech about Slytherin being fine.