Wizarding World Movies Ranked
Last week the 11th movie in the wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts the Secrets of Dumbledore hit theaters. So in today’s blog post I’m going to be ranking all 11 wizarding world movies. Let’s get started!
11. Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald: Now you have almost certainly heard me say I do not like this movie. Therefore, it’s in last place on this ranking. But for me, this is a bad thing that I’ve never liked. I found it to be an overcrowded mess of a movie with the most unfocused story of the entire franchise. They have all of these main characters that have connections to this character and that character has connections to this character. So as you move into the third act, literally everybody is there and it’s hard to remember why people are there in the first place. Now I do think that Jude Law and Johnny Depp are the best parts of this movie, but besides them there isn’t really a point of watching it.
10. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A decent start to this spin-off franchise, but one that I’ve never liked all that much. Now I don’t think it’s a bad movie by any means, but it’s certainly a mediocre one. And the big issue with this movie is there are a lot of tone issues with this movie. Where you have Newt Schamander causing trouble with his “fantastic beasts”, then the next scene is an abusive mother abusing her children. Those scenes don’t sit well side by side with each other. Now it is fun to explore this world in a different time period, and explore this world with a different set of characters. But for me, the movie as a whole has never worked for me. So it’s fine, but it is a bit forgettable for me.
NOTE: The bottom 2 I would both go negative on, but the top 9 here I will give all positive reviews.
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: This one has always kind of been my least favorite of the Harry Potter movies. And I honestly can’t really say why that is the case. There is plenty of fun and dynamic wizard action going on here. I think the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore in this movie is the best. And the third act here has plenty of great twists and turns and emotional moments with Snape and Dumledore. But this is the Harry Potter movie that has always just been there for me. It doesn’t make any big mistakes but it also doesn’t deliver on all those memorable moments, besides the finale of the movie. So overall, it’s a good movie but not a great movie.
8. Fantastic Beasts the Secrets of Dumbledore: A movie that I found to be a huge improvement over the previous movie. And if a movie was to be worse then that movie, then oh boy it would have been terrible. But here they had a much more focused movie that had a clearly end goal all leading up to a much better finale. They also do some really cool things with the action that was very cool to see because it’s more advance wizards performing magic spells and not grade school kids, and it’s something different for the franchise. It’s also populated with a fun set of new characters that are fun to be around, and played by great actors. Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, and Mads Mikkelsen being the 3 stand-outs for me. But on the negative, I feel like the Fantastic Beasts and the Grindelwald plot lines don’t really go together and feel like they are strong enough to be two separate franchises. And I don’t think they work together as one franchise. But overall, I dug this movie and thought it was easily the best of the franchise.
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: A movie that I find to be way too long but still a good movie. I like that it does flesh out the world of wizards by being introduced to two other wizarding schools. Of course this is the movie where we first see Voldemort in the flesh, and I love the finale to this movie. It's one of the best finales on this entire list. Some of the action is bigger and better than in the previous 3 movies here. So there are a bunch of things about this movie that I really enjoy. But I do think all of the characters here are way too mean to each other, and when Harry and Ron are bickering back and forth for the entire movie it sucks all of the joy out of the movie.
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: This is an interesting movie because they took the second shortest book and made the longest movie out of it. And the biggest thing that works for this movie is that it’s a very straightforward and not too complicated of a movie. And it does expand the world of Harry Potter very well. We learn more about Voldemort…obviously one of the big pieces of the franchise as a whole. Jason Isaacs and Kenneth Branagh are two great additions to this movie. But this is a movie where you can feel the run time. It’s about 45 minutes till we get to Hogwarts. So I think the movie could have been like 30-40 minutes shorter. And move at a faster pace. But in general, if this movie is at number 6 this is a great list of the movies.
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The best thing about this movie is the world building, Chris Columbus just does such a great job of capturing this sense of wonder and magic in this world. You understand the rules of this world so well, they craft Hogwarts to be a place that you want to go and visit. The score by John Williams is one of the best movie scores of all time. That scene where they are on the boats and first see Hogwarts is just a great scene overall. And the supporting cast here with Alan Rickman, Richard Harris, and Maggie Smith are all great additions to this franchise. Sure, our child actors aren’t the best there but overall this is a very good start to the franchise.
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: This is a movie that I seem to enjoy more than the average person does. On a bunch of rankings, this movie seems to be bottom tier. And honestly, I’ve never understood some of the criticisms this movie has. And I think it sets up part 2 very well, I think it sets up a great finale to this franchise. There are a bunch of great sequences in this movie, the opening chase on the brooms being a stand out. And this is one of the few movies ever to make me cry, in the third act. If you’ve seen the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about. So all in all, it’s a great part 1 to 2 parter story that does deliver some great things.
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: This is another movie that I’ve never really understood some of the hate this movie gets. I’ve always thought this was a top tier Harry Potter movie, and it’s one of the more rewatchable movies on this list. And this movie does open the world to bigger threats, and this sense of danger through-out the movie. Since Voldemort is already established in this movie he has this presence through-out the movie. It’s great to see Gary Oldman back as Sirius Black, and I love his dynamic with Harry in this movie. And this movie does deliver one of the best third acts in any of these movies. So all in all, a great edition to the Harry Potter and Wizarding World franchise.
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: This seems to be the fan favorite of the bunch, the one that 90% of people put as their number 1. And this is a great movie that took me a little while to open up on. And I like time travel movies, so getting a time travel movie set in the Harry Potter world is a HUGE positive for me. Alfonso Cuaron is one of the best directors for this franchise, and he just brings this artistic style and flare to everything going on in this movie. It builds mystery with Sirius Black and his connections to Hogwarts and how Snape is connected to all of this. So all in all, this is a great movie that I really do enjoy.
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: For me, this is the one that I’ve always loved and always thought it was my favorite of the bunch. This is also one of the most emotional movies of all time filled with emotional moments of death. And it’s one of the most satisfying ends to a movie franchise of all time. The last 1 hour and 15 minutes of this movie is basically the destruction of Hogwarts and all of it lands for me, all of it is big and epic in size. And you get that final showdown between Harry and Voldemort, the thing that for 8 movies straight have been building towards and we get the pay off to that in this movie. So easily, without question this is my favorite of the Wizarding World movies.
There you have it, my ranking of all of the 11 Wizarding World movies. Which one of these movies is your favorite? Let’s get started!
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