Wizarding World Final Battles Ranked
A couple days ago I was finally able to see Fantastic Beasts the Secrets Dumbledore, which I found to be a HUGE improvement over Crimes of Grindelwald, so today I’m going to be ranking the 11 final battles in the Wizarding world. Let’s get started!
NOTE: This blog post will contain SPOILERS for all of the movies on this list. So be careful what you read.
11. Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald: Since I don’t like the movie, it shouldn’t come to a shock that the finale is in last place on this list. And since the movie itself was so jumbled and messy you don’t really know what all of the characters are doing here, what their goal here is. You just have them all converging on Grindelwald who is walking around in a circle with blue fire all around him trying to get people to join him. There's no real action here that is memorable. And the final reveal about Credence here doesn’t make sense, and just comes out of nowhere. It’s shocking, but I don’t think it works at all. So easily, without question this finale comes in last place.
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Now I do enjoy this movie a good bit, it’s a very watchable movie. But the finale here is one of the weak points of the movie for me. Sure, the chess sequence is fun and memorable, but it's very short. And even Harry’s first confrontation with Voldemort is just Harry trying to touch Voldemort and kill him (not in a creepy or inappropriate way). And it’s anti-climatic and lasts only 2 minutes, the fight between the two of them isn’t very exciting. Again, I really do like this movie. I think it’s a fun movie. The finale is easily the weakest part of the movie for me.
9. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A finale that is fine, it’s like the movie itself it’s fine it’s fun enough. It’s fun to see a finale that takes place in New York City, something new and different for the franchise. It is a big sequence that looks really cool and isn’t short, it’s decent in length. But the big issue with this finale is you have the final unmasking as to who Grindelwald is, but the movie wasn’t focused on that. The movie was not a mystery focused on who Grindelwald is disguised as. And it was pretty obvious it was Colin Farrell’s character. So the moment just kind of falls flat for me, and doesn’t have any emotional weight that the movie was trying to make you feel.
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: A finale that I think is an improvement over its previous movie. Where you do get a much larger and longer finale where you have Harry battling a snake, you get more of Voldemort and what he’s been up to. I feel Harry is more of a hero in this finale and he’s not just trying to touch somebody’s face. He’s battling a snake with a sword, it’s far more epic and exciting. So all in all, another good enough finale for me. It’s not the most memorable finale on this list, and that’s ok.
7. Fantastic Beasts the Secrets of Dumbledore: Easily the best finale of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and since I enjoyed this movie the most I could enjoy the finale the most. I thought it was fun to see Newt and his friends trying to out smart Grindelwald with having multiple cases, it was fun to see. You get the fight with Dumbledore and Grindelwald which I thought was handled very well in this finale. You feel the right emotions you are supposed to feel here. What holds this one back is Credence just isn’t a super interesting character, and so the stuff with him didn’t really work for me. But besides that, I dug this finale.
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: This is probably the most frustrating finale on this list. A finale that is the big stand-out here is the death of Dobby, which is probably the movie death that I’ve cried at the most. I was balling the first time I watched this movie, and found it to be super emotional and it really works. The chase in the forest before they get to the house I think is a very cool scene that I like how no music is played. But I feel like the finale doesn’t have that moment of satisfaction, because we know part 2 is coming and so they want to save the big battle for that movie. Which means here, they have to do a transitional finale and it’s unfortunate.
5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: A super important and game changer of a finale that has so much to offer. Where you get the shocking death of Dumbledore that is so shocking and unexpected and it’s handled so well in this movie. This is also the point in time of the franchise where Snape was in his prime and was this super laid an interesting character. And it also helps that the great Alan Rickman is a legend and fantastic as Snape. And in this finale, you really do feel the sense of danger and a threat is looming over everything. So this is a great finale.
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Now I know that some people aren’t crazy about this finale because it shows us events that we’ve already seen. But for me, that’s what makes it interesting is you see events that already took place but here it’s from a different perspective, so we see things that we didn’t see before. And time travel stories lend themselves well to fun finales, as is with the case here. Getting more of Gary Oldman’s Sirius Black is fun to see and I think he has a great dynamic with Harry. I love that duo of characters. So all in all, a great finale to one of the best movies in the franchise.
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: For me, this is a finale that has so much to offer. I think it pays off the movie’s story very well by having Harry step into the leadership role and here he is leading a group of his friends into the Ministry of Magic to take down the evil threat. It’s fun to see these young wizards going on an adventure like this. You get Dumbledore joining in on the action and battling Voldemort, which is really fun to see. You also get the world learning that Voldemort is back, very important to the franchise. And the death of Sirius Black is handled very well and is emotional. So this finale has a whole lot to offer, and all of it works for me.
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: This finale I think represents a change in tone and vibe of the franchise. Where this is a finale that is much darker then the previous three finales, and feels more in tone with the finales to come. Where finally after three movies of build up, we finally get Voldemort in the flesh and he kills a child, he kills Batman! And it just establishes Voldemore as a dangerous threat in the world that needs to be stopped. And the whole sequence with the maze prior to Voldemort showing up is just as exciting and fun to watch. So this is a top tier finale in this franchise.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Come on, what did you expect? Did you really expect any other finale to be number one on this list? And this finale has so much to offer inside of it, it’s both exciting and emotional. The previous seven movies have been building up to this epic battle with Voldemort, and this movie was the payoff to all of that and the final fight between them here is epic and awesome. Every character in this movie gets a moment to shine, Neville being the big stand-out here. And as you move into the final moments here, it’s so satisfying and closes out the franchise so well. So easily, without question this is my favorite of the finales.
There you have it, my ranking of the Wizarding World final battles. Which of these final battles is your favorite? Remember, yesterday I dropped my ranking of the Wizarding World movies. Thanks for reading!
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