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David Yates has beent he unifing balm the Harry Potter franchise needed. The story of Harry, Ron & Hermionie is vastly unique in the realm of franchise films, as the films were being adapted before the series of books was finished, and though the films have always been entertaining, they suffered from a lack of continuity early in the series. With Order of the Phoenix Yates stepped up to the plate and hit the hardest book in the series out of the park, securing his place for what would turn out to be the remaining 4 films in the series.

As an avid fan of the books, when watching The Deathly Hallows Part 1 feels like the best adaptation of the books so far; Yates, Kloves and the cast are obviously benefiting from the added screen time that breaking Deathly Hallows into 2 parts allows them. I am thankful for that. This is a complex series, and the last chapter in the tale truly shows how proflic our villain is and how much our heroes have changed since they met as 11 year olds.

I will freely admit that this is the tale in the series that made me cry – many times – and the filmed version is no exception. What makes JK Rowling a great writer is that she did not put the “safety” of her characters above the end goal of the story she was telling. No one in Harry’s world is safe, and a good many beloved characters die in Deathly Hallows - every death is hard, as it should be.

What stands out the most about The Deathly Hallows is how good these child actors have become. When they were cast as 10 & 11 year olds it was a great gamble for many reasons. It was quite possible that through the years their talents wouldn’t progress, or perhaps it would turn out that they were just cute kids. Luckily, that is the one thing Chris Columbus got right. Rupert Grint, Emma Watson & Daniel Radcliffe have grown into phenomenal actors each in their own right, and I desperately hope that they can all find success after Harry Potter is gone and hopefully gain the needed distance from their characters.

I loved this movie. When it ended I wanted to stay in my seat and watch it again. I am both excited and sad as I wait for the summer to come. Because I truly believe that the series will be beautifully handled in it’s final episode, yet I will be sad to see it go.




Director: David Yates


Bellatrix: How dare you defy your master!
Dobby: Dobby has no master.

The Half-Blood Prince just might be the most emotional film in the Harry Potter series. Not to say that the joys, triumphs and tragedies of the other films aren’t emotion filled, but The Half-Blood Prince is the first time the characters we’ve grown up to have truly become adults themselves and realize all that this means.

While the entire school suffers at the death of Cedric Diggory during the Tri Wizard Tournament, and Harry is devastated by the death of Sirius Black, Dumbldore is the first real death of all hope for the entire wizzarding world. On top of an already bleak new war against Voldomort, this is a crushing blow and one that sets the entire last chapters of Potter, Granger & Weasley into action – a trio that won’t stop fighting because that’s what Dumbldore would have wanted them to do.

I have no idea how the scale of The Deathly Hallows will translate into a film. However, if the teaser and poster are any indication the films will leave audiences pinned to their seats and in the end, probably wiping away tears. If you thought The Half-Blood Prince was gut wrenching, just wait to see what lies in store in The Deathly Hallows.

Harry: Did you know, sir? Then?
Dumbledore: Did I know that I just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time?

I am a fan of all of the Harry Potter books and I am still amazed that for the Order of the Phoenix film they managed to completely cut out so much and yet make a movie that got the point of the book across so well.

Order of the Phoenix is one of the darkest stories in the series as there is arguable no win for our heroes – while by the end of the story the Wizzarding world is accepting that Harry & Dumbledore have told the truth and Voldemort is indeed back, there has been death in the family of heroes and no one has escaped unhurt.

Perhaps the single best addition to the series for me that came with Order of the Phoenix would have to be Luna Lovegood. Luna is an eccentric child who is an outcast at school and ends up becoming part of Dumbledore’s Army and one of Harry’s friends. Luna is a beautifully different character and Evanna Lynch plays her beautifully.


The Harry Potter franchise is undoubtedly one of Warner’s breadwinners and it will be interesting to see what takes its place as it draws to a close.

Harry: This connection between me and Voldemort... what if the reason for it is that I am becoming more like him? I just feel so angry, all the time. What if after everything that I've been through, something's gone wrong inside me? What if I'm becoming bad?
Sirius: I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry. You're not a bad person. You're a very good person, who bad things have happened to. Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.

Until The Half-Blood Prince came out The Goblet of Fire was my favorite film in the Harry Potter franchise.

