While they were generally well-received, the Harry Potter movies didn’t do justice to some of the major scenes from the book, with results that angered readers. The Harry Potter books are all very detailed, with numerous subplots and supporting character backstories that didn’t make it into the movies. Due to time constraints, the Harry Potter movies rush through certain scenes that try to awkwardly accomplish the same effect in only a few lines.
|
Title |
Book release date |
Movie release date |
|---|---|---|
|
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone) |
1997 |
2001 |
|
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
1998 |
2002 |
|
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
1999 |
2004 |
|
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
2000 |
2005 |
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
2003 |
2007 |
|
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
2005 |
2009 |
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
2007 |
2010 & 2011 |
On the other hand, the Harry Potter movies change some things from the books for dramatic effect, which is necessary with the medium change but also completely contradicts the point of some book scenes. There are too many Harry Potter moments that were better in the books, with some of the movies struggling to hold up today. What can be said for the Harry Potter TV show reboot is that it will have more screen time to give some plot points the additional exposition they really need.
10 Harry Breaks The Elder Wand
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Harry’s wand being broken during the fight with Nagini is a strangely devastating moment and not just because of its built-in defense against Voldemort. Harry has been using the wand containing Dumbledore’s phoenix Fawkes’ tail feather since first year, and the readers are as attached to it as he is. Luckily, Harry acquires the Elder Wand, which is powerful enough to fix broken wands that are typically beyond saving. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his old wand.
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This moment is cut out from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Harry breaks the Elder Wand and throws it off the bridge outside Hogwarts, shocking Ron and Hermione. Harry fixing his old wand is almost a consolation prize after the devastation of the Battle of Hogwarts that fans truly missed. Additionally, it seems contradictory that the Elder Wand is that easy to get rid of; the conclusion in the book that Harry will have to die of natural causes to break its power is more weighty.
9 Death Eater Attack On The Burrow
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the best Harry Potter book precisely because it has less action and more thematic material, namely through Voldemort’s backstory. However, this is understandably difficult to adapt into a movie that needs to keep the audience engaged with strong pacing. The filmmakers probably thought the new action sequence of the attack on the Burrow would improve the movie’s pacing, as well as give the Death Eater characters more screen time.
However, the consensus among fans is that the attack, while visually interesting and saddening, was completely unnecessary. The incident also creates some plot holes regarding the security of the Burrow. By the time of the sixth and seventh books, the Weasleys’ home is always heavily protected by numerous enchantments. Not only does this movie suggest the Death Eaters can show up at the Burrow wherever they want, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 implies that the Burrow is warded, until the Ministry of Magic falls, making it more confusing.
8 The Shrieking Shack
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban tries to cram the two major scenes of exposition about Sirius’ past with the Potters into a few sentences. The first is Harry overhearing the adults’ conversation at the Three Broomsticks; the second is Sirius and Remus’ clarification in the Shrieking Shack. Both conversations move unreasonably fast, with no mention made of the Fidelius Charm and how it works. It treads the same ground as the Burrow issue, which is when and how Voldemort can just show up at people’s houses.
The Shrieking Shack is also where Hermione famously gets one of Ron’s best lines.
Fans mock some of this dialogue in Prisoner of Azkaban, such as Harry shouting “He was their friend!” as if Ron and Hermione have any idea what he is talking about. The Shrieking Shack is also where Hermione famously gets one of Ron’s best lines. The movie also never clarifies Harry’s father’s connection to the Marauder’s Map. Even if nothing else works out in the TV show, it will at least have the time for all the necessary exposition about this storyline.
7 Harry & Voldemort Flying
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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There are some narrative parallels between Harry and Voldemort in the books, but Harry’s actual fear about this is old news by the final installment. Maybe the filmmakers were trying to bring this theme back with the flying scene, but the result is just too goofy for it to have any impact. At this point, no one is worried about the implications of Harry and Voldemort both being orphans or both being able to talk to snakes; all that matters is ending the war.
Then there is the actual scene, which tries too hard to be dramatic. Harry is rushing through the explanation about the Elder Wand which doesn’t really matter, before grabbing Voldemort and launching them both out of the tower (for some reason). They fly around for a little bit, both screaming, during which their faces briefly mesh together. The whole thing is the epitome of cringe-worthy, something most Harry Potter fans can agree on.
6 The Quidditch World Cup
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire features a beautiful rendition of the stadium used for the Quidditch World Cup. The sequence is visually amazing and captures the feeling of this being the ultimate Wizarding World event, hyping people up to watch the match. Except for the movie cuts away to after the match just as it is starting, with only a brief comment referring to the Irish team’s victory. This is regarded as a bit anti-climactic and robbing fans of one of the biggest potential spectacles.
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Admittedly, Goblet of Fire has a lot to fit into its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, with several action sequences that are essentially sporting events within the story. This is in addition to the underlying plot of Voldemort planning his return, which also only gets a short explanation before Barty Crouch Jr. completely disappears from the movie franchise. In retrospect, the briefly discussed plan to split Goblet of Fire into two movies might have been worthwhile (via CBR).
