AMC Harry Potter Legendy Adventure

     4 nights. 8 movies. 19 hours 38 minutes worth of screen time.....These are the numbers that made up the Harry Potter Legendary Adventure, presented by AMC Theatres. I decided to take this journey, and it was one that gave me plenty of trepidation at first. My exposure to the Harry Potter universe prior to this adventure was very limited. I had not read any of the books and had only seen some of the first movie. I tried watching it twice on dvd, but both times I quit before it was over because I just didn't find it very exciting. There were portions that I thought were very boring and I had come to the conclusion that this movie just wasn't my cup of tea. So, why did I decide to not only try to watch the first one again, but also all 7 other films over the course of four days??

      One of the main reasons is I simply thought it was a good deal that AMC was offering. For $40 I was getting 8 movies, including 1 in 3-D, a custom lanyard, a collectible booklet, special Potter themed 3-D glasses, and a mini movie poster. I'm a sucker for little extras like that, so I thought the price was real nice. This blog was also another major factor in my decision. I think if I only talk about movies that I enjoy, that would make this blog pretty boring and defeat the purpose of what I wanted it to be from the start. I want this to inspire discussion. I figured if I saw these films, even if I didn't like them it would be a nice topic to give my opinions on, good or bad. I want to step outside the box and take chances more often, and this was a nice way to do that.

     Before I talk about the movies themselves, I want to take a quick moment to praise AMC theatres. They did a tremendous job running this event from start to finish. Managers would meet with us before the first movie each night and thank us for being there. They would give away prizes for answering trivia questions (one of the few times when I felt completely lost playing trivia). They monitored the door so other people couldn't get in and take advantage of the showings we had paid for. Even thought the theater was only half full all week, last night during the midnight showing of the finale, they did not open our theater up for anyone else even though they could have used the extra space. When you are sitting with the same 40 or so people for 19 hours plus during a week, you tend to form a bond with them. By the end of last night, we did feel like sort of a small family. I think that's pretty cool and AMC recognized that and respected it. They had every right to open that theater last night and chose not to. Kudos to them. I have done marathons with them before with the Best Picture Showcase the last three years, and I hope they continue to offer events like this. Here's a picture of the swag we received with our package.

     So let's talk about the movies now. I'm not going to do full reviews for each film, my fingers would absolutely fall off after that much typing. So I will be talking about the series as a whole, but I will take the time to grade and rank each film later. Like I said earlier, I went into this series with trepidation, but I am coming out of it extremely satisfied. I think this is a very good series and there are times where it is a ton of fun. It starts out with a whimper though, as I was pretty worried after night one. After making it through Sorcerer's Stone finally, I thought it was nothing great but better than I remember on dvd. Film two though, Chamber of Secrets, was a big failure to me. I was completely bored watching it and there was nothing about it that was memorable to me. After the first night I was worried that I had made a big mistake, and even considered calling it quits and eating the forty bucks. I'm glad I talked myself out of that decision.

     The movies really start hitting their mark with the third installment, Prisoner of Azkaban. From here on out, I found each of the remaining episodes ranged from slightly above average to great. As the kids get older, and the subject matter becomes a little darker, the story really hooked me and I found myself emotionally invested in the main characters. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint all give solid performances as the primary trio of the series; Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, respectively. But there are so many memorable secondary characters, I can't possibly name them all. In fact, while the acting is for the most part a success, I feel this is one of the problems with the series. There's just TOO many characters to keep track of. More than once I found myself confused by names or faces that sort of pop up out of nowhere, or certain characters would be in one movie, disappear for a film or two, and then show up again down the road. This became a bit much. I pretty much circled the main characters to the plot (or who I thought would be) and others I just sort of pushed to the side of my brain and tried not to think about too much.

     The other flaw, and this is the one that was the most noticeable to me, was there are stretches where the story really drags to me. There are times where the exposition goes on for so long that the more they explained, the less I understood. This reached it's peak in episode 2, where at the two hour mark I'm almost begging the movie to just DO something. It eventually does, but by then I had emotionally checked out and just didn't care. This also happens in episode 5, Order of the Phoenix. The first 1:45 of that movie were terribly boring to me. However, that film was saved by an amazing final 30 minutes or so that were some of the best scenes in the series, in my opinion. Even the better films would have short stretches where I found myself checking the time, and if I do that, that's usually an automatic half-star deduction from my rankings. I just simply think pacing is a problem here quite a bit and that's the issue with trying to adapt a movie from a book.

     Despite these flaws, I think this series overall is a success and my expectations were exceeded big time. I'm not sure that these are movies that I would watch multiple times, but I'm glad I gave them a chance and I respect the Potter story now. By the time it was over, I was actively rooting for certain characters. During the finale when one of the secondary characters steps up and pulls off a heroic sacrifice, I was clapping and cheering with the rest of the crowd. I did not expect that to happen when I started this. When one of the characters dies in the next to last film, I felt my eyes tearing up and I was shocked by how much it was affecting me. I think that is the biggest praise I can give to the Harry Potter films, I don't consider myself a Potter fan, but I got to a place where I cared about the characters and what happened to them. That's important and the series succeeded there. Is this Star Wars to me? No, and it's honestly not close, but that's not a bad thing. I'd have to give it some thought, but this MAY be the second best movie series I have seen. The fact that it got better as it went along is unique and a breath of fresh air. I'd prefer this over something like Lord of the Rings any time.

    The Harry Potter story is a great success. I'm glad I watched it the way I did, where I could keep everything fresh in my mind. The arc from beginning to end was clear for the most part. The road was a little congested at times, but I was happy when I arrived at my destination. I know there are people out there who don't feel like I have gotten the complete Potter experience because I won't read the books, and they are entitled to those opinions. But I'm a movie lover, that's my art form of choice. Potter author J.K. Rowling signed off on all these films and has said she is pleased with the outcomes. That's good enough for me. I don't need to know every minutiae of detail about the Potter universe. For those who do, I completely understand the love, being a Star Wars fan who does love the minutiae of that series. My exposure to Potter is these 8 movies, and I'm glad to have witnessed them all. I could have done a lot worse.

How I rank them:
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3rd movie)  -    ****
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 (7th movie) -   ****
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (5th movie) -    ***1/2
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (8th movie) - ***1/2
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4th movie) -  ***
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1st movie) - **1/2
7. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (6th movie) - **1/2
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2nd movie) - *