Special Feature: Harry Potter

The Harry Potter series is one of the most financially successful and popular series in history, it has showcased some of the best British talent on offer and created huge stars of its young cast. For ten years the premiere of a Harry Potter film has been the biggest and most anticipated of the year.

As an avid reader and a huge fan of the books it was inevitable that I would see the films, as a nine year old when the first one came out I was the perfect age to enjoy it. As has now become tradition, I read the books every summer and then watch the films. 

However sad this may be I thoroughly enjoy myself. The first two films; Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) were both directed by Chris Columbus who made such classics as Home Alone (1990) and Mrs Doubtfire (1993). There was a lot of deliberation about who would helm the films but I think especially for the origin it was a fantastic choice. Both Philosophers Stone and the Chamber of secrets are the lightest in tone. They have a more colourful palette and are purely magical films. So to get Columbus to direct two films so child based was a great idea. Both films have very simple plot lines and Chamber of secrets especially is incredibly funny. It’s hard to say what makes a perfect cast but I think the Harry Potter series just about nailed it. Can you really imagine anyone else playing Severus Snape other than Alan Rickman? Would there have been anyone more suited to playing Hagrid than Robbie Coltrane? The children being so young completely inhabited the parts they played with each coming film, so much so that they have fought a hard battle with type-casting the last few years as everyone all over the world associates Radcliffe, Grint and Watson with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Alfonso Cuaron directed The Prisoner of Azkaban which was released in 2004. This was the least profitable of the series, but saying that it still made $249 million, which isn’t bad in the scheme of things, it is also one of my favourites. The Mexican director Cuaron may have seemed an odd choice for this, but he has worked on other films for young audiences. Including a childhood favourite of mine; A Little Princess (1995), he successfully managed to darken the tone of the film, not just with use of the script but with cinematography, he also added a little kookiness that is not in any of the other films and was Cuaron's own flourish on the finished product. He has more recently proved just how much of a cinematic genius he is with the release of Gravity (2013).  We are introduced to a selection of new characters; therefore even more of Britain’s insane acting talent, Emma Thompson and Gary Oldman being among them. This is also the film that changed locations and became the standard for the rest of the saga.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) was the first of the larger books to made, therefore harder to adapt as completely as the previous three. The producer of the series David Heyman and his team decided that they would concentrate on the plot that involved Harry and everything that was seen through his eyes. This was an effective way of cutting out extra story lines that would not be necessarily needed in the film. Mike Newell known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) directed and decided to have a typical English boarding school environment to the film, amongst all the magic of course. This does not seem to be a fan favourite despite having amazing effects such as the dragon and underwater sequences. Maybe it flits from one thing to the next just a bit too much.                                      

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) began the tenure of David Yates who directed the rest of the series. He came up with just the right formula of tension, drama and magic that was needed to attract audiences and keep them coming back year after year. This movie also added the romantic element between Ron and Hermione, which is one of the most interesting developments in the books. This aged the films tone slightly to keep up with the original audience who were growing up as fast as the cast. The most important thing about the movie is the development of character. Yates was obviously keen to create some depth to the returning characters, this came with a fresh, tight script, and a new villain causing lots of trouble in the guise of Professor Umbridge played brilliantly by Imelda Staunton.

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince (2009) is the film that seems to get forgotten about. Though story-wise it is incredibly important as it explains the origins of Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes) power and the connection he has with Harry. Looking back it also has a very subtle humour in this film. It is amazing that in each movie the film-makers were able to add more ingenious ways to keep the audience invested. Whether it was with extravagant sets, computer generated effects, or new characters, there was always something fresh that kept audiences lining up for miles to see each film.  

The Last Harry Potter book is absolutely by far the stand out novel of the entire series, it explains everything that has been left unsaid throughout the plot and it rounds everything off perfectly in a wave of emotion and thrilling suspense. Because of its importance it was decided that there would be two films so that nothing would be left out. The Deathly Hallows Part one was released in 2010, it was highly anticipated of course but I feel that most people think it is a bit of a let-down; it has a lot of camping and a lot of moving around but little action. I personally think the film is excellent and it develops the characters and shows their growth and emotional baggage like no other film before it due to the time they had to spend on them. It may be the penultimate film and many simply want to get to the finale to see the big set pieces, but there are some exceptional moments in Part 1, proving that you don’t need to explode sets or use effects to create a great scene.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) was possibly the most highly anticipated film of this century so far. I have never seen a film so advertised and people get so excited about its release. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the midnight showing of the film and it was an unbelievable experience. The excitement buzzed in the air, and the queues went all the way down the street to the car park. It is a very emotional film, characters get killed off and Hogwarts is partially destroyed. But not only that I think most people, myself included, were devastated that the series was coming to an end. This was it, the last one; we would never get to do this again. It might sound stupid, but for fans this had been an annual or almost annual occurrence for ten years of our lives. For most of us we had grown up with Harry, Ron and Hermione and were entering adulthood ourselves. It was with a heart-wrenching feeling that we left the cinema knowing that we had just seen the last of a tremendous saga.

If I was truly honest with myself I would have to admit that the films do have some most obvious flaws. The biggest for me being the script, the stories themselves are fantastic but I feel that some of the dialogue used, especially in the earlier films sounds false and makes the acting look bad and frankly makes you want to cringe. Granted some of the acting in the first few movies cannot be called great either but it did get better.

Another flaw for me is the way the films have been adapted, this may just be my point of view as I prefer the books, but I feel that too many things have been left out. I know it is hard to adapt books that are as large as the last 4 but when you compare the first three to the later films I don’t think they are in the same league in terms of quality. They are perfectly adapted and make sense to the audience. The later films miss certain points and then carry on with later plot lines which relate to the missed out information; the audience can then not understand what the characters mean. My prime example for this is my own experience at the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. When Harry says to Lupin “Remus your son” a member of the audience actually said huh? out loud. The fact that Remus Lupin and Tonks have a baby called Teddy is never mentioned in the film but this line refers to it. Not everyone reads the books so there are definitely moments when I think non-readers must be terribly confused. But that might just be me picking.

Everybody has examples of scenes or characters or just lines that they don’t like or makes them cringe to be watching. But it can’t be denied that there is a love for this saga that just doesn’t come around very often, the stars themselves have stated that a Harry Potter premier is an event unlike any other. The huge fan base for these films does not occur every day or even every year. It is a rare occurrence when something can strike hold of audiences and keep them coming back for more.

We could probably count on both hands how many times this has happened; it is this element that makes the Harry Potter series so special. The utter love that people have for the whole package; whether it is the films, the books, the actors whatever part it’s simply magic. I don't think I could have a complete friendship with a person if they had not (or even worse refused to) see the Harry Potter Saga, there are so few franchises that can build a complete world and drop you in it for a few stunning and miraculous hours. We should take advantage and watch as often as possible. Enjoy!