The first movie in the franchise, Harry Potter and Philospher’s Stone was released in 2001 and the last one, the Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part II was out in 2011, giving us the glorious 10 years of magic.
Everyone witnessed how the world was taken over by the fandom of Harry Potter amongst readers and movie fans as well, making the HP fans call themselves Potterheads.
As we know this film franchise was based on the successful and best-selling book series of the same titles by J.K.Rowling who was also involved in making of these adaptation movies.
At different points of time, favourite Harry Potter movies change for everyone, and even it changes after you re-watch them for the fourth or fifth time or after a few years.
But this seems to be a good time to look back and focus more on the movies because there have been too many debates regarding proper adapations and storylines.
This ranking is primarily focussed on the cinematic and overall visual narrative of these Harry Potter movies, and also how they have aged.
So, here we go again try to rank all the Harry Potter movies from worst to best ( however, we love them all, that must be given)
Harry Potter and Goblet Of Fire
No Harry Potter film is the worst for Potterheads! But if you are going to rank all, this one might be the last one for many reasons.
To begin with, they cut out a lot of essential parts that were in the books which made the film lack the conviction and detailing it needed.
These storylines suchas Barty Crouch Jr, Quidditch World Cup, Dobby, Winky and so many small and big scenes were put out from the series.
Remember how they did’t show the Quidditch World Cup, just ended it with a flash cut and then were too much from the book that wasn’t shown in this film.
Also, the director for this film Mike Newell took over to direct the fourth part, for the first and the last time, and for a good reason actually.
The worst part was, he never read Harry Potter books including the Goblet of Fire itself which is disappointing and catestrophe for someone who is adapting this fan-favourite saga.
Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince
This film was disappointing in many ways, whether you look at a narrative cinematic point-of-view, adaptation from the book or even service to the overall Harry Potter saga.
First of all, so much of backstory regarding Voldemort and his scenes in the Half-Blood Prince book was omitted from the film, which plays a crucial part in the characterization of Voldemort.
Also, they were quite good parts, perhaps few of the best in the whole series of Harry Potter books but it wasn’t included at all.
Provided, the half-Blood prince was a long book and they needed to adapt to a 2-hour movie, they needed to focus on some aspects and maybe omit what wasn’t much important.
They kind of did reverse, the Half-blood prince movie focussed too much on the whole teenage drama aspect of the book, all the gloomy relationships and stuff, which wasn’t empahsized very much in the book at all.
Teen drama part of the story in the novel was merely a garnish or complementary to the overall narrative, something that made the character’s growth even more real and relatable.
But in the movie, those parts simply dominated the narrative, sacrificing a lot of essential parts such as voldemorts’s past, half-blood prince, draco malfoy and much more.
Harry Potter and Chamber Of Secrets
There is not much to say about this one, and that’s pretty much this movie deserves this spot in the ranking of the best Harry Potter movies.
The first movie in a franchise, if it continues, is always special and something to remember, and with Sorcercer’s stone, it was even more than that. First Harry Potter film was special in many ways and was remembered quite a lot.
On the other hand, the second film in the series, Chamber of Secrets is pretty forgettable. If you remove some stand out scenes, it doesn’t even very well feel important in the overall Harry Potter storyline.
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part I
The problem with this particular Harry Potter film was something similar with the following conclusion movie Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part II.
But at least Deathly Hallows Part II had an epic much-awaited battle and conclusion to this saga to make fans excited for and keep the story intact, but that wasn’t the case with its predecessor one.
The overall storyline or screnplay of the film is usually made into a three-act structure which makes a story captivating and engaging.
But what happens if you take one story and slice it half in-between and release differently leaving both ones lacking overall structure.
That’s exactly what happened with this film and the following one, but Deathly Hallows Part I paid the most price for that.
The overall movie is quite slow where characters are on this journey, camping, finding horcruxes and all, it was supposed to be a setup, a first act and some of the second act in the overall Deathly Hallows storyline.
The writing formula is what meant to hold the story together but breaking it into two parts didnt’ work for them.
First part becomes quite slow and boring whereas all the juice and action goes to the Deathly Hallows Part II.