As a story, The Goblet of Fire is my favorite in the series because it’s the absolute game-changer for the characters and wizzarding world. The last act bring back the villain that the entire world is terrified of, the villain that so many people deny the existence of because it’s easier than worrying he may come back someday and for the first time Harry fails.

In the prior three stories of Harry and Hogwarts our three friends always emerge victorious. In year one Harry, Ron & Hermione keep the sorcerer’s stone safe, year two they discover the chamber of secrets, save Ginny and unknowingly destroy the first horcrux. Year three might seem like Harry is defeated because he frees his godfather Sirius Black, but can’t clear his name and Wormtail gets away, but as Dumbledore so precisely points out at the end – the innocent man got free – Harry still won. The Goblet of Fire doesn’t have such an ending; Harry witnesses a friend die and unwillingly helps Voldemort be reborn. It’s a dark, surprising place and completely sets up the rest of the series and where it has to go.

As happy as I am that David Yates really made the Harry Potter franchise his own, I think Mike Newell did a fantastic job on his part of the series. If Newell hadn’t handled Goblet of Fire so well Yates would not have been able to take the series to the heights it’s at now.

Voldemort: The Boy-Who-Lived. How lies have fed your legend, Harry! Do you want to know what really happened thirteen years ago? Shall I divulge how I truly lost my powers? It was love. You see, when dear sweet Lily Potter gave her life for her only son, it provided him with the ultimate protection, I could not touch him. It was old magic, something I should have foreseen.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is where the Harry Potter franchise was finally infused with some visual flair, and it needed it. Without Alfonso Cuaron the franchise would not be where it is today.

I love all of the movies in the Harry Potter franchise, and I enjoy this movie, but I think this is the one film where the complications of the story didn’t translate quite the same to the screen. While the first two films in the series left the most out from the books, the third story is one of the more complex and hard to translate. Half-Blood Prince may have been difficult because so much is told in flashback, but Prisoner of Azkaban has the unique issue of showing the last act twice because Harry and Hermione go back in time to stop events from happening. It’s challenging to show your audience almost identical events in the same film and while it comes across on screen it’s much more intriguing in the book.

Harry: Professor, why do the dementors affect me so? More than anyone else, I mean?
Professor Lupin: Listen, dementors are among the foulest creatures to walk this earth. They feed on every good feeling, every happy memory until a person is left with nothing but his worst experiences. The dementors affect you more than others because there are true horrors in your past, horrors your classmates can scarcely imagine. You are not weak, Harry. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

I have no love for Chris Columbus as a director, but his best Harry Potter film is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Year two of Harry’s tenure at Hogwarts is the start of the darkness in the series and Columbus couldn’t shy away from this and that is what gives this film more flavor than his other directorial efforts. Columbus by definition is a director that likes the light and heart warming, and what no one knew at the time the Harry Potter films started is that Rowling was going to take the wizzarding world to very dark, depressing and real places – places other “children’s” works don’t go.

A major theme in the books, one that hasn’t been totally transferred into the films is the idea of racism. The pure blood wizzarding families don’t like the muggle born wizards or half-bloods and want them out of their world. It’s dark, it’s real and it’s not raised very much in the movies and for this I blame Columbus. When Rowling first, truly hits this theme on the head it’s in Chamber of Secrets with the Malfoy family, Dobby and the fact that Hermionie is a muggle born.

I think it was at this point that Columbus realized he loved this world but couldn’t fit it and decided to do what he truly does best – produce.

Lucius Malfoy: Busy time at the Ministry, Arthur, all those extra raids? I do hope they're paying you overtime. Though judging by the state of this, I'd say not. What's the use in being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?
Arthur Weasley: We have a very different idea about what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy.
Lucius Malfoy: Clearly. Associating with muggles. And I thought your family could sink no lower.

I just bought The Half-Blood Prince so I decided to rewatch the entire Harry Potter series to lead up to number six. I have to say that while I am happy the franchise was started, the first film is still my least favorite, especially since I read the books.

The Sorcerer’s Stone is simply the most cumbersome of the franchise. I realize that the first film in any franchise the first film is that ends up bogged down with exposition and setting up the world we will be introduced to; however, I don’t think the first Harry Potter film sets this up very well.

