Did You Hate Harry Potter?

Perhaps hate is a strong word. In 2002, I rented Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and found the movie lacking. It wasn’t horrible but having just seen Fellowship of the Ring([Lord of the Rings]) three times in the theater, [Harry Potter] just did not compare. I felt it to be kiddie and didn’t care for it. I believe it was the USA Today that had the article for the fourth movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where the writer claimed that this new movie was much darker and adult-themed or something to that affect. So I went and saw that one in the theater even though I had not seen the second and third movie. Once again I felt disappointed. To be fair though, had I seen the second and third movie I may have appreciated the fourth movie more than I did.

In early April of this year I decided I was going to give HP another chance. With [all 8 movies] at my disposal I thought I’d see how bad they could be. So I rewatched the first movie and was surprised. I liked it. I really can’t remember why I didn’t like it the first time. LOTR and HP are very different franchises so I’m not sure why that would have affected anything. Could it have been my age? I am 33 now and was 21 when I saw the movie the first time. As I went through all 8 movies over 4 days, I found myself entertained the entire time. Now don’t get me wrong, these are not my favorite movies. But I must admit, as I watched I felt immersed. More importantly, most of the time when I write about movies and shows, I usually have complaints or flaws I have found. What surprises me with HP though is that there was very little I could complain about. I’m a fan of most of the [Marvel] superhero movies but even those have parts where I’m laughing when I shouldn’t be or wondering, “why’d they do it that way.” With HP either the movies were just extremely well written and consistent or I was so immersed that my usual B.S. meter was sleeping.

There was one thing that did confuse me, Voldemort refers to Harry Potter’s mother as a “Muggle” and I thought the proper term for her was “Mudblood” since she uses magic but had muggle parents. I discussed that with a friend and he said I was right but Voldemort was just an extremist so anything less than 100% pure would be muggle. Makes sense since there are those in the real world with racial prejudices who deem those less than 100% to be their race are not their race and are of the other race.

I also did my best to try and blackout my memory of M. Night Shyamalan’s “[The Village]” every time someone in the movie referred to Voldemort. I did notice in the last two movies, Harry stopped referring to Voldemort by name and started calling him, “You know who.” I’m wishing I had read the books just to know if there was a reason for the change. This is not a complaint but simply a curiosity. I don’t want to spoil the plot for the former haters that may be pursuaded to see the movies but there was a connection between Voldemort and HP so maybe he was hoping not to draw attention. Perhaps realizing that things are much more serious and dangerous now than in the previous movies, Harry is afraid. I don’t know but perhaps I’ll browse a few wiki articles and see what I can learn.

So anyway, if you didn’t like Harry Potter the first time you saw it, I suggest you give it another chance. Assuming fantasy fiction is your cup of tea.