Harry Potter And Sorcerer’s Stone
This film needs to get more credit when it comes to the Harry Potter series, simply for the one reason alone that it was the first visual representation of the Harry Potter book, and its world.
So we are not exactly ranking this film as story-wise but for the simple fact, that movie was what introduced us to the world of Harry Potter which was only in the text so far.
Can you imagine getting that wrong? Or couldn’t do justice or even just could have made things goofier or tacky but it wasn’t.
In fact, every facinating aspect of the Harry Potter first book like Hogwarts, Gringotts, Goblins, Diagon Alley and all the magical elements came to life with this movie.
It was so amazing that it made J.K Rowling, the author of the book series cry, when she saw the movie for the first time.
Also, this one is highly memorable when you compare it to other parts in the movie series. First and last of all movie series or franchises are memorable, so does this one.
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part II
Bearing the burden of giving a satisfying end to a 10-years old film series or franchise was a lot for this film.
Audience had so much expectation from it and then there was a great fan service to deliver on and this film performed magnificently.
All the fight sequences in the film that constituents like at least twenty-five percent of the movie are astonishingly choreographed with a beat of story which engages you to this extended end.
The film, especially in terms of cinematic and visual point of view, was a masterpiece because to tell a story on a grander scale, makers used numbers of editing techniques, vfx and visual elements to enhance the experience.
You feel like the climax happening in the film where you are thrown to the battle where Harry, the boy who lived finally going to battle the Dark Lord, Voldemort, and that too fittingly in the Hogwarts itself.
The princess tale storyline was beautifully shown, possibly the best adaptation and editing that could go together to translate the text in the books.
Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban
Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film in the series, has been widely accepted as atleast one of the best Harry Potter movies, if not the best in the first place.
The film especially was a good change in tonality from earlier two movies which seem quite geared towards more children or atleast felt like that.
This was the film where things started to get juicy,to say in very simple words. The plot of the film was quite interesting, there was more drama and mystery elements to the film.
On a cinematic scale, this film stood out and is perhaps among the best. And when it comes to tonality of this whole saga, we think Prisoner of Azkaban should be the standard or model of what Harry Potter franchise atleast in movies should looked like.
It was neither light or childish as earlier two parts of Harry Potter and nor grim and overly dark in later parts of the franchise.
We understand that the Harry Potter storyline is supposed to get darker and darker because the looming threat is getting closer and all, but still further movies in the series became weirdly dark, slow and boring, in a cinematic sense.
It was almost to the first in ranking when it comes to best harry potter movies as it gives good competition to Order of Phoenix movie but still remains one step behind.
Harry Potter and The Order Of Phoenix
If you consider storytelling and filmmaking, at its best with the honesty towards adaptation of the Harry Potter book, this film is hands down the best.
This one always fights with the Prisoner of Azakaban for this position but as you grow and see the Harry Potter movie series more and more, you will realize how good this film was.
One of the way to tell the merits of the film is, that the counterpart book from the series on which this film is adapted from isn’t very good in comparison to other books, but yet this film stands out.
Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix, clearly outshines its source material and shows how the best of both worlds can be achieved when it comes to adapting a book.
To begin with, this was the first film directed by David Yates from Harry Potter, after which he continued making them towards the end. So something must have been working, right?
We can also say that he was the director who truly understood the franchis. He found the balance between following honestly the source material from Harry Potter books and creating a visual masterpiece along with current sensabilities of people as well.
So, that’s why you see a consistency in tonality from movie fifth to eighth movie which was clearly missing from movies from first to fourth.
He understood creating creatures on-screen, the characters, their relationships and overall tonality of the film brilliantly.
Also, remember the ministry scene at the end of the movie, that one was handled way better than the book.
The climax of this film holds you engaged and has a great pacing without losing emotional value and stakes in the fight.
It is neither a straightway mindless fight for minutes on-screen nor a boring inconsistent fight scene barely holding together.
Even if you have nothing to complain about the end scenes in the book, the movie takes it a notch-up only.
The moment where Voldermort possesses Harry, and he gives a monologue was the ones still gives us chills whenever we see it.
Featured Image Source: EI