5 Beauxbatons & Durmstrang Introduction
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
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In the book, it is made explicit that Beaxubatons and Durmstrang are both co-ed magical schools like Hogwarts. A select number of students from each school come to Hogwarts to put their names forward for the Triwizard Tournament, boys and girls among each group. The movie only shows female students from Beaxubatons and male students from Durmstrang, strongly implying that they are gendered institutions. In addition to this, both of their presentations of magic upon their arrival are highly gender-stereotyped performances.
This scene gets some criticism for the pseudo-musical numbers just being weird, but they actually make some sense in the context of the books. Goblet of Fire also mentions that the rival magical schools tend to show off whenever they are together, motivating the showy displays of magic. However, the two entrances in the movie are cloyingly feminine and masculine, and it’s not as if either of these countries doesn’t have potential magical students of the opposite gender.
4 Snape’s Memories Cut Out Why His Friendship With Lily Ended
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Snape’s redemption is a contentious subject in the Harry Potter fandom solely based on the book material. The prevailing opinion is that Harry naming his second son after Snape glosses over Snape’s abuse of his students and his toxic relationship with Lily. Like many other scenes in the movies, the sequence of Snape’s memories which reveal his childhood friendship with Lily are squashed down to a montage that hopes to convey the basic plot points and some semblance of emotion.
However, in the process, it omits why Lily ended the friendship in their fifth year. After years of siding with future Death Eaters and abusing other students of Muggle descent, Snape publicly called Lily “Mudblood.” Lily realized that Snape inherently acted as though she was a lesser person and stopped speaking to him. Snape’s relationship with Lily is more of an obsession, something the books fail to make clear and the movies even more so.
3 Ginny & Harry’s “Shoelace Scene”
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
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Ginny’s character is generally maligned by the movies, as she is reduced from a feisty, brave young woman and an interesting character in her own right to a passive love interest. No scene between her and Harry is made fun of more than the “shoelace scene,” with Ginny noticing that Harry’s shoelace is untied and fixing herself, moments before the attack on the Burrow. It tries to imply some kind of romantic tension and tenderness, but it would have been more true to the books if Ginny had just started making fun of Harry.
Nearly all of Harry and Ginny’s scenes try to suggest flirting through mundane interactions, all coming across as flat and cheesy.
Nearly all of Harry and Ginny’s scenes try to suggest flirting through mundane interactions, coming across as flat and cheesy. Their first kiss scene in the Room of Requirement is supposed to be ethereal, but it is again completely out of character for Ginny. Ginny needs actual dialogue to support the characterization that Harry is attracted to, and to make their dynamic feel organic and like real people falling in love.
2 Voldemort’s Death
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
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Voldemort dissolving into bits of paper was also probably done for dramatic effect. The filmmakers likely wanted something more climatic than the villain simply dropping dead to reward the audience for sticking with the series for years. However, Voldemort’s death including a corpse in the aftermath says even more. He doesn’t need or deserve to be characterized as otherworldly; in the end, he is just a man who amassed a lot of power and killed a lot of people, and everyone is grateful he is dead.
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Voldemort’s movie death is also somewhat confusing regarding what effect the Horcruxes had on his physical form and how he was remade when he was once more of a spirit who attached himself to the back of Quirrell’s head. Needless to say, the theatricality of the movie wasn’t received well. Showing an actual body would have been disturbing, but also oddly reassuring about the conflict being over.
1 Dumbledore Gets Mad At Harry
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
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Dumbledore’s movie reaction to Harry being selected as a Triwizard champion is possibly the most memed moment of the entire series. At least with time, this discrepancy on the part of the movie has become hilarious. The book explicitly says that Dumbledore “calmly” asked Harry if he had submitted himself for consideration, true to Dumbledore’s usual character and how he usually trusts trustworthy students. This is followed by a long conversation among the adults about the rules of the tournament.
The movie tries to raise tension, with nearly all the adults shouting at each other, including Dumbledore. The result is that it also rushes through why Harry has to compete, which is already flimsy reasoning in the book. Hopefully for the franchise, the next time someone adapts Harry Potter, they will avoid these same oft-made fun of moments. However, given how fantasy adaptations usually go, they will probably prompt some new memes at the same time.
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Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students’ time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.
Created by J.K. Rowling First Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone First TV Show Harry Potter Cast Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Tom Felton , Alan Rickman , Matthew Lewis , Bonnie Wright , Evanna Lynch , Maggie Smith , Michael Gambon , Richard Harris , Ralph Fiennes , Helena Bonham Carter , Alfred Enoch , Harry Melling , Gary Oldman , Robert Pattinson , Warwick Davis , Oliver Phelps , James Phelps , David Bradley , David Thewlis , Katie Leung , Jason Isaacs , Imelda Staunton , David Tennant , Jamie Campbell Bower , Timothy Spall , Robbie Coltrane , Eddie Redmayne , Jude Law , Katherine Waterston , Ezra Miller , Dan Fogler , Alison Sudol , Johnny Depp , Mads Mikkelsen Character(s) Harry Potter , Hermione Granger , Ron Weasley , Dumbledore , Minerva McGonagall , Rubeus Hagrid , Dobby the House Elf , Draco Malfoy , Sirius Black , Ginny Weasley , Voldemort Expand $89 at AmazonSee at TargetSee at Walmart
Source: CBR