Harry Potter – A Film Expert’s Thoughts

OK, so maybe I’m not a film “expert”, but I know quite a bit about the medium and just recently I watched all 6 Harry Potter movies. That’s right, up until a week ago I had not seen any of the Harry Potter movies. There are several reasons behind this. The first one is that I was raised into a Christian home. Yeah, remember when Harry Potter was “evil”? Ah, good times! Well, that didn’t last too long before the Christian church moved onto their next target, The Da Vinci Code. I was till too lazy/ busy to ever find the time to watch the first five movies however until just recently, thanks to the release of the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry Potter was back at the front of everyone’s mind and so everyone I knew found out my terrible deep, dark secret; that I had still not seen a single Harry Potter film. I was constantly harrassed and belittled for my disability so I decided that enough was enough and I had a Harry Potter marathon. I pretty much watched the first five movies in a row, non-stop, thanks to Mike for owning most of them and Stefan for working at Blockbuster and giving me a chance to rent the one’s Mike didn’t own for free. So, I sat down and watched them one at a time. I bet your wondering now, after seeing all of them, how do I rank them from best to worst? And even if you aren’t wondering I’ll tell you anyways in a list with a quick description of how I felt about each movie.

6. Philosopher’s Stone – I know this one was supposed to set up the characters and everything, but it fealt like  just a bunch of random classroom scenes with no real plot until like the last 20 minutes when they must have been like, “Oh wait, we forgot to give it a plot!” So they just kind of tack one on. Plus the CGI was terrible. Compare it to The Fellowship of the Ring which came out the same year and it just looks bad.  It did get me interested in the overall franchise though, so it succeeded in that regard, but failed in most others.

5.  Chamber of Secrets – This was a slight step up from Philosopher’s Stone, but not much more. It had a lot more memorable moments, but it suffered from bad pacing and being too long (it’s still the longest movie in the series). It’s not as bad as everyone seems to think, but it could have been way better.

4. Goblet of Fire – This one also suffered from pacing issues, focusing too much on the tasks that Harry has to do and not enough on the bad guy or the actual plot leaving a lot characters undeveloped. It was still throughly enjoyable, but suffered from a major lack of focus in the editing room that made the film feel clunky and awkward.

3. Half-Blood Prince – Once again, this film suffered from pacing issues and having too much teen romance and angst. Not only that, but it felt like they were just getting all the exposition and romance out of the way before they make a much more entertaining seventh film. It may sound like I’m complaining a lot about this one, but despite all it’s flaws it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie and it was kind of nice to see the things that were only hinted at in the other films finally come to fruition. Even if not much more happened beyond that. I really liked this one despite it’s flaws.

2. Prisoner of Azkaban – This one was throrougly entertaining, esspecially once you get to the end and a lot of the stuff from earlier in the movie starts making more sense. It had action, humour and a very entertaining delivery that was never really what you expected. A few loose ends were kind of left undone, but they’re ussually left like that because they mention them again in the next film. Unlike Cho’s subplot, which just dropped off the face of the Earth. Cuaron should have directed all of the Harry Potter movies in my opinion, although David Yates is doing a good job.

1. Order of the Phoenix – This one’s my fave. It’s got the right amount of humour, action, suspence and a general sense of fun and danger that makes the whole movie very entertaining.  I don’t really have much to say about this film other than I really like it.

So there you have it. I’ve never read the books and I know nothing of Harry Potter lore other than what I saw in the movies, but those are my judgments from a critical perspective. I hope you don’t totally disagree. Anyways, I’ve got to get back to watching more porn, I mean movies. I’ll catch you guys later with some more awesome blog posts!

#30 – Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood has stated that this will be his absolute last time to grace the screen and I have to say I’ll be sad to see him go. For those of you who don’t know Clint is a hero of mind and my favourite director which is why I was kind of disappointed when the Academy failed to give this movie best actor or best song nods. It’s not Eastwood’s best and it’s not where close to Unforgiven or Mystic River (I still haven’t seen the Iwo Jima movies yet, maybe later.) The only problem with this movie is Eastwood seems a bit too preoccupied with making himself look like a bad ass. He does a pretty good job at it however, especially for a man of his age. I know I still wouldn’t mess with him. However, despite how tough he seems to be in this role, Clint also seems to be a bit more obsessed with old age, sickness and death, issues that he handles like a wise old man would, a powerful combination of fear and peace. The movie also touches on many other issues like racism and violence in a powerful and provocative way. The main reason to watch the movie is Eastwood’s Walter Kowalski, angry, bitter, but ultimately a good man. However, some of the supporting performances were also pretty solid, the best of which came from Christopher Carley as young Father Janovich. Like I said before, Gran Torino doesn’t pack the same punch that Mystic River did (I’d have to say that’s my favourite Eastwood film and probably my favourite movie of 2003), but it’s still a powerful film with a good message despite its flaws and it really is worth seeing.

#29 – Milk

Here’s the next movie on my list of Best Picture nominees to see before the Oscars actually happen. I really liked Milk. It’s intelligently written and brilliantly directed with a stunning performance by Sean Penn. Milk will inspire people, both gay and straight to go out and accomplish their dreams no matter how much opposition they might face. Milk rises through the ranks of the San Francisco political scene, but not without resistance however. He receives pressure from angry protestors, a boyfriend committing suicide, and eventually his own demise after being shot and killed by fellow Politian Dan White, also brilliantly portrayed by Josh Brolin. Milk is a film that rises above the crowd and will be remembered for years as a movie that inspired many and disappointed few. Jeez, I’ve been liking a lot of movies lately. I guess I just have good taste in avoiding the bad ones, except for Things. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!

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