Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best
Everyone’s got different opinions…if we didn’t, the world would be extremely boring! I’m one of those annoying former English majors who graduated college with the propensity to bleat “the book was WAY better than the movie” and also the “fun” habit of analyzing even the things I love to death. But I swear it’s a sign of love for literature! With that out of the way, it’s time for me to enrage basically every Harry Potter fan with my not at all scientific and extremely personally biased rankings of all the Harry Potter movies, from worst to first that pretty much no one else will agree with. (Yeah I’ve got a lot of unpopular opinions…) Hit up my amazon storefront for all of my ideas on books, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Christmas, and more!
When I first saw this movie at a midnight showing, I distinctly remember being about three scenes in, when Harry goes to the Burrow at night after visiting Slughorn, and thinking “this is odd, it doesn’t feel like a Harry Potter movie to me.” For one, I think the weird, overzealous Vaseline sepia filter that was aggressively used in this movie for no reason made the film seem like a fever dream. But there was also something “off” or “missing” in this adaptation for me. The most egregious flaw was the part where the movie is called Half-Blood Prince…and yet no one ever explains what this means. And no Snape being like ‘I’m the Half-Blood Prince” with zero follow up doesn’t count! Not to mention Movie!Harry just stands there looking constipated while Snape kills Dumbledore.
Then there’s the unnecessary Burrow burn down all while the filmmakers cut out most of the Riddle flashbacks due to “lack of time,” the fact that the plot is mostly about high school drama about hookups, Snape’s role as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is cut, and did I mention the horcruxes, which is the entire overarching plot of the books, is not even explained coherently unless you’ve read the books? If you haven’t suffered enough, endure the most excruciating romance in this series, Harry/Ginny and their non chemistry of doom. In short, this movie is a sepia toned mess, and even the Felix Felicis scene and Tom Felton’s acting can’t save it from being my least favorite.
Best Moment: Harry tripping balls on Felix Felicis
Worst Moment: “Shoelace”
This movie is not a terrible adaptation, but it is lifeless. It’s the shortest film for the longest book (!?) and cuts out the vast majority of the book’s themes, plots, and character development yet keeps the pointless Grawp subplot. Sirius is completely mischaracterized (a running theme in the films) and the battle at the Ministry between Harry and co and the Death Eaters, instead of being scary and suspenseful and exciting and original, is…people turning into moving puffs of smoke. Yay? The biggest issue to me in this film is the removal of “Snape’s Worst Memory” a decision which undercuts the mystery of Snape’s’ evil-ness or not evil-ness and his backstory with Lily, which comes out of freaking nowhere in the last film due to poor setup. Umbridge is perfect and evil and Imelda Staunton nails the role, and Luna is an absolute delight, so this film is still better than HBP to me.
Best Moment: Harry training the DA Montage
Worst Moment: Sirius calling Harry James for some reason
Where to start with this film. The cliff jump is ridiculous and atrocious. Hermione and Ron just let Harry prance off to his death and then act shocked and devastated when he turns up dead. Fred’s death scene and Percy’s redemption are butchered. The Snape reveal makes NO SENSE if you haven’t read the book. The wand lore for how Harry defeats Voldemort is never explained properly. Voldemort turns into weird flesh ribbons then disintegrates. The aging makeup in the flash forward is hilarious. Okay maybe that last point is a plus. But we do get the wildly amusing Voldemort/Draco hug, the McGonagall badass moments, Neville being heroic, a nostalgic ending complete with John Williams’s music, one last beautiful Harry/Hagrid moment, and the wonderful bank heist segments.
Best Moment: McGonagall being a total badass
Worst Moment: “Together!” *ridiculous cliff jump*
I want to love this movie a lot, I really do. I think this film and Prisoner of Azkaban have the most “life” of all the Harry Potter movies to them. It zips along and the teenagers act like actual teenagers. There are a ton of funny moments and lines that are unique to the film, where most of the other film’s funny moments come straight from the book. GoF is very original, compared to most of the HP films. It also has decent film coloring and not the fever dream sepia or depressing blue greys of the later films. We get the McG/Ron dance scene, the twins being amusing, everyone’s having terrible 70’s/2005 emo hair, the Yule Ball, Sparkles Pattinson, Rita Skeeter being the fucking worst, Voldemort actually being scary, a truly brilliant scene with Cedric’s body and his dad crying, and lots of Weasley fun. On the flip side, we get an extremely long dragon chase scene where everyone just maybe lets Harry die, a complete gut job of at least four book plotlines, Emma Watson’s worst eyebrow acting (which I do blame fully on the director, as her acting was good before and even better after this movie) and oh yeah. The plot makes zero sense If you haven’t read the books. Who is Barty Crouch Junior? Who is Barty Crouch Senior? How does BC Junior escape Azkaban? Why is he pretending to be Moody? How is he pretending to be Moody? How does Crouch Senior end up dead NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE. I have even confirmed with friends who have seen this movie but not read the book that they had no idea what was happening, which keeps this film in the middle of the pack to me. And of course, who can forget DIDJA PUTYA NAME IN DA GOBLAFIRE YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE.