Before I read the books I never understood the entire significance of both Harry and Voldomort, it wasn’t until the second or third film that I understood the significance of “the boy who lived” and “he who shall not be named” whereas after the first fifty pages in Rowling’s book I understood that thousands had died because of the most evil man in history who turned on his own, and that Harry managed as a baby and continues to manage as an adolescent to beat this evil and he’s the only one who ever has.

I don’t want the series to be remade for a very long time, but if it does ever get remade I will be excited to see if the first chapter is done differently.

After a second viewing I have to say that The Half-Blood Prince is edging its way to being my favorite Harry Potter film. The main reason for this is the adaptation. Somehow, this one managed to be the truest to the book yet is missing very memorable elements from the book. It’s a strange contradiction but it is so well written that the director and actors were able to concentrate on the relationships and world instead of complicated events and other-worldly experiences.

I am excited to see how Steve Kloves manages to pull together two movies out of The Deathly Hallows - that is an incredibly complicated book and in my opinion a perfect end to the story of Harry, Ron & Hermione.

Harry is content at home knowing that the wizarding world is in search of Voldemort, but Dumbledore has other plans. He begins Harry’s 6th year at Hogwarts by having him accompany him on his way to sway former Professor Slughorn to come back to Hogwarts and begins to bode to Harry that there are bigger things than classes that Harry will need to concentrate on this year, and one of the most important is befriending Slughorn. Thus begins Harry’s apprenticeship to Dumbledore as they begin the secret work of collecting memories, people’s memories of Tom Riddle before he became known as Lord Voldemort. Meanwhile, Ron discovers the bliss of the opposite sex and Harry and Hermione reel over what it feels like when the person they each like pursues someone else as Ron goes after Lavender Brown and Ginny dates another boy. Life and love continue at Hogwarts while Harry suspects Draco Malfoy of becoming a Death Eater and thanks to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince becomes a master at potion making.

While Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not a happy tale, it is probably the single best Potter film to date. David Yates has completely captured the spirit of the book series in a way that no film has yet; while a few events may have changed the look and tone of the film is masterful and pitch-perfect, not only the best Potter film to date but one of the best films of the year. The special effects, acting, directing style and every element of the film tells of a director who took the time to craft an excellent, character driven piece and to fold the world around them, not fold the characters into the world. Yates manages to weave past and present together in an interesting way so that the flashbacks (memories) never seem stale, and he somehow manages to use these flashbacks to develop Voldemort into an even darker villain than he was before.

What makes The Half-Blood Prince the most engaging film so far is that it spends the most time developing our lead three into full fledged beings with feelings, crushes, desires, ambitions and pain. When Hermione realizes Ron is denying feelings for her the audience feels it to, when Harry & Hermione call each other their best friends we realize there is nothing sexualized in this, just a pure familial love for one another, and when Ron gains victory on the Quidditch field you cheer with him. Luna and Ginny are even developed further though both have only small roles in the film.

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson & Rupert Grint have truly grown into fine actors and were able to sell a script like this. This Harry Potter was far more character than action and the leads were captivating enough that no one I know has even realized this.

For those that want no spoilers you might want to skip this paragraph because I have to talk about this plot point. What makes The Half-Blood Prince so sad is the ending – the death of Dumbledore. It is heroic and tragic in the book and the film, even if the film omits his funeral, the single saddest scene in the series. What made this so tragic for me in the film is that this is the film that finally got Dumbledore right. Dumbledore is the hardest character to capture; he is whimsy, brilliance and sternness wrapped into one incredibly powerful man and while Richard Harris & Michael Gambon have both been excellent Dumbledore’s the character has never been that perfect melding on screen until this film, which is what made it so sad for me that I knew he had to die. About half way through the film the realization that Dumbledore was the Dumbledore from my imagination hit me, and as they walked through Voldemort’s youth together I realized that Dumbledore’s life was about to come to his inevitable conclusion and I was not going to see this Dumbledore in the next film.

Though the film’s ending strays from the book I have to say that it ends in the perfect place. Ending at the funeral with the new Minister of Magic approaching Harry while perfect in the book would have seemed artificial and tacked on in film; the characters would have seemed forced into making decisions that were far beyond them. Instead, The Half-Blood Prince ends almost like The Empire Strikes Back, it sets the characters on the precipice of what comes next as Harry, Ron & Hermione realize they need to find the horcruxes and finish what Dumbledore started.

