Favorite Harry Potter Book and Movie and thoughts on both!

[Ironwill2112 he/him]

What is your Favorite Harry Potter Book and Movie?

[Experience he/him]

I don't have time to respond to, but I'll make sure to come back later.

[The_Archivist he/him]

My favourite book is goblet of fire, because it's epic without the somewhat depressing feel of the series after it, and it has the Tri-Wisard Tournament. I don't think cursed child should be on the poll, it's not cannon.

[Experience he/him]

I think all the books are pretty good. Nowhere near as good as Brandon, of course, but still good. I'm sort of disappointed about some of the movies. The sixth one was definitely the worst one. I feel like it wasn't very well made, and they had lots of things from the seventh book in the sixth movie! I like all the other ones though. I also think that the curse child shouldn't be a choice. It's not cannon, and I honestly think it's not that good.

[NottTheBrave he/him]

Thank god no one has picked Curse!  Lol.  One of the worst things I've ever read.  

My favorite book and film was always Order of the Phoenix.  Luna is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, so her introduction has a special place in my heart.  Evanna Lynch played her perfectly too.  The books and films both had great trade offs.  We missed a lot of my favorite stuff from the book when they went to the ministry, but it was balanced with more Luna.  

I really just loved how massive that book was, and while the A plot with Harry wasn't my favorite, I loved just how much world building there was in book 5.  I don't know if my thoughts would be as positive on a re-read, but I have my happy memories.

Movie wise they just did a great job adapting pretty much all the important material there. Unlike HBP, which focused WAY too much on the romance and dumped all the important exposition, the OotP film really focused in on the important parts of the book and excised the material it could get away with.  Some silly changes, like the initial flight from Harry's house, but done for the sake of pacing and keeping the audience engaged.

Beyond that I actually like most of the films, outside of HBP.  GoF was also kind go disappointing in its cuts.   That was a long book, but more of it felt plot relevant compared to OotP, so the cuts in the film were much more noticeable.  There's something so magical about 1-3's film adaptations.

[Ironwill2112 he/him]

10 hours ago, The_Archivist said:

I don't think cursed child should be on the poll, it's not cannon.

Yea, I did't think so ether, I just put it there cuz I was worried somebody would get offended that I did not put it on. 

Do you guys really think I should take it off?

1 hour ago, Experience said:

I think all the books are pretty good. Nowhere near as good as Brandon, of course, but still good. I'm sort of disappointed about some of the movies. The sixth one was definitely the worst one. I feel like it wasn't very well made, and they had lots of things from the seventh book in the sixth movie! I like all the other ones though. I also think that the curse child shouldn't be a choice. It's not cannon, and I honestly think it's not that good.

I would have to agree with you there on, well, pretty much every thing.

[Experience he/him]

How did Harry Potter get down the hill?

Running.

Spoiler

J.K.

Rowling

 

[Elegy he/him]

It's a tough call for the books, but I think I'd go for book 3 or 5. Globet of Fire is fantastic for the most part, but I really dislike the reveal at the end, which drags it down for me quite a bit. I also like Deathly Hallows a lot - I know that a lot of people can't stand the camping and found it disappointing as a whole, although I think it did a great job at wrapping things up - but it's very chaotic, given that they literally search for 6 mystical items at the same time. It's just a tad too much of that.

The films - easily the third one for me. It's extraordinarily well-filmed - only a handful of blockbuster films are on that level in that regard. Also, I think the changes they made to that one actually made it better, the scene in the Shack is also probably my favorite Harry Potter movie scene (along with the Ollivander scene in the first one). It's a well-rounded, well-done movie that has a lot of charme, a good flow, and at the same time, the story-telling doesn't feel as rushed as in the first two films (which I also like a lot).

I honestly feel the later films don't have a lot of personality. All the Yates films are really uninspired in terms of colors/tone, and some of the actors grew out of their roles (not their fault, of course, just a bit unfortunate). Still, I think they're okay.

Fantastic Beasts is another story. Oh boy. While I liked the first one well enough, the second one is down there with Cursed Child. I don't know how you can mess up so many things at once. It's bewildering. Ah well.

Also, the best theatrical adaptation of a Wizarding World story is A Very Potter Musical. I will die on that hill. 

[Ironwill2112 he/him]

6 minutes ago, Elegy said:

although I think it did a great job at wrapping things up

Dido, I liked the Deathly Hollows a ton.

[Snorkel]

Order of the Phoenix was my favourite book because of the storyline about holding secret classes, and then RUNNING RAMPAGE around the school when they kicked out Umbridge.  Having had some really awful school teachers, I really appreciated the schadenfreude

The film just skipped most of the fun rampage :<

I enjoyed the first film.  It fit OK into the time constraints.  I didn't think any of the following films did, and really wished they'd gone the high-budget tv miniseries route instead of full movies.

My favourite film was the last one, entirely for Alan Rickman's awesome scenes.  I just adored his portrayal, although he made Snape far more charismatic and likeable than I think he was supposed to have been.

Prisoner of Azkaban was probably my second favourite book, for the Lupin story line, but I didn't like the casting of Lupin very much.

I've only watched each film once, maybe twice for a couple of them, and I have no desire to watch any of them again.  The books I've read a LOT.  They books are just so much better.

 

It really bothers me when people say they don't like Harry Potter, and it turns out they've only watched the films.

[Use the Falchion]

On 4/17/2020 at 2:28 AM, NottTheBrave said:

Thank god no one has picked Curse!  Lol.  One of the worst things I've ever read.  

My favorite book and film was always Order of the Phoenix.  Luna is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, so her introduction has a special place in my heart.  Evanna Lynch played her perfectly too.  The books and films both had great trade offs.  We missed a lot of my favorite stuff from the book when they went to the ministry, but it was balanced with more Luna.  

 

20 hours ago, Snorkel said:

Order of the Phoenix was my favourite book because of the storyline about holding secret classes, and then RUNNING RAMPAGE around the school when they kicked out Umbridge.  Having had some really awful school teachers, I really appreciated the schadenfreude

Same to both! I loved Order of the Phoenix because of the secret classes and independence and companionship the students gained. It felt like they finally wizened up to the world around them (teachers are either helpless or actively working against them, the government is even worse, and Dumbledore is too vague to be relied on in most scenarios (and I LOVE Dumbledore)) and seeing that growth was so much fun. The movie's Luna Lovegood was spot-on too.

 

I also really like the first two books and movies. There's not much special about them, but both convey that sense of youthful magical wonder and awe to me without getting too dark and gritty. Everything is new and exciting and fun. Harry Potter World and Universal does a great job of capturing the atmosphere too. 

 

Finally, The Deathly Hallows will also have a special place in my heart because it was the first Harry Potter book I had to wait for its release. I had a friend who I was talking to about its release at the time, and waiting for each other to get the book and read it as fast as possible was amazing.

Death Hallows Part 2 was also one of the first midnight premiers I ever went to. A friend had an extra ticket...so she invited one of my other friends and HE said he wouldn't go without me (or something to that effect), so we ended up buying a ticket the day of and waited in-line for the first friend and all of her friends to appear. Turns out it was a double feature with Part 1, and it was SO MUCH FUN...until half of the theater cried at a certain death. But other than that it was so much fun! 

[Ammanas]

Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book because it includes the most descriptions (and time) with the day to day life at Hogwarts which is my favorite aspect of the series. My favorite movie was Prisoner of Azkaban which in many ways was the most artistic of all the movies and I was really impressed with how the director handled it all. However the part I disliked most about the movie was the depiction of the werewolf which was absolutely bazaar.