Best Moment: Ron and McG dancing
Worst Moment: Dumbledore shrieking at Harry and almost drop kicking him in the head in front of influential witnesses
Starting with this film, my complaints dramatically decline. I still have them, but they go from “wow the film is incoherent to non-book readers and leaves out half the point of the book/half the plot” to more nitpicking. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is in some ways the best adaptation of them all. The only reason I rank it this low is because it’s a split film and therefore doesn’t feel complete. Also, it’s not at Hogwarts/lacks the joy of the early films. However, that’s related to the book more than the film. The sequence with the 7 Potters is exciting and fun, the Ministry scene is suspenseful, Dobby’s death is the saddest moment in the films for me, the acting is great all around, the 3 brother’s animated sequence is beautiful. This movie also contains the two creepiest scenes in the entire series; the opening scene with Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and the extremely off-putting scenes with Harry and “Belinda”, even before she’s revealed to be the corpse with Nagini inside. Downsides are the endless camping, the cutting of Dudley’s redemptive scene/Dursley goodbye, and cutting out a lot of Remus air time. Maybe the least popular movie in the franchise, but not to me!
Best Moment: The exquisite tale of the Three Brothers
Worst Moment: the exquisite akwardness of Harry/Ginny ARGH my eyes WHY
3. Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone
Many consider this film to be childish or kiddy and maybe too faithful to the book, but these are all the reason I love it. I read these books and felt joy, I wanted to watch these movies and feel joy too, and that’s what this movie did the first time I saw it and every time since. It’s a little less “alive” than the 3rd/4th films, it seems more like the actors are going “okay 1, 2, 3, walk here, say line, turn 90 degrees, ACT” and of course the acting is more wooden, since the actors are very young. But the colors are bright and fun, the story is adapted well, and very little of the book is cut. Of course that’s easier to do for the shortest book, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Hagrid is great and delightful, and it contains our superior Dumbledore. Malfoy and Ron shine as our best child actors.
Best Moment: You’re a Wizard, Harry
Worst Moment: Harry kills a man dead with his bare hands at the age of 11 and everyone’s like “yeah that’s cool.”
How is Prisoner of Azkaban not number one? You might say with complete horror. Everyone has decided it’s the best! In some ways, this movie is my favorite by far. In others, my least favorite. Yes, I’ll explain! Is this the movie with the most “life” and “zip” to it? Hell yes it is! Is this the movie that Harry looks closest to how he’s described in the books? By far! Does this movie contain gorgeous transitions (the willow through the seasons) actual Remus Lupin moments and backstory, a real mystery, and our first stunning look at Hogsmeade? Fuck yes it does! But here’s my issue, and it’s big: I’m an enormous fan of the books, particularly books 2-4. I love the Marauder’s, and their backstory, and the characters they become. And this adaptation spits on that. All explanation of the map and how it was made and why is cut. Our entire Remus/James/Wormtail/Sirius backstory is butchered and edited. I know it would’ve been hard to adapt a giant monologue of exposition to film, but some of it needed to stay! It is only for this reason I can’t rank this film number one. Also, Sirius is adapted poorly in every single one of the movies and it starts here, in this film, even if he’s closest to how he should be in PoA. Wormtail also looks absolutely fucking ridiculous in this movie, we’re talking Grima Wormtounge ridiculous, and I am thrown out of the story every time he shows up with a literal rat face and we’re supposed to buy that everyone trusted this literal rat man. But inject “I don’t want to tap-dance, Harry,” Harry blowing up Marge, Hermione punching Malfoy and Hagrid the professor into my VEINS.
Best Moment: “Tell those spiders,” Ron!
Worst Moment: Wormtail being a fucking half rat half human hybrid IRL
I fully realize I am the cheese stands (mostly) alone in regards to my feelings on this book and movie. I love them both, and I make no apologies! If you love the second book, the second movie is a wonderful adaptation. It could use a little more originality and “pizzazz” to the scenes. If Prisoner of Azkaban had included the Marauder backstory it would’ve triumphed over CoS on my list. However, CoS is very faithful to the book, and keeps the important themes of it being our choices that matter, not the innate abilities we were born with. Young Voldemort is creepy and evil, Lockhart is hilarious, even if I wanted young Jude Law in the role, and Hagrid still has a central and important role. Lucius Malfoy is complete perfection, Malfoy Junior is amazing, the spider sequence is wonderful, and Dobby is a gem. Chamber of Secrets sets up everything for later adaptations: Harry being sorted into Slytherin, his ability to speak parseltongue, the themes about choices, Dobby’s role, Colin Creevy, Lucius Malfoy and the corruption of the Ministry, Harry’s mom being important to the Voldemort plot in some way, Harry’s similarities to Voldemort, Snape being a jerk still and not lovably cranky comedic relief, Hermione still being a pill and Ron still being funny and important to the plot, etc etc. It’s not this movie’s fault the subsequent movies abandoned most of these plot points and characters.
Best Moment: “Why couldn’t it be follow the butterflies?”
Worst Moment: Hermione crying over being called a Mudblood when she doesn’t even know or care about this insult from Malfoy in the book
What is your ranking? What are your best and worst moments from each movie? How deeply do you disagree with me? Let me know!
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