Director: David Yates
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Professor Dumbledore: Michael Gambon
Professor Slughorn: Jim Broadbent
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Ginny Weasley: Bonnie Wright
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith

Harry Potter: Did you know, sir? Then?
Albus Dumbledore: Did I know that I just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time? No.

The Order of the Phoenix is by and far a dark chapter in Harry Potter’s life in and out of Hogwarts. While Harry has been forced into spending summer at home in the muggle world the atmosphere around him has changed and not just because Harry knows Voldemort is back, the literal climate hot, stormy and depressed. One afternoon Harry and Dudley race home to avoid a sudden storm and are attacked by dementors forcing Harry to use magic to keep them both alive, an activity forebidden to underage wizards outside of school. Harry is expelled from Hogwarts and only allowed back in after a full trial in which Dumbledore manages to throw in Harry’s favor. Once Harry gets back to school he finds a distant Dumbledore, a Professor who is attempting to take over Hogwarts for the Ministry and he faces the fact that he and Dumbledore are being berated in the media as the Ministry begins a full fledged propaganda campaign because they refuse to believe Voldemort is alive. This means that Voldemort and his Death Eaters are running rampant and the world’s only defense is a small crew of wizards lead by Dumbledore including Sirius Black and the Weasley’s who refuse to let Harry, Hermione and Ron help and Harry learns there is a connection between he and Voldemort that goes deeper than a scar.

I will admit that as a book and a film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix grew on me; it is one of the darkest chapters in the Potter series and it takes me awhile to respond to that. This is the film where Harry begins to believe he is alone in the world, literally gets tortured by a teacher and is forced to grow up faster than ever before. However, The Order of the Phoenix is the film that David Yates took ahold of and proved that he is the visionary match for Rowling’s writing; all of the elements of fantasy, reality, light and dark were perfectly blended and all of the ups, downs, joys and pains that were going on in the film were as real as they were to the characters.

In this film Dumbledore and Voldemort come face to face for the one and only time in the present, and an incredible action scene ensues. However, what I love about this scene is that it is used as so much more than an action scene, it actually developes the characters. It paints the triangle between Harry, Voldemort & Dumbledore and the fact that it is Harry’s choice to be good or evil, he has just as much choice as did Tom Riddle or Albus Dumbledore did. The scene also climaxes with the vindication of Harry and Dumbledore in the eyes of the Ministry and the public.

This film is also a turning point for harry and his group of friends. For the first time they make the choice to fight because no one else will, they make the choice to go the difficult thing even though they know it may mean death for them. This is the first film where the students make fully adult decisions and face evil knowingly, not because they are roped into it, or stumble upon it – they make the choice and face the darkness head on.

I do think that each time I watch The Order of the Phoenix it will grow on me. As compared to the other Potter films this is only about the third time I’ve watched this film and I was surprised at how much it entertained me because I mostly remember an impression of sadness the last time I watched it. I genuinely think that this film is part of why I was able to love The Half-Blood Prince as much as I did, but that is a blog for another time.

Director: David Yates
Writer: Michael Goldenberg
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Sirius Black: Gary Oldman
Dumbledore: Michael Gambon
Delores Umbridge: Imelda Staunton
Snape: Alan Rickman
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Bellatrix Lestrange: Helena Bonham Carter
Voldemort: Ralph Finnes

Harry Potter: This connection between me and Voldemort... what if the reason for it is that I am becoming more like him? I just feel so angry, all the time. What if after everything that I've been through, something's gone wrong inside me? What if I'm becoming bad?
Sirius Black: I want you to listen to me very carefully, Harry. You're not a bad person. You're a very good person, who bad things have happened to. Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.

It’s Harry, Ron & Hermione’s 4th year at Hogwarts and they start the year to a flurry of excitement when magical schools Drumstrag & Beaubatons send students to stay at Hogwarts and participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament; one champion will be chosen from each school and put through a series of challenges until one is declared victor. As these challenges are extraordinarily dangerous no one under 17 can submit their name for consideration, which is why it’s remarkable when not only do 4 names come out as Tri-Wizard champions, but Harry is the 4th candidate, well under the 17 year old age limit. While this is going on Harry gets close to the new defense against the dark arts teacher, a former auror Mad Eye Moody who has been responsible for tracking down and putting away a large number of Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Harry also becomes more of a public figure as Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet focuses her stories about the Tri-Wizard Tournament center on Harry. The Tri-Wizard Tournament takes Harry and his relationships to a breaking point until ultimately, Harry must face his darkest fear and the wizarding world will never be the same.

