Gentlemen, start your broomsticks

So I know you have at least watched some of the Harry Potter movies out there, but as a bit of an expert on the field, I think it might be worth giving a little background to understand the phenomenon for some of our other readers. All 2 of them. Should we be so lucky. Really I also would like to take advantage of the fact that I just watched the last 5 movies this past week in preparation for seeing part 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at midnight on Wednesday morning.

Since this is a movie blog, I will mainly be writing here about the movies and will try to keep this brief. It is really quite remarkable how the makers of this franchise have been able to keep it going strong into the 6th movie both in terms of creativity and audience support. Perhaps you can think of something, but I cannot think of a movie series other than maybe the Star Wars films that were still making blockbusters (as this is expected to be) this far into the canon. As works of children's literature, J.K. Rowling's books surely have carved out their place in history by being the biggest phenomenon the genre has ever experienced. The sheer fact that The New York Times created a listing of children's books to keep her work from dominating its standard best sellers list is testament to how influential they will be to the business of book printing, the writing of youth-oriented literature, and the approaches of getting children interested in reading. What does not get a much attention is how well the filmmakers have transferred the adoration many have for the novels into such a great movie franchise that I think will be remembered historically as one of the most successful series ever.

One reason I think the movies have done so well is that, like the novels, they have grown with their audience. Although in listening to the audiobooks a couple of years ago I found the first novels to be much darker than my memory, they were truly for a younger crowd and had rather simple themes and conflicts by comparison to later works. As the years passed and her readers grew along with their Hogwarts cohorts, Rowling created much more sophisticated storylines that brought in issues ranging from psychology (think dementors as physical manifestations of depression) to the hidden danger of authoritarianism (see Prof. Umbridge). The novels do much of the same thing with the earlier efforts directed by Chris Columbus serving as mainly kiddie fair that introduced the characters and whimsical, childlike view that was shattered in the more harrowing Prisoner of Azkaban (3) that took the opportunity to reinvent the Harry Potter universe in a more realistic way than either the two earlier books or the books, to be honest. That movie and the following two lost some of the whimsy of the earlier efforts but replaced it with a substitution of fear for danger as a major driving force and cast it as a teenage struggle for survival both on an internal and an existential level, which is honestly how most teenagers feel at the time.

As individual movies, I think there are some remarkable contributions in the Potter films as well. The first two are pretty standard, although well-produced, fare, but the third movie really broke from that and Alfonso Cuaron's reinvention was fantastically filmed (as is all of his work) but also challenged the reader to think about more than just the plot. For the first time I found myself on the edge of my seat, even though I knew what would happen. My knowledge of the story (one of my two favorites of the seven) was even expanded as Cuaron through visual composition and storytelling puts an emphasis on how Harry sees himself in a way that draws out more than what I remembered from the book. Being a Potter film it is hard to view it otherwise, but I think if one detaches from that aspect of it, one could also find it to be a quite excellent coming-of-age story that uses its fantastic atmosphere to tell a rather universal story.

Although the fourth movie, The Goblet of Fire, I found a bit lacking, the fifth movie was also a good movie beyond just being a well-crafted Potter chapter. The Order of the Phoenix, like the third movie, set out to do more than just adapt the story and instead we got another great exploration of youth through the idea of isolation as well as the aforementioned political intrigue that is to continue in the next story. So without even commenting at all on the caliber of three pretty talented child actors and an entire stable of some of the best British actors around, I have discussed how I find this series of movies to already feature two good movies and four pretty good movies. With the next two stories -- or three movies as the last book is being split into two films -- being told by the Phoenix director, David Yates, I have high hopes that quality will continue.

So what am I hoping to see in the next installment? Well the sixth book battles with the third as my favorite so I am expecting good things from this one. As you know I enjoy stories that use time to explore the themes and skipping through different eras and how the past affects the future is one of the main plotlines of this story. In addition, it is not giving much away to say that this story features one of Rowling's more clever writing as she rebukes Bush-era policies of using fear and false efforts at security (although there is no duct tape) by staying strictly to the world she has created and never explicitly making the connection, but subtly making clear to anyone reading closely that she is trying to teach them about more than just horcruxes. With Order of the Phoenix and the British State of Play, Yates has shown an aptitude for telling political stories and I am excited to find out what he does with this one.

Overall I will just have to admit, I am a Harry Potter geek and I am eagerly awaiting the next movie. But as a film connoisseur (well...maybe an amateur one if that is possible), I can attest that being familiar with this film franchise will in the future be a key part to knowing what the true history of this century's early cinematic history.