Watching Movies 6/22

Twenty years ago I watched the first Harry Potter movie and stopped there. My daughter was never that interested in it, and it just seemed like a (very long) kid's movie to me. But I was intrigued by the ambition of a series of films following these kids over a decade, and felt like I should have a clue about the whole phenomenon, so I watched all the Harry Potter movies (and no, I haven't read the books). Reviews were written as I watched them to capture my thoughts in the moment.

Chris Columbus directs in the classic Spielbergian style, and it is very much a kids movie with some darker undertones that hint at bigger things to come. The pacing is leisurely, which I'll assume is just carefully setting everything up for the long haul. Unfortunately, the whole movie seems less "look at this amazing magical world" and more "look at how we've illustrated the book" and a lot of it is just paying fan service to the book lovers. For example, a big deal is made about sorting the kids into different schools, and they're all very anxious about where they'll end up, but there's no explanation about what this means or why it matters or what the differences are. That said, the characters never get lost in all the spectacle and the Quidditch game is a highlight. Some of the special effects aren't holding up well, but it's always charming.

An improvement over the first movie, if only because the kids are growing up fast and they are all more confident in their roles. I realize you can only do so much with magical fantasy worlds, but there are so many similarities to Lord of the Rings that it diminishes the novelty. However, I like that each film is largely self-contained instead of one giant saga, and Kenneth Branagh is having a lot of fun.

You can tell that a new director is at the helm. The pacing and photography is different, the humor doesn't work, and I found the narrative harder to follow. It's different enough to be jarring, and I guess it feels more modern and more adult, but I liked the old fashioned Spielbergian style. It's heavy handed with Potter's father issues, but Daniel Radcliffe handles the dramatic stuff well. I think they picked the right kid for the role. I'm also happy to see David Thewlis in a major motion picture, and he plays the most developed character in the series so far. I know this is supposed to be about child protagonists, but I keep wanting the adults to take over. Any film that can throw Thewlis, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, and Timothy Spall together in a climactic scene is worthwhile, even if that scene is far too short.

This episode (and it's very episodic) has a more light-hearted tone than the earlier films with all the romance and social events and teenage awkwardness, which really helps to give the characters some much needed personality. The three (ridiculously dangerous) challenges force some action into the story, but it ends with a suitably tragic climax. I am also pondering, in a land full of wizards, what their effect is on the real world, which is never addressed. Why teach all these kids magic? What jobs will they get when they graduate? What do magicians do in the real world?

After Goblet of Fire's tragic ending, the tone has changed, and it's no longer about going to wizard school and all about the wide world of wizards, with real stakes bringing the adults into the action and the kids forming a makeshift army. I welcome this escalation and this is the first time I'm anticipating the next movie.  However, the world building is out-pacing the character development, and yet they keep throwing more and more characters at us. David Thewlis does little more than show up, and Helena Bonham Carter just cackles a lot. Will Harry Potter drown itself in spectacle?

It turns out it was an epic saga after all as evil forces take over Hogwarts, and I like that the evil comes in the form of the prim and proper Imelda Staunton. Suddenly there's a whole lot of wizard world politics that was only hinted at before, and we start referencing events from many films before that I can barely remember even while binge watching. Thankfully the best thing I can say about these films is that the exposition is expertly handled and the dense stories are easy to follow without collapsing under the weight of lore. That's something that easily goes unappreciated, esp. when fans will complain about this or that from the book not making it into the movie. I keep having questions but I never feel lost or that the characters are just moving the plot along. Unfortunately, Potter now feels less important to the story (what happened to that army he was training?) and Dumbledore's fate was oddly not as impactful as the tragedy in Goblet of Fire. Hopefully the final films will turn this around and make it about the characters.

The tone has changed drastically, with an extended sequence where they basically sit around in overcast landscapes wondering what to do next that seems a little padded, although I like that it brings the focus back to the three main characters (now fully adult and ready to carry the action). In earlier films I wondered why they tolerated obviously evil wizardy, but it turns out the wizard world is full-on fascism with aggressive pure-blood supremacy that is surprisingly prescient in 2025, and Hogwarts is apparently the last bastion of good in the world (little is said about wizards in other countries). Potter's continued reluctance to accept being the chosen one and trust those around him to take care of things gets frustrating from time to time, and Hermione is the true chosen one and most resourceful student at Hogwarts. Just put her in charge.

The epic saga comes to a satisfying conclusion with some good twists and turns to tie things up, some of them handled in clunky prolonged flashbacks, but all of it designed to bring Harry Potter back to the center of the story. There's an impressive build-up to a final wizard battle, but the battle itself leaves a lot to be desired. Imagine how much fun Peter Jackson would have with armies of warrior statues, dementors, enormous spiders, club-wielding giants, and wand-zapping wizards, but most of the battle here is in the background and plays down the violence. Despite the characters maturing into full adults, the series remains aimed at the youth market. The episodic nature is also apparent. For example, all the pure-blood stuff and wizard bureaucracy from the previous film has been dropped, and Hermione does a complete 180, going from clever and resourceful to befuddled and forgetful. Everything works within a single film, but not everything informs the films that follow, but it's so complex and expansive that I can easily forgive that.

Wrapping things up... Overall I'm impressed at how a studio bet the farm on a bunch of child actors, although it turns out the real gamble was the older thespians surviving to the end of the series. The child actors all turned out splendidly, production values remained consistent even as the tone wavered, and the complex, character-heavy story was always easy to follow and interesting despite the occasional character or plot point that didn't go anywhere. And it never gets silly, self-referential, or repetitive and never betrays its core nature like so many other series.