Until The Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was my favorite Harry Potter film, and I think it is still tied for number one; I actually have the teaser poster for the film hanging on my bedroom wall because I think it captures Rowling’s world best. In my opinion Mike Newell was the first director that really understood J.K. Rowling’s world and that need for a balance between fantasy, darkness and reality. Chris Columbus understood the fantasy, Alfonso Cuaron understood the darkness, and Mike Newell began to intergect the much needed dose of reality into the series. Along with making a brilliant film, he put the series in the perfect place for David Yates to make the series into the perfection it is now.

My favorite character in Goblet of Fire has got to be Rita Skeeter. This is one of the most eccentric characters in the series and she tries to royally interfere with everything that goes on between Harry and his friends. I really hope they bring Miranda Richardson back into the series. Me, myself & I want her back.

However, this was the first film where the Fred & George Weasley I know and love from the books came to the big screen. While they’d always been the funny, irksome older brothers to Ron they finally became the comedic, brilliant, troublemaking wizards they were in the book. They are beyond fantastic.

There is one scene in the book that makes me emotional just thinking about it, and as a fair warning this is a spoiler. This scene is when Dumbledore has assembled all the students in the great hall after Cedric Diggory has been murdered and Voldemort has risen, Dumbldore delivers a speech about how everything has changed and warns that they must all remember what Voldemort has done, the truth of the situation as the Ministry of Magic will cover it up for their “protection”; he repeats a phrase several times – “Remember Cedric Diggory”. I cried when reading it in the book. Newell doesn’t get quite that emotional response out of me in his version of that scene but he does evoke a pretty powerful emotional response from me; the scene sets up a dynamic that will come to play largely in Order of the Phoenix and the rest of the wizard world.

Goblet of Fire had a lot of differences between the finished product and the book, but like so many of the changes that the series has embraced I have to say that I don’t mind them. While I still wish the racial war from the books was being played up a lot more, the only genuine things I miss thus far have to do with things missing in the first two films. I don’t mind that Nevel not Dobby helps Harry breathe under water, or that it’s a Death Eater not a house elf that gets caught making the dark mark at the Quiddich World Cup, or the dozens of other differences in the series. As long as the series hits the important points, and completes the fantastic character arch’s that Rowling wrote into the series I will be a happy viewer.

Director: Mike Newell
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Ginny Weasley: Bonnie Wright
Cedric Diggory: Robert Pattinson
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Dumbledore: Michael Gambon
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Mad Eye Moody: Brendan Gleeson
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Fleur Delacour: Clemence Posey
Viktor Krum: Stanislav Lanevski


Dumbledore: No spell can reawaken the dead, Harry. I trust you know that. Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.

In Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts life does not get easier. In fact he finds out that mass murderer Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban prison and is dead set on finding him. As the year marches on Hermione seems to be everywhere at once, the Divinity professor drives Harry & Ron crazy with forebodings of doom, and the three friends discover that perhaps there is a mysterious secret the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is hiding. Much to Dumbledore’s chagrin, the Ministry of Magic begins to interfere with Hogwarts by sending Azkaban’s Dementors to protect the school from Sirius Black.

Part of what I love about each installment of the Harry Potter series is the new cast that gets added to each film. In The Prisoner of Azkaban we get Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney. They are great characters and fabulous actors that become enjoyable parts of the rest of the series. Also, Azkaban is the first film with Michael Gambon as Dulbledore; Richard Harris died between films two and three and Gambon masterfully fills his shoes and still makes the role his own.

The Prisoner of Azkaban is also the first in the series to be directed by someone other than Chris Columbus, and let me say I shouted “halleluiah” when I found out he was not going to do all of the films. For this film the masterful Alfonso Cuaron took the reins and for the first time the Harry Potter series had something is never had in the earlier films – atmosphere. Suddenly, Harry was the dark, tousled boy he always was in the books, and the world was not as shiny and friendly as Chris Columbus portrayed it in the first two films. This film was a directorial turning point in the series, and while Azkaban is one of the weakest in terms of what it does to the franchise in continuity, it gave the series the starts of the tone that needed to be set.

