Little can be said about the Harry Potter films that has not gotten said before. We know the early installments overflow millennial souls with nostalgia. We know they conjure vivid memories of midnight book releases and film premieres, where devoted fans united under their love of the boy wizard and his many brushes with agonizing death at the hands of a xenophobic psychopath. We know they have allowed us to reflect on our childhood while forcing us to accept our age. The adorable youngins we once knew have gone full-frontal on stage, grown full beards, had children, and traveled the globe as advisors on gender equality and foreign policy.

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We also know that the films literally became darker as they went along. A barcode of every frame in the franchise is pitch black by the series’ end. The subject matter got mishandled, the themes lost in the great shuffle of adaptation, and lapses in character development and narrative consistency defined the franchise as much as the international awe it inspired.

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Still, there is no denying the role Harry Potter has played in our lives, from the furor that swept the globe upon the first novel’s release in 1997, to the premiere of the first film in 2001, to the final page of the final book in 2007 to the epilogue of the last film four years later. Despite Generation Z’s insistence on expanding its relevance past its best-by date and J.K. Rowling’s efforts to sink the ship she built and captained, the wizarding world of Harry Potter still wallops millions of people in the nostalgia bone. No number of silly game shows or senseless revelations can strip its cultural impact. No amount of lazy efforts to expand upon the universe changes the generality of our sentiments. 

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We love Potter, and we always will. 

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Unfortunately, unlike the life Harry gets to live after his defeat of Lord Voldemort in the final book, all was not always well with the franchise. We must excise the demons of resentment while celebrating our love for the peaks the franchise reached. 

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So here it is, the definitive ranking of every Harry Potter film.

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‍8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, 2011

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The second part of the franchise's “epic” conclusion is an objective failure. As a conclusion to a decade-long pop culture superpower, it offers almost no spectacle and zero emotional resonance. As a token of gratitude to the worldwide smash source material, it bastardizes the characterization, cuts out iconic moments in favor of overdrawn, empty sequences, or fails to do justice to the ones it includes. As a testament to artistic integrity where devotion to the craft trumps fatigue, it flounders. In no way, shape, or form does the final film earn its place as the most critically acclaimed, and so the franchise goes out not with a bang, but with a slow dissolve into floating tissue paper.

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‍7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009

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The Half-Blood Prince wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be equal parts cheeky and dreary. It wants to convince us of narrative threads that have zero basis (like an inexplicable romance between Harry and his best friend’s sister, the laziest trope in the book) and introduce pivotal figures or events that feel like whispers in the wind. We can barely forgive how glaringly they betray the films’ canon, like turning the Room of Requirement from a place that “equips itself to suit the seeker’s needs” to a glorified storage closet, but we cannot forgive how poorly-thought-out the film is as a whole. It believes we need much more content than we do for an installment that lacks momentum. Throw in the fuzzy cinematography and characters acting out of sorts, and you have a movie that signals just how little everyone cared down the home stretch.

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5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2005

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The Goblet of Fire has more potential than any other Potter flick. It brings in a thrilling tournament rife with spectacle and danger. It grants a payoff for three years of building to the arrival of Lord Voldemort. It surges our heroes straight into the throes of adolescence, forcing them to grapple with raging hormones and the resulting petty dramas. As that heaping mass of spectacular danger rewarding our patience for a showdown between good and evil? Meh. As a charming, humorous ode to the troubles of young love, teetering friendships, and stupid haircuts that hits us all right in the puberty? Fantastic.

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5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2007

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We must give credit where credit is due: this is the last movie that makes any genuine effort to be fun. We appreciate trying something new, injecting a quicker pace and fresh humor alongside unique visual tricks. It's enough to carry the movie quite a way and somewhat compensate for reducing the longest book into the shortest film. The real issue isn't it's not being a faultless adaptation, but the lack of anything particularly outstanding about it. It's fun enough, well-paced enough, well-acted enough, and engrossing enough, but it's not blowing you away in any department.

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4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002

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The second film understandably has the worst reputation. It’s overlong, promising us a thrilling conclusion in the titular home of Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk and taking an eternity to get there. It sidelines the most interesting of the trio, forcing the narrative burden entirely on Harry and giving us an overdose of typical Ron uselessness. It also takes a hard right into a dark story of horrifying consequences. The characters we care for seem helpless; the only means to rectify the horror are sacrifices only the bravest can make. A children’s film that feels exactly as advertised while daring to be this terrifying (and mostly pulling it off) deserves a lot of credit.

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3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, 2010

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After nearly a decade of thrilling adventures and epic quests, Harry, Ron, and Hermione get forced into circumstances with higher stakes than ever. The resulting drama is character-driven, and the first part of the series’ finale smartly lets the treacherous locket force tangible disputes to the surface, allowing the relationships to get tested organically. The growth our heroes display feels earned, the broken bonds are just as feasible as the strides taken to mend them, and everyone gets an opportunity to thrive, fail, fight, and feel.

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2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2001

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Everything for which critics chastised The Sorcerer’s Stone is what has granted it such a lasting cultural impression. John Williams’ iconic score bashes us over the head for 152 minutes. The three leading actors are charismatic as often as it feels they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. The supporting cast is nothing more than cardboard cutouts, from the snobby, rich kid menace to the wise sage dropping wisdom from the headmaster's seat. It is unwilling to forge its own identity, adhering to the novel’s narrative and tone so religiously the experience sometimes feels more like a look inside the mind of J.K. Rowling than watching an actual film. 

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We love all of it.

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Bash us over the head. Fumble as often as you thrive. Do nothing but be a vague idea of something. Refuse to be unique. It’s the only way to drown us in magic. Everything is sugary and syrupy and manipulative and contrived, but that’s what makes it so natural. It’s a kids film adapted from a kids novel about a magical boy in a magical world. It should feel contrived. Few films are this fun while being so formal, this restrained while being so regal. It’s a thrilling magical mystery ride, and none of the movies will ever inspire such nostalgia.

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1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004

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It speaks poorly of J.K. Rowling’s vision that the best film has nothing to do with Lord Voldemort. The overarching narrative of the Potter franchise is not nearly as gripping as its parts suggest. We want to see it happen, but the story is strongest when it dives deepest into its characters. The Prisoner of Azkaban lets us watch Harry, Ron, and Hermione take their first step into maturation, forced to truly make decisions at a time when emotions begin clouding their judgment. It grants the film a certain purity as Harry slowly unravels the truth about his parents’ death and the man deemed responsible. Alfonso Cuaron’s effort slashes what needs to be slashed, injects what needs to be injected, balances the wizarding world of Harry Potter with the reality of becoming a young adult and grappling with a past that becomes more muddied the clearer it becomes. With the supernatural additions sprinkled along the way, the third film is the best of the series - and it's not close.