What do I think of Harry Potter?

~Harry Potter~

My opinion of Harry Potter: The books vs The Movies

A basic rundown of my thought of the books and the movies and of how they compare to one another. I would love to hear what questions you have to test my knowledge of Harry Potter, or maybe there's something you've seen in the movies that you didn't understand, and you haven't read the books? Ask away my dear friends! I am as curious as you all are to see how much I know about Harry Potter ;-D

      I absolutely love the entire series of a Harry Potter, both the books and the movies, each in their own respect. I think it is, without a doubt, one of the most well written series of all time. I think that J. K. Rowling accomplished something very, very few have or could-she created a written work of art that people of all ages and backgrounds and walks of life could enjoy, and share with one another!
     I have heard many stories of multiple generations in a family being able to discuss this series, children can read and enjoy this series and talk to their parents AND their grand parents about it! That is a remarkable feat indeed!

   Now, as far as how I feel about the movies vs the books: I feel that movies one through three were the closest to the books.
    In years one, two & three, pretty much everything that happened in the movie was something that occurred in the book with a few exceptions where minor details of the story needed to be changed due to a small, somewhat inconsequential detail being left out to trim some time off the movie length.   

     The few bits they left out of the books in order to keep the movies at a reasonable viewing length weren't large enough to change the enjoyment of the movies much from the enjoyment of the books.

As for movies four through six, I have a slightly different opinion. I think that years four through six should have been two movies each as well. I think that the things they chose to leave out of Years four, five & six were much bigger parts of the story and affected how it was portrayed on the big screen.

   That being said, I still greatly enjoyed The Goblet of Fire & the Order of The Phoenix, do I think there were things that should have been included in the film-yes! Some very big things! But at least everything that was in the movie was, for the most part, stuff that happened in the books-again with the exception of having to change bits of the story to make up for details left out in each movie and the previous ones leading up to it.

    Now--for year six, The Half Blood Prince-that! Was the first movie that actually upset me as far as the differences between the movies and the books! I really felt like there could have been a better choice of scenes removed vs scenes chosen to leave in.
    I also think that the movie focused more on the Harry & Ginny relationship in a much more 'childish' manner than it was portrayed in the book. I think in the movie they really made a big deal out of that when in the book I felt like it was more of a blissful side story to all of the truly important much larger, scarier things  that were going on around them.

    I was greatly disappointed that they chose to leave the fight scene out of the end! The major fight at Hogwarts! I think that was a huge part of the book and one of my favorite scenes and I think it should have been left in the movie.
 
 Also, Dumbledore should never have apparated with Harry from the Hogwarts castle! I'm sorry, but those of you who have read the books know exactly what I mean! I don't think they should have changed something like that. 

    For year seven, movies seven & eight, I think they were much the same as four and five in comparison to the books, I think there were bits I'd rather they had left in but I still greatly enjoyed them as they were.
    I again felt like there were things that could have been closer to the details in the book, that there were things they changed with no valid reason-when making a film, I understand the need to make it of reasonable viewing length, and therefore that is why they have to pull some stuff out.


   But seriously, what harm would it have done to make Slytherin's locket heart shaped instead? How does changing the shape of the locket improve the movie? Stuff like that. 

  Feel free to post a question and ask what I think of particular bits of the movies/books! Also, let me know what you thought of each of these things!
   I will be watching all of the movies again in the next few weeks to brush up and will probably have posts here and there as certain things come to me that were some of my pet peeves individually with each movie vs book :) 

    For Matt & I's one year anniversary of meeting, he bought me the Harry Potters Wizards Collection! I had the movies on DVD but not the special version of each, it was just one box set of all of them together so this was a wonderful gift and all of the extras that came with it were just amazing!! You can see in the pics through out my post and below of the wonderful things this amazing collection included!