While I do think that the front end of the Harry Potter films were weaker than the later films there is no bad film in the Harry Potter franchise. I am excited to see how the films finish out.

Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry: Daniel Radcliffe
Sirius Black: Gary Oldman
Ron: Rupert Grint
Hermione: Emma Watson
Professor Lupin: David Thewlis
Dumbldore: Michael Gambon
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Professor McGonogall: Maggie Smith
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Professor Trelawney: Emma Thompson

Harry: He was their friend, and he betrayed them. He was their *friend*! I hope he finds me! Cause when he does, I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him!

In my opinion Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is by far the better of the two Harry Potter films directed by Chris Columbus. Part of this is because the story is designed in such a say that Columbus cannot ignore the deeper and darker elements behind the story. In their second year at Hogwarts Harry and friends get begin to finally delve into the darkness that was only alluded to in The Sorcerer’s Stone. However, this is also the Harry Potter film in which Columbus wounded the rest of the franchise.

The new chapter in Harry’s adventures begins when he is home with the Dursley’s and a new character named Dobby appears bidding Harry to not go back to Hogwarts this year as someone will try to kill him. When Uncle Vernon blames some of Dobby’s mischief on Harry he locks Harry into his room and even bars the windows so that he cannot get out by any means. However, the Weasley boys come to Harry’s rescue and with the help of the rest of the Weasley’s he manages to get back to Hogwarts where as Dobby promises bad things start to happen. A rumor begins to spread about the hidden “chamber of secrets” somewhere within the castle that contains a monster that only the heir of Slytherin can control and when students begin to be mysteriously petrified and strange messages appear people begin to try to figure out who the heir of Slytherin really is and of course all fingers begin to point to Harry. We are introduced to Tom Riddle, Azkaban, the Minister of Magic, and the restrictions of Underage Wizardry. This is a very important year in Harry’s life.

There are two major elements in The Chamber of Secrets that Columbus couldn’t ignore and begin to bring out the darker side of Potter’s world – Dobby and the obvious child abuse.

To begin with the topic of child abuse we have Harry’s treatment at the hands of the Dursley’s. In The Sorcerer’s Stone Harry is locked into a cupboard under the Dursley’s staircase as his room, only given hand me downs and verbally disparaged constantly. By year two Harry’s circumstances have only improved superficially; instead of living under the stairs he has Dobby’s second bedroom, but is forced to stay in it without making noise or anything else that would give away his presence and when he angers Uncle Vernon he becomes a prisoner complete with bars on his windows. This is an epic form of child abuse that is allowed by Dumbledore and everyone that loves Harry because of something we find out in a later book, therefore Columbus could not ignore this darker element and instead had to acknowledge it.

One of my favorite characters to come out of Chamber of Secrets is the house elf Dobby. House elves are peculiar creatures and by many wizards they are abused and demeaned as they are a form of slave to many. In fact, the demented part about the house elves – that Columbus had to include – is that when they do something that wrongs their masters they must punish themselves. Dobby himself is an abused house elf and because he keeps defying his masters by warning Harry about emmenent danger he is constant being wounded, once he even mentions ironing his hands in punishment.

The really thing that begins to truly build in The Chamber of Secrets is the single most important element to the entire franchise, the reason behind Voldemort’s reign of terror – the race war within the wizarding world. In reality there is a long standing thought with a certain amount of wizards that you need to be of pure wizard blood to be a true wizard, no muggle lineage in you at all. Voldemort himself was half wizard, half muggle and he viewed the muggle part of himself as weak and so he sought out to destroy the muggles, muggle lovers, and anyone that stood in his way. This war of racial purity is set up in a huge way in the books and only mentioned by the end of the filmed version of Chamber of Secrets. If I have a list of grievances for what Chris Columbus did as a director to the first two Potter films this blasé treatment of the racial issue is number one on this list. As Columbus didn’t do his dillegence in setting up the racial discrimination as he should have the rest of the franchise has been scrambling to somehow explain this to the film viewers and put this racial war back into the film.

