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whitewolfofwinterfell · 6 years

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What’s your favorite vs least favorite HP books and movies? My favorite books and films are POA and GOT. And my least favorite books is probably the Deathly Hallows and the Half Blood Prince and the best of the movies are pretty much on the same level for me, though I think the Chambers of Secret and the Half Blood Prince is the ones I like the least.

Ooh, this is an interesting question to answer, thanks for asking!

When it comes to the movies, my favourites aren’t necessarily the ones that I view as being the best but the ones I’ve got more of an attachment to mostly due to rewatching them over and over as a child. So it’s a toss up between the Chamber of Secrets and the Goblet of Fire. I have no idea why these were the two movies I gravitated to most as a child, but I watched them repeatedly and now I have such a nostalgic and fond feeling when I watch them that I think I’ll always consider them as being my favourites.

I remember getting GOF on DVD for Easter from my mom (usually she gets me an Easter egg but I begged and begged and begged her to spend the extra to get me the DVD and managed to win her over) and it was in my DVD player for the next 6 months. I never even took it out I just watched it over and over. GOF wins out as being the best movie for me based on Voldemort’s return alone. The first time I saw that scene I was just in awe and I watched it over and over. The Triwizard Tornament is also an interesting plot that kind of separates it from the other movies in my mind. I also love it because I feel like it’s the turning point where things start to get darker. Chamber of Secrets is a weird one because I’m aware that it’s probably considered the worst movie in the series by most people. I think a lot of it is to do with the fact that it came out when I was 9 years old and when I was just reading the books and really getting into it, so when the new movie came out I fixated on it. I enjoy the lightheartedness of COS that is lost pretty quickly by the time we get to POA and GOF. Harry and Ron stealing the car and getting caught in the Whomping Willow, the introduction of Gilderoy Lockhart and Dobby and the polyjuice potion plot always made me laugh as a kid. But at the same time there was the plot with Ginny and the diary which had me gripped and it introduced us to a new side of Voldemort by showing us Tom Riddle. I just feel like COS is very representative of the childness of Harry Potter which I think gets lost in the later movies and I think watching it as a child that’s why I loved it so much.

As an adult, I developed a love for POA (but as a child it was one of my least favourites out of the movies) because obviously it is amazing. I think POA is so good and well loved because we get to meet Sirius and Lupin and it steps up from COS which as I said was very childlike, to incorporate darker themes. I love the time travel, Buckbeak, The Death Eaters, Sirius’ plot, Harry’s relationship with Lupin, the Marauders Map. Like so many amazing things are introduced or expanded on in this movie and it really is enjoyable pretty much from beginning to end unlike a lot of the others that lose their oomph in parts.

My least favourite movies are basically all of the later ones. I really don’t know why, but I never connected to or enjoyed the later movies in the same way as the early ones (by which I mean the first 4). I feel like by the time we got to OOTP they’d lost that Harry Potter feeling to me. Deathly Hallows part 2 is by far the best movie of the later half of the series because it’s the big finale to everything and payoff for everything that happened. But OOTP, HBP and Deathly Hallows part 1 are all meh to me. I appreciate OOTP for the simple fact that Sirius is in it and I love Sirius, but I feel like nothing at all really happens. HBP is pretty much the same in terms of nothing much happening. When I sit here and think about HPB literally the only thing that comes into my head is “Sir!” because that scene is honestly probably the funniest one across the 8 movies and I still laugh at that now even as an adult. Deathly Hallows part 1 is probably my very least favourite. I can’t recall liking a single thing about that movie. It’s boring, Ron annoys the shit out of me, there’s too much Harry/Ron/Hermione, Dobby dies (will never forgive JKR, why!?) and nothing at all happens. I think all of these movies feel like filler in the build-up to Deathly Hallows part 2 and they’re just so forgettable.

When it comes to the books, it’s harder for me to say which are my favourites and least favourites because I actually haven’t read them since I was at school and I’m sure if I re-read them now as an adult my opinions and tastes would be different. So I’m basing this on my younger self, but the Deathly Hallows is definitely my favourite. Harry Potter as a general book series is well paced but there are times when it bored the shit out of me, but Deathly Hallow really picks up in pace (particularly in the second part). One of my lecturers at uni who’s a huge HP fan was actually talking about her favourite book and she’s convinced that JKR didn’t even write the last one because it was such a huge jump in quality and change in writing style. I can’t say whether or not I agree with that because it’s been a while since I read it, but I do agree that it’s quite a jump in quality.

My least favourite book is ironically GOF. I don’t know how it can be my favourite movie but not my favourite book, but man, that book draaaaaags. Like I said, if I re-read it now maybe I’d appreciate it more because I think the length did just put me off when I was younger. But I think that as the books continued JKR tried to bush the boundaries and see how long she could make the books, but she seemed to forget the target audience was kids and what kid wants to read a book that big? It’s too daunting for a lot of kids.

If I’m being honest (and I’ll probably be burnt on the stake by the HP fandom after saying this) I’m a huge advocate for the movies being equal (if not better) than the books. The books are good to add to your understanding of the movies and learn more about the characters or read about characters that were completely cut out of the movies, but I feel like the movies do an overall good job at depicting the story, particularly considering how limited they are with time in comparison to the books. I think people tend to jump on the bandwagon preaching about how amazing the books are and how they’re so much better than the movies, but in my opinion, it’s simply not true. HP is by far the best series I know that’s been transferred from book to screen and the only downfall I can see of the movies is that they had to cut back on the material in order to condense it down, there are some small inconsistencies due to different directors working on different movies and it restricts people’s imagination by providing visuals (which isn’t an issue if you’re like me and read the books before the movies and have a good imagination anyway). But in terms of overall quality, I don’t think the books are any better than the movies. The two just simply offer different experiences of the story and depending on the person, some will find more enjoyment in the books and others in the movies.

This isn’t me hating on the books either, because I love the story of HP and what JKR created with the HP universe, but I just don’t find her writing to be that compelling. I have tried to re-read the books as an adult, but the truth of the matter is that I just haven’t been able to get through them because they don’t hold my attention. But since I’ve finished the semester I’m determined to give them another go for old time’s sake. I might even start with GOF just to see if my opinion has changed.

Sorry for the long response by the way, I hope I didn’t bore you too much haha.

#answered #my meta #hp meta

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