Have the first Harry Potter on because I haven’t seen any of these in a while and John Hurt is punching so far above everyone else’s weight in his one scene it’s unreal.

Doesn’t help that Columbus was apparently directing Radcliffe to emulate a wooden plank.

Williams went hard af for this score though. Can’t deny that.

These adult dark wizards, supposedly the best in the game, continually getting punked by literal children. Embarrassing.

Holy shit Chamber of Secrets is 2 hours and 54 minutes????

Chamber is the only Harry Potter film with an A+ cinemascore lol

One thing these first movies get mostly right is the casting though. Jason Isaacs in particular in this one.

Speaking of good casting,

Alright back at this. There is over an hour left in this thing.

I know this is a kid series but man the wizarding world is just full of the dumbest motherfuckers alive

Voldemort’s plan a real first draft idea in this. Guess it sorta makes more sense with the horcrux stuff later but still feels like a b squad could’ve dealt with this.

Also the “I am Lord Voldemort” thing still laugh out loud dumb.

Long movie. Needed more of this energy.

Will say that while the CG in these first two has not always held up, the practical effects have a hokey charm that I don’t recall in the latter films and like a lot. Perhaps it’s the effects combined with the warmer lighting that gives the whole thing a late 80s/early 90s feel.

Now on to the one inspired by the director’s imagined inner life of his old caretaker or whatever

It’s immediately striking how different this one looks simply because the color timing has been adjusted to be so much cooler than the previous two (also kinda always thought that opening was a masturbation joke)

Wild to think now they’d let the style of these shift so much. It settles into the house style the Wizard movies still use but nowadays they all would’ve been locked into the same aesthetic from the jump.

Wonder what happened between the second and third year that sent robes so drastically out of style. Fashion is so fickle.

w/r/t dementors https://twitter.com/coopercooperco/status/1344380861031055360

Amazing how much more dynamic this one is. Sometimes maybe a bit too showy but especially after Chamber just sort of plodding along this one feels incredibly energetic

The werewolf change is some good shit. The moon’s lighting and the scene staging is so artificial but in a way that’s more striking than it has any right to be.

I know it breaks the series completely but the time turner shit is probably the best plotting in the whole run. Extremely fun.

lmao forgot it ends on this shit

Nothing matters so time for Goblet of Fire, which I haven’t watched in full since I saw it in theaters & thought it was such a poorly edited, incoherent mess that I skipped the next few movies at release BUT also features the cast at their most “getting into the Libertines” looks

Death Eaters have intense KKK costume design in the opening here. Did that stick around?

w/r/t the triwizard tournament https://twitter.com/coopercooperco/status/1344380861031055360

I like angry/frustrated Dumbeldore tbh.

So stupid that they’re all just like “Well the Cup has spoken. We must abide by it.” Like what’s the cup gonna do if Harry doesn’t compete? Change colors?

Cinematic parallels

This series’ biggest cultural impact on my brain is this moment

Recalling now that in the book I think Crouch Sr was keeping his son underneath an invisibility cloak or something?

If you remade Goblet of Fire now, you’d have to play up the Durmstrang angle as a Russiagate analogy. Too potent not to.

Fucking weirds me out that Voldemort is just walking around this graveyard barefoot. Real evil shit

I’ve abandoned my boy! I’ve abandoned my child!

Dumbledore delivering a rousing speech to the whole school about friendship that sorta sidesteps how the extramural volleyball league he let start in the school murdered a student and resulted in the return of Wizard Hitler. Honestly his L’s are almost up there with Yoda.

Def feel like that one was p uneven but the finish is strong. Anyways, time for a new director who saw those barefoot scenes in the graveyard and dared to imagine “What if Voldemort read GQ”

Order of the Phoenix immediately opening with a thesis statement from new director David Yates and brother, it’s a doozy.

Wondering now which of these wizards voted Leave vs Remain. This thought will probably over take most of my viewing

The Luna introduction always felt odd to me because it feels like everyone should know everyone at this point. But guess they gotta add that platinum blonde to the mix. It’s the times after all.

Umbridge character such a bizarre case of Rowling writing herself into the text and not even realizing it.