Daytripper

What would you say the best "Harry Potter" movie is, so far? My pick is "The Prisoner of Azkaban".

MaxMFP

No contest, The Prisoner of Azkaban. And I don't care if it cut whole parts from the book more than the others. It's a movie not a book so save it, fanboys.

chris_sc77

1."Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (B+)
2."Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (B+)
3. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (B)
4."Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (C)
5."Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (D)

The Bus

I think probably the third but I honestly just go see the movies because I feel like I have to, not because they're especially good. Goblet of Fire wasn't bad either but the last one was absolutely abysmal.

fumanstan

I liked Goblet the best, maybe because I dug the action of all the contests. Everyone seems to like Prisoner but I didn't think it stood out that much over the others. For me, it's about equal with Chamber. Sorcerer's Stone and Order of the Phoenix bring up the rear. Phoenix just felt... like everyone was going through the motions and not particularly inspired.

tommyp007

My wife, who's a Potter fanatic, said Chamber of Secrets, so that's my vote.

starman9000

Pretty much sums up my feelings.

I'd probably rank Prisoner ahead of Goblet, but really its Prisoner, Goblet and Chamber out front. Sorcerer next with OOTP last (that one just bores me, thought I don't really know why and lack of inspiration might be it.)

BravesMG

OOTP. It was the first one that personally jumped from good kids movie to really good movie.

Superman07

Azkaban still gets my vote. I think it did the best job enveloping me into the Harry Potter world through the tone, direction, photography and music. I'd say Goblet was a close second. I'll have to watch OotP again, as I only saw it in the theater and felt disappointed.

shizawn

Sorcerer's Stone, actually. I hadn't had any real exposure to the whole Harry Potter thing before seeing the first movie, so everything was new to me. I definitely got swept up into the whole Harry Potter world and enjoyed the story, as well.

My least favorite is Azkaban, mostly because that's the only movie I had seen after reading the book. I suspect Chamber of Secrets would've been my least favorite otherwise.

Mercury&Solace

Prisoner of Azkaban
then
Goblet Of Fire

The rest are pretty forgettable.

hardercore

Azkaban for sure, but Phoenix was very solid.

Giles

Chamber of Secrets (expanded tv cut)

Groucho

I'm surprised to see The Prisoner of Azkaban in the lead. It cut whole parts from the book more than the others!

Giles

I agree, I foolishly listened to the audio book just before seeing the film, and I was disappointed.

RichC2

Yeah but this is best Harry Potter movie, not most faithful adaptation.

pinata242

I still haven't got over my fanboy disappointment in PoA at first watch. Since it is my favorite book, I was really expecting more than it gave me. I realize that's not fair as it probably is the best of the 5, but I'm still going to say that GoF pleased me the most - probably because I knew what to expect and it with the cuts (SS and CoS were nearly word-for-word adaptations so PoA was the first with major cuts) and it just flowed better than the book.

mwbmis

GoF is probably the most entertaining (so far), but I agree with the overwhelming results of the poll; PoA is the best. The David Thewlis/Dan Radcliffe scenes rank as some of the best scenes in all the films.

islandclaws

I really could pick any one of these and be ok with it, last film not withstanding (it was kinda weak). I've thought they were all pretty good, but none stands out to me.

FantasticVSDoom

This is probably the exact way I would rank them with the same scores...

I made the mistake of re-reading GOF before the film came out, and I think thats why I like it the least (plus GOF is my fav book).

arminius

I like the first the best. The character intros and setting up the world was very well done.

GradVT06

I saw the movies before reading any of the books. However, I've since bought the books and have begun reading them, and I've just gotten through the first few chapters of Order of the Phoenix. I've already rewatched a few of them since reading the first 4 books. Here's how I would rank them:

Tied:
1.) Chamber of Secrets- very narrowly tops Sorcerer's Stone at the top. I've only seen it on TV so I understand there's a longer TV version cut I've sure it's the only version I've seen. I like the contrast of HP still learning about the wizarding world as a kid in somewhat cheery Hogwards with the somewhat dark mythology about the Chamber of Secrets and learning about Tom Riddle/Voldemort. I thought last 30 minutes of the film were very well done.

AND

1.) Prisoner of Azkaban- At first I didn't like it much, but after rewatching them I found that I like this movie quite a bit. I realized when I watched it I was missing a bunch from the book that would have helped me understand what was going on better without taking leaps. It felt like significant detail was missing. But after rewatching it I think it's pretty good. The way they dealt w/ the dementors was pretty good, and I really liked Lupin's character/role in the movie. I think they did a good job in handling the time shifting as well, even if the scenes w/ Sirius/Lupin/Snape/Pettigrew and Harry/Hermione/Ron seemed too short and forced a little bit. But the score and mood worked very very well.

2.) Sorcerer's Stone- very close to CoS, I thought it was very good in welcoming the viewer to the world of Harry Potter and creating a new, fun, and adventerous world while setting up the audience to learn about about Harry and Voldemort.

******I think, perhaps, the reason I liked the first two a lot is because I saw the movies first. I think they do a much better job of adapting the books to the screen because there's less detailed story or characters cut out and the plots/length of the book are easier to translate to film*******


4.) Order of the Phoenix- I still haven't gotten to read this book yet and I know there's got to be a lot of stuff in the book that's important that didn't make it into the movie I know there's a lot of stuff in the movie that made very little sense to me. For example the blonde girl Luna. She seemed completely wacky and I had no clue where she came from or what her purpose is. And I don't get why everyone wanted the 'memory' that Harry had at the end and why it was important. However I still really enjoyed the movie and throught whoever played Umbridge did a good job. I think the use of newspaper headline flashes was effective.

5.) Goblet of Fire- I liked this the least, however I still enjoyed it. Having just finished the book a few days ago I think I can say ALL the books themselves are better than the movies, but especially w/ this one. I thought the last two tasks just looked bad. It just wasn't as enjoyable as the others, through I did like the ending of this one once Harry and Cedric went through the portkey. I understand most don't like it b/c it's a literal translation of the book to screen and it just doesn't work well, but I think they cut out WAY too much stuff to say it was the most literal translation of book to screen. Enjoyed the book much more than the movie.

Again- I saw the movies before the books and I still have the Order of the Phoenix book to read, so my perspective comes from seeing the movies first, then reading 4 of the 5 books, and having the knowledge of knowing what's in the book compared to the movie and trying to seperate the two.

Also, IMO, I don't think either choice has been that good for Dumbledore. Richard Harris just seemed a bit too old in his voice and the way he talked. And Michael Gambon after that, while not bad, just hasn't seemed that great. He just doesn't that "IT" quality I would expect of a legendary wizard and headmaster of his stature to have.

slop101

I'm huge, huge fan of director Alfonso Cuaron - so obviously, his Prisoner of Azkaban isn't just my favorite, but easily the best constructed and directed movie out of the five.

Brian Shannon

+1

I find that when a book is first brought to the screen, the realization of seeing the characters and the settings is the most exciting.

This would be the reason that LOTR Fellowship is my favorite LOTR film even though they are all great.

TheMadMonk

I like the one where Harry thinks Voldemort is back, but nobody believes him, then strange things keep happening, then Hagrid introduces the kids to a new creature, then Harry defeats Voldemort again.

Which one is that?
Oh yeah, every one.