Thinking about the return of David Yates as director of the wizarding world yesterday got me wondering, how does his work as a director stack up against the rest of the Harry Potter directors? Potterphiles have celebrated the films endlessly, and they are, as a collection, a marvelous, unique piece of fantasy story-telling. But as movies, how do they compare?
So here it is: the 8 films of The Harry Potter series, ranked by achievement in directing.
8. Chamber of Secrets Dir: Chris Columbus.
Chris Columbus is not a great director. But Chamber is a pretty scary and highly entertaining movie for kids. It’s also really, really long, and occasionally cumbersome. The winsome nature of the kids and the delight that comes with the childish embrace of magic carries Chamber through some of the tediousness of the direction. Still, no denying that Chamber makes the most of its story, and sticking close to Rowling’s story hides much of Columbus’ bland direction.
Best Direction: The fight with the Basilisk. Chamber is a kid’s adventure film, and it is tough to beat a 12 year old kid in hand-to-hand combat with a giant snake. What could have been silly for everyone, was exhilarating and terrifying, mostly because the snake looked like a giant, awful snake. For that Columbus gets high-praise.
7. The Goblet of Fire Dir: Mike Newell
When I heard Mike Newell was making a Harry Potter film, I got fairly amped. He’s no Alfonso Cuaron (who made the predecessor), but Newell’s Four Wedding and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco are both high quality pictures. Alas. I thought Newell’s movie would be better.
Newell gets lost in the action and the magic of Goblet, but the point of this story is the dark turn it takes, and that he handles well. The kids become teens, and Newell does well directing the three mediocre child-actors into moderately skilled adolescent actors. With Cedric’s death (his father weeping over Cedric’s body is unbearable) and Voldie’s return (terrifying ritual including the crumpled flesh skeleton Voldemort), you know the kid-stuff magic has been left behind. Some of Newell’s trouble might also come from the fact that Goblet has the craziest plot in the series: Every single action and accomplishment Harry takes is manipulated by the false-Moody.
Best Direction: The Yule Ball. Newell captures the transition of childhood to adolescence with skill. Hermione’s regal walk broken by her giggle, Ron’s petulance, Harry’s cluelessness. A very nicely crafted scene.
6. The Half Blood Prince Dir: David Yates
David Yates’ least accomplished Harry Potter film is still the funniest of the series when the film is funny, and the saddest of the films in regard to the heartbreak of adolescence. But it never pulls it all together to make sense of its story. The first 90 minutes or so feel as though they are just pushing audiences to the final scenes with Harry, Dumbledore and Snape. Those are entertaining, dramatic, and expertly crafted scenes, but the film is structured around the revelation of the identity of the Half Blood Prince. And that revelation always struck me as the least important final reveal in history. Daniel Radcliffe has said he hates his performance in this one, and he’s not great. But Emma Watson and Rupert Grint shine, as does the final action sequence.
Best Direction: the astronomy tower. Yates gets uncharacteristically skilled work out of Tom Felton, whose Draco Malfoy had heretofore been asked to do little more than scoff and sneer at others. Also, the staging of the scene comes straight from theater, with Dumbledore and Draco on stage, and Harry and Snape carrying out the plot underlying the scene in