In the end both the film and book for Chamber of Secrets proves what I have always said about the Harry Potter series – they are not for children. After The Sorcerer’s Stone the series begins to take on much more adult themes and disturbing circumstances, and as such I do think the Harry Potter films should be viewed with caution for children and parents should not just assume they are suitable for children of any age. Chamber of Secrets is perhaps the last Harry Potter film I would let any child under at lease 11 see, at least if they were my child.

Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Professor Dumbledore: Richard Harris
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Aunt Petunia: Fiona Shaw
Dudley: Harry Melling
Uncle Vernon: Richard Griffiths
Molly Weasley: Julie Walters
Percy Weasley: Chris Rankin
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Dobby: Toby Jones
Gilderoy Lockhart: Kenneth Branagh
Moaning Myrtle: Shirley Henderson
Tom Riddle: Christian Coulson

Harry: What's a mudblood?
Hermione: It means dirty blood. Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who's muggle born. Someone with non-magic parents. Someone like me. It's not a term one usually hears in civilized conversation.
Hagrid: See the thing is, Harry, there are some wizards, like the Malfoy family, who think they're better than others because they're what people call "pure blood."
Harry: That's horrible!
Ron: It's disgusting.
Hagrid: And it's codswallop to boot. "Dirty blood." Why, there isn't a wizard alive today who's not half-blood or less. More to the point, they've yet to think of a spell that our Hermione can't do. Don't you think on it, Hermione. Don't you think on it for one minute.

All right, those who know me know I give Chris Columbus a lot of crap. He is definitely on my list of least favorite directors. However, that being said he did great things for the Harry Potter franchise – just not in terms of directing.

While the character of Harry Potter has not yet entrenched itself as wholly and globally as something like Superman (you’ll see kids in jungles with no technology wearing a Superman shirt) almost anyone can tell you the basic concept of the series; the secret world of wizards that coexists with our own and Harry is the main character against a villain that no one will name. At least that’s as basic as I’ve had it described to me by people who have never read the books or really paid attention to the movie. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book/film in the series and chronicles Harry’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and what begins to happen to Harry’s life when he starts to uncover the truth of his magical lineage.

Chris Columbus drives me nuts as a director because he somehow manages to insert no feeling or vibrancy into his work, he also doesn’t do background action well; Columbus is also a director that does not like the darker side of themes, but likes the cheery, easily explained side of life. All of this shows in The Sorcerer’s Stone. Though it is a good movie, it falls flat on many levels because of the directing. I remember seeing the movie for the first time (without having read the books) and thinking that I didn’t understand why Harry was important and why the Voldemort guy was so scary. All of that becomes the fault of the director.

What saves the entire Potter franchise and Columbus’s films is the fact that the man is a very good producer. I give him enormous kudos for being phenomenal at finding the right actors for the right part and for putting an excellent team of behind the scenes crew together. That is the reason the franchise works and the first two films are viewable. Columbus himself has less style and panache than even Brett Rattner, but he is saved by his skill at producing.

I must also give Columbus kudos for being the first director to bring Harry Potter off the page and into reality. While it is true that Harry’s world and ours overlap the magical world and all of its characters are entirely different than anything that has been seen onscreen before. Columbus had to invent how it would look to have living portraits, students that would fly on broomsticks in a game called quidditch, and even what it should look like to teach magic. He had to translate J.K. Rowling’s rules to screen without anything but some words on a page to guide him. I can tell you from experience how difficult translating words to images can be; writer’s don’t have to think about the physics of actually doing, they only have to put the words down and then float them off to the director who must now take those abstract words and make them reality. It’s tough, no matter how much special effects and CGI you have access to and it’s something you can’t quite fully understand unless you’ve done it yourself. I can’t imagine the pressure Columbus was under knowing that billions of fans were waiting to see their beloved world come to life.

In the end Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is still a good, but lack luster movie. If it were not the first in a franchise but instead a standalone film it would have been a entertaining but forgettable film; however, since it does have 7 other films to follow it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone instead just feels like a slow start.

Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Professor Dumbledore: Richard Harris
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Aunt Petunia: Fiona Shaw
Dudley: Harry Melling
Uncle Vernon: Richard Griffiths
Professor Quirrell: Ian hart
Molly Weasley: Julie Walters
Percy Weasley: Chris Rankin
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Neville Longbottom: Matthew Lewis
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Nearly Headless Nick: John Cleese
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman

Ron: It's spooky! She knows more about you than you do!
Harry: Who doesn't?