Collection
Harry Potter
Eight films of the school years and three prequels that never found the same audience.
Which order? Release order; Fantastic Beasts is a prequel trilogy and can wait.
Harry Potter
- 1
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2001Chris Columbus has put J.K. Rowling’s book on screen in order, with nothing broken and nothing risked. Stuart Craig’s Hogwarts is worth the ticket on its own; the film around it is faithful, handsome and forty minutes too long.Fi1m 68 - 2
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002Chris Columbus’s second trip to Hogwarts is darker, better built and a good half hour too long. Kenneth Branagh’s preening Lockhart and Stuart Craig’s sets earn the evening; the film around them is a book read aloud with pictures.Fi1m 65 - 3
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004Alfonso Cuarón takes the third Potter book and makes the first Potter film that looks as if rain might fall in it. It is darker, funnier and better acted than the two before, and it fumbles its own plot in the last half hour.Fi1m 82 - 4
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005Mike Newell’s Potter is the first to feel like it was made by someone who remembers being fourteen. The tournament set pieces are noisy and the plot is shoved through at a run, but the ball, Gleeson and the ending are worth the wait.Fi1m 68 - 5
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007David Yates strips the longest book in the series to 138 brisk, grey minutes and hands Imelda Staunton the best villain the films have had. It is the most grown-up Potter yet and, for long stretches, the least magical.Fi1m 68 - 6
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009The sixth Potter is the funniest and best-looking of the series, with Jim Broadbent and Rupert Grint carrying the middle hour. It is also the one in which least happens, and when the story finally arrives it is over in ten minutes.Fi1m 66 - 7
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 2010David Yates takes the seventh Potter film out of Hogwarts and into the rain, and the quiet suits the three leads better than any castle did. It is handsome, sad and honest, and for half an hour in the middle nothing happens at all.Fi1m 67 - 8
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 2011David Yates brings Harry Potter’s story to a forceful, moving close, with actors who hold their own amid the fighting. Some farewells are hurried, and newcomers should start elsewhere, but this is a satisfying finish.Fi1m 83
Fantastic Beasts
- 9
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016Rowling’s first screenplay returns to her world with a pleasant zoologist, a suitcase of creatures and a warm supporting turn from Dan Fogler. The beasts are a delight; the rest is scaffolding for films not yet made, and the two stories never quite meet.Fi1m 61 - 10
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018The second of Rowling’s planned five prequels is the best-dressed and worst-plotted film in the series: a wizarding Paris built to the last brass fitting, in service of a story that keeps stopping to check its own family trees and never gets going.Fi1m 46 - 11
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore 2022Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen give the series two grown-ups worth watching, and David Yates surrounds them with a plot that even Dumbledore admits is meant to confuse. Handsome, grey and long, it is a franchise that has misplaced its own beasts.Fi1m 50
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