Rank all the Harry Potter Movies

[OSR stands with Israel]

My ranking would be :


1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
9. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
10. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

[Rand]

1. Every other movie ever made
2. TV test patterns
3. A blank screen
4. Holocaust documentaries
5. Any Harry Potter movie

[Left Wing]

Watched them recently so I can remember them pretty well right now, here’s my list from worst to best:

Fantastic Beast and the Crimes of Grindewald
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Prisoner of Azkaban is just head and shoulders above the rest, and if it weren’t for him directing Children of Men instead, I would say Alfonso Cuaron should have done all of them. The other 6 movies I enjoy quite a bit, though I think Goblet of Fire badly handled the source material (which I consider the best book). The Fantastic Beasts movies are just... bad, especially the second one.

[HisGrace]

1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Half Blood Prince
3. Deathly Hallows part I
4. Deathly Hallows Part II
5. Order of the Phoenix
6. Sorcerer's Stone
7. Goblet of Fire
8. Chamber of Secrets

Never ready the books, just watched through the movies once. Not a huge fan although I did like Prisoner of Azkaban due to the classic gothic horror aesthetic and Gary Oldman acting his ass off in a movie that didn't really deserve it.

[UWS]

1. Order of the Phoenix
2. Half Blood Prince
3. Deatlhy Hallows Part 2
4. Chamber of Secrets
5. Sorcerer's Stone
6. Goblet of Fire
7. Deathly Hallows Part 1
8. Prisoner of Azkaban

[Schiff for Senate]

Watched them recently so I can remember them pretty well right now, here’s my list from worst to best:

Fantastic Beast and the Crimes of Grindewald
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Prisoner of Azkaban is just head and shoulders above the rest, and if it weren’t for him directing Children of Men instead, I would say Alfonso Cuaron should have done all of them. The other 6 movies I enjoy quite a bit, though I think Goblet of Fire badly handled the source material (which I consider the best book). The Fantastic Beasts movies are just... bad, especially the second one.

I agree completely with you on this. Goblet of Fire (the movie) had so much potential - the book was by far the best - but director Mike Newell turned it into a mediocrity of a movie. (He didn't even read the book before directing the movie, citing its length!)

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Sorcerer’s Stone
3. Deathly Hallows Part 2
4. Chamber of Secrets
5. Half-Blood Prince
6. Deathly Hallows Part 1
7. Crimes of Grindelwald
8. Goblet of Fire
9. Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them
10. Order of the Phoenix

PoA is the best book and best movie. SS & CoS were the most faithfully adapted. DHp2 was the most cathartic and emotional to watch, so it ranks highly. HBP kinda lost a lot of its emotional impact and storyline by focusing too much on teen angst and dropping the Voldemort origin subplot. DHp1 was just boring. I enjoyed Crimes of Grindelwald purely due to Johnny Depp and Jude Law’s performances, but the first one was just bland. GoF & OotP were the longest books but shortest movies somehow. The directors for those two films completely dropped the ball and ruined my second favorite book in the series (OotP).

[Alben Barkley]

1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Order of the Phoenix
3. Deathly Hallows Part 2
4. Sorcerer's Stone
5. Half-Blood Prince
6. Goblet of Fire
7. Chamber of Secrets
8. Deathly Hallows Part 1

I tried to watch the first Fantastic Beasts movie twice and fell asleep both times. Never bothered with the second.

[Crumpets]

For context, I grew up with Harry Potter as a huge part of my life, have read the books many, many times, seen most of the movies many, many times, and usually went to them on opening night if not the midnight showing. However, I think a combination of the later movies just being darker and just not as digestible as the earlier ones, I've probably only seen movies 6-8 a couple times and don't remember them nearly as well as the earlier movies.

1. Chamber of Secrets - This is a criminally underrated movie and seeing it so low on other people's lists only hardens my resolve to put it at number one. Some critic who I'm forgetting wrote that the Harry Potter series starts out as fantasy and ends as horror. CoS is really kind of a prologue to HBP, which is my favorite book in the series and squarely a horror novel, and it has a good mixture of both elements. While it's pretty easy to make PG-13 YA horror movies, it's much harder to make a good PG aimed-at-kids-and-pre-teens horror movie. Really CoS is the only good example I can think of, excluding comedy-horror movies like Gremlins. This was the movie I watched most recently, and, even as the dreamy-eyed innocence that was my love for Harry Potter has worn off with "recent events," it still totally holds up in my mind.

2. Goblet of Fire - The scenes leading up to the Yule Ball alone make this sit towards the top of this list, but it's also just a good mix of all the genres that make Harry Potter a great series.

3. Sorcerer's Stone - The one that makes everybody cry, and for good reason. This is one of my go-to long plane ride movies, because I don't know if any book or movie does the "crossing of the threshold" trope better, at least for me personally. You feel swept away to another world every single time you watch it or read it. Only reason I didn't put it at 1 or 2 on the list is just because it is definitely the most "kidsy" movie of the lot, although that's saying something when it has a scene of a guy drinking blood from a dead unicorn.

4. Prisoner of Azkaban - I feel like PoA is the most polarizing book in the series among the fans, and I kind of like that they made a movie that would be equally polarizing by just going all-out weird for a lot of it. PoA is probably my least favorite book of the series (although I still think it's overall a good book and I've read it seven times), so a lot of the faults I have with a movie come from the same issues I had with the book. I know others feel differently though.

5. Order of the Phoenix - Not much to say about it. It was good. They made Umbridge satisfactorily awful, which is a steep challenge.

