The Harry Potter prequel could have explored a whole new corner of the wondrous world Rowling once built. Some critics preferred the quiet, contemplative moments spent in the forest during Deathly Hallows, Part 1, while others favor the action-packed battles of Deathly Hallows, Part 2.įantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald embodies everything wrong with the continued expansion of the H arry Potter universe. Movie fans may love the cinematography of Half-Blood Prince, while book loyalists take umbrage with director David Yates’ adaptation choices.

Some fans prefer the glee of those first movies, while others trend towards the darker entries later in the franchise. Look up fan polls and critics’ rankings, and you’ll find there’s no consensus view on how the original eight films compare. But the older films are surprisingly solid. True, the awful new Fantastic Beasts movies will easily land at the bottom of any Potter fan’s list (spoiler alert). The Harry Potter films prove more difficult to rank. But for the most part, every franchise has good movies and bad movies, and it’s easy to divide films into those two buckets.

Most Star Wars diehards will tell you Empire Strikes Back is great, and Phantom Menace sucks Indiana Jones fans will assure you that none of the sequels lived up to Raiders of the Lost Ark and anyone who argues Dark Knight isn’t the best of the Batman movies is just trying to be contrarian. Typically, fans agree on favorites in a film series. And in my opinion nobody can touch that.” For many, the annual rewatch remains a tradition, albeit a fraught one.Īnd so, we find ourselves reassessing these adaptations, all eight of which are streaming on both Peacock and HBO Max as of Oct. In an open letter for the Trevor Project, he wrote, “If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe … if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual … then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. Even Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, who spoke out against Rowling’s anti-trans tweets, has wrestled with whether the story is irredeemably tarnished.

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