A collage of the famous Harry Potter series book covers. This seven book series was turned into 8 movies.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series had its final movie debut on July 15th 2011 in a two part finale that was new and unheard of in the book to movie conversion world. Up until this series most popular fiction novel’s haven’t been able to gather this kind of following-especially one to need not one but two movies to give the series a proper send off. Once this happened however it seems that every young adult fiction novelist turned movie has tried to complete their series with a 2-part ending, only they fell short and ended up looking like they were scrambling to scam as much money out of fans as possible instead. But the Harry Potter Series certainly did not let us down, each movie grew a little bit darker and drew the audience in a little bit deeper. Harry Potter became a high flying gymnast souring above while other trying to compete tumbled around it. This book series turned movie delight avoided all the pitfalls that usually trip up these attempts making it one of the most successful adaptations of all time.
Lauren Roberts
Lauren Roberts is UNH’s Movie Critic
The series began as a simple story of an unloved boy discovering the world of magic, with a few hiccups along the way. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff), a boy who was orphaned as an infant and left to suffer at the hands of his terrible uncle and aunt learns on his twelfth birthday that his is a wizard and that his is “the chosen one”, making his famous in among the magical world. Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) become his two best friends, accompanying him on his magical adventures that only become more dangerous as the series progresses. Harry, Ron and Hermione battle the presence of a growing darkness in the magical world and throughout each installment we see them evolve from inexperienced young wizards struggling to make a feather levitate to talented young adults vanquishing the ultimate evil and saving the world of magic.
Harry Potter exists in a world of fantasy and magic and therefore it lives outside the realm of the real, other series such as The Twilight Saga and The City of Bones haven’t been able to live up to the standard. In those similarly loved series the movie adaptations, as well as the books themselves haven’t been able to create the kind of chemistry found in the Harry Potter Series. The on screen connection seen between the characters these characters, as well as the necessary drive to stop Voldemort the most evil wizard to ever live is by far a better story than the awkward love triangle between a human, vampire and werewolf or the atrocious and clearly underfunded screen adaptation of The City of Bones. While these two series were equally adored The City of Bones flopped after its first movie and The Twilight Saga was laughable most fans of the books; its two-part finale just drawing out the painful end that would put the series out of its misery. The Harry Potter series blew these two away, being the only book to movie adaptation to this point that actually needed the two part ending, demonstrates how much more thought was put into this series in comparison to others that try to compete.
As extraordinary as this series is the books are very long, and the movies leave out some of the story elements that many adore.
A series as long as seven books and eight movies, while interesting also means that the books tend to be very long, and the movies by default have to leave some of it out. But comparing the Harry Potter books to any other 600 page novel would be a crime because reading these books is like being hit with an insatiable thirst that cannot be quenched and while other books would taste like the vilest vinegar the Harry Potter series tastes like the sweetest water you have ever tasted. This is because there is so much happening in this magical world, each book provides answers that you have been awaiting since book one. There are always new characters to be introduced, each with their own agenda; yet you never know who is whose side until the very end; and those who you have been lead to despise since the very beginning end up making you tear up by the end of the series. Unfortunately since there is so much it can’t all make it into a 2 hour movie, but the author and directors did an amazing job of including almost everything into these movies. Basically, the content of the Harry Potter Series is more complex and engaging than any other young adult fiction that attempts to follow in its footsteps.
The Harry Potter had an almost magical effect on its readers, drawing them in. It came to the point where people would finish the 600 page novels in 3 days with ease, and people would clamor to the theaters on the day of the premier hoping to get tickets before they sold out. This series provided both readers and audiences with the magic, and action, but most importantly it constantly left questions unanswered. While you sat there absorbing all that J.K Rowling had to offer it seemed that you were being pelted with questions and surprises and left you feeling like your heart was ripped out of your chest.
Harry, Ron and Hermione spend six years at school together, followed by one year on the run trying to stop evil; that makes seven years of friendship which as an audience makes us fall in love with these characters, but as all friends do, sometimes they fight. It is at these points when the arguing between friends seems petty that it can be harder to love them and those points in the story, but what is a plot without a little drama. Take for example book six of the series, The Half Blood Prince, during which Ron and Hermione are fighting; most Potter fans knew from the beginning that they would eventually end up together, so the chapters where these two characters sulk and argue can be quite tedious, yet they make the resolution all that much sweeter. It is essentially impossible to stay annoyed at any of these characters for too long, and it is actually impossible not to love this series.
The petty arguing between friends comes up often in these stories, as instead of pretending that they live in a complication free friendship Rowling has her characters come into conflict with each other when it seems least conducive to the plot. While this is seemingly true and can ben irritating to the audience at times it is so much more complicated, as you see when all is resolved that everything is necessary for a happy ending. Many would say that fiction for young adults, as this series tends to attract, can be filled with petty teenage drama; but this series proves that there can be more than one element to a stories plot. Instead of wondering why are they arguing over something so trivial? Wonder instead where this will lead?
The main character of this series is quite clearly Harry himself, along with many of his friends and classmates. Harry in particular we see grow; starting as a young boy who didn’t even know the magical world existed let alone that he was destined to defeat the dark lord. Over the course of the eight movies we see him tackle each of his tasks, sometimes failing at first and then succeeding. Tragically we see him loose more people from his life, and we see him struggle to understand his strange connection with the dark lord. By the final installment though he has grown into a strong young man, who not only is ready to lead people into battle but is also ready to face death in order to stop evil.
The change in Harry is a result from the influence of the people around him, mainly his two friends Ron and Hermione as well as his professors. While this change in Harry is mostly good it does bring him to a dark place at times, he has to go through a lot of darkness and evil to get to the final result. At times we see him struggle with his decisions which only made the end result that much better when we saw he come out victorious.
What attracted people to this series was the desire to know the answers to their questions, as well as rooting from Harry to win. When you start the series you have no idea where it is leading because when they start Harry is only twelve. It isn’t until the third book that it begins to take a dark turn, but that is also when it becomes almost impossible to stop reading; wanting to understand if Snape is a good guy or a bad guy, or if Harry is going to defeat Voldemort or not are powerful desires among Potter fans. While it seems that these wizard students don’t seem to get homework, or have a regular class schedule it is an engaging read that makes you overlook the inconsistencies in order to find the answers you seek.
Magic, an unworldly ability that we all wish we had and through this series we get to feel the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a world that allows people to extraordinary things but also allows people a dangerous amount of power. It seems that magic doesn’t exactly come with a morality contract and therefore as the audience of these novels we get to experience the ups and downs of the magical world and we see that not all use this power for good and the disaster that entails. This series showcases how dangerous it can be when people are allotted this kind of power, which can make you very happy you live in a world without magic. But it also displays the wonders of the magical world and what life could be like with a magic wand and a flying broomstick in hand.