6. Half Blood Prince - It was fine, but this is still one of my all-time favorite books and I thought they could have done a bit more to even out the tone of the movie. They really go all-in on the dreary aesthetic after the fifth movie, even in scenes which are outright comedy scenes. The book was pretty masterful at switching between the two, and I just don't think the movie lives up.

7. Deathly Hallows I - The strength in this movie is how it builds tension and gets through a lot of plot reasonably clearly. Not exactly a great movie for re-watching though, or a fun one for a Harry Potter movie night.

8. Deathly Hallows II - I legit barely remember this movie.

I'm still kind of trying to figure out the Fantastic Beasts series. I really enjoyed watching both movies in the theater, but they're not terribly re-watchable compared to the Harry Potter series. And now that Johnny Depp left the production, I think others too, all the controversy surrounding JK Rowling, and the massive delays on the third movie, it's really hard to see how they can pull something out here.

Although I have many ideas. (Warner Bros., call me!)

[Mr. Smith]

Finally, Crumpets gets it! Since I'm bored and this series,on the whole, for better or worse, did have a say in my childhood, I'll put my cents in for this. I'll be back on Saturday for THE BIG PALOOZA!

Anyway, from worst to best.

8. Half-Blood Prince: This was already the worst book to me, by objective measures, so most of my objections come from the material itself, but even with that, the same director and writer who did my favorite of these put the focus on the worst aspects of even that, and they added an unnecessary scene. What's more, it's so dreary looking at the same time. I could say it was well adapted, but that's not a compliment.

7. Goblet of Fire: In contrast to the above, this was my favorite book, so it really hurt to see what they did here. The acting was far too melodramatic, the big moments like the Yule Ball felt too plain, the pacing was too quick, and the writer continued to simp for Hermione at the expense of Ron. The climax was well done, I'll give it that.  Ultimately,  this one hurt, and still does. I think this is the one that Alfonso Cuaron should have directed...that or just skip straight to Yates.

6. Prisoner of Azkaban: This one is by far the most confusing. Ultimately, I think the direction was simply inappropriate, as opposed to bad. I cannot deny the improved performances and sets though compared to predecessors. Chris Columbus should've stayed on for this one and it should've played more into the mystery aspect. Ultimately, it's the general reaction and snooty critics [and all red avvies except Crumpets too, but maybe I repeat myself] fawning over it that draws my reaction rather than the actual choices made. I also can't forgive it for being the first movie where the writer blatantly started to shill Hermione at the expense of everyone else..but especially Ron. Great casting though!

5.  Deathly Hallows, Part I: This was actually better than the book, which was initially my least favorite. It suffers from the same pacing issues the book did, but the performances help out immensely. It's the only one not set at Hogwarts and I think it's a good example of a travel movie...but it does dip into Harry x Hermione shipping a bit much.

4. Deathly Hallows, Part II: Better than the book, once again. This one was more pure catharsis than really anything else, but it served to allow the adventure to be an adventure as opposed to the terrible effect the book had where it was all jumbled. The music was sh^%, and I think Ralph Fiennes was a little too encouraged to go all out for Voldemort

3. Chamber of Secrets: Used to be my favorite movie, but even I admit the pacing is a bit too long and the sets are a bit hokey. I can't add anything here that Crumpets hasn't already articulated or can't be said in the next entry...because unfortunately, this one tends to get overlooked for being so "samey" to the first one, which I liked as a kid, but it doesn't hold perfectly so much now.

2. Philosopher's Stone: Better than the book once again, mostly because it doesn't have the weird Roald Dahl writing in it...as it's a movie. This one sets up everything, this one really gets the magic down like almost none of the others, because it's just so earnest. The problem is the acting, which has inexperience matched with discomfort on it. Still the direction can't be denied as simply fantastic, the music is still the most iconic you can get. This one comes on at Christmas for a reason. Chris Columbus was the perfect choice for this one.

1. Order of the Phoenix: Second favorite book, but probably the best written book by an objective standard, and it's adapted just as perfectly both by word and feel. Perfect casting for Umbridge and Luna...not easy to do. By far the best performances in the whole series. Nothing feels too long or short...which is impressive for the run time! The fight in the Ministry is probably the most iconic scene in the whole series.

[nicholas.slaydon]

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prine
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

[ultraviolet]

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Sorcerer’s Stone
3. Chamber of Secrets
4. Half Blood Prince
5. DHP2
6. DHP1
^All good

v All bad
7. Prisoner of Azkaban
8. Order of the Phoenix

[Alben Barkley]

3. Sorcerer's Stone - The one that makes everybody cry, and for good reason. This is one of my go-to long plane ride movies, because I don't know if any book or movie does the "crossing of the threshold" trope better, at least for me personally. You feel swept away to another world every single time you watch it or read it. Only reason I didn't put it at 1 or 2 on the list is just because it is definitely the most "kidsy" movie of the lot, although that's saying something when it has a scene of a guy drinking blood from a dead unicorn.

Original Star Wars does it for me, in fact it seems it fills a similar role for me as Sorcerer's Stone does for you. I could watch it over and over again. I think it captures that feeling of immersing yourself in another world better than any other movie and that was key to its magic. But it could be a generational thing as Harry Potter seems to do the same trick a little better for people slightly younger than myself. I was actually about the same age as Harry/Daniel Radcliffe when the first movie came out though, and about the same age Harry was supposed to be when the last book came out too for that matter. So I aged right alongside those books/movies. Was still more of a Star Wars kid though. Maybe because I saw it first when I was way younger and it just hit the spot more for me. Not that I didn't like Harry Potter, I did, but it seems to mean a bit more to people a little younger than me.

[The Dowager Mod]

1. Most Luna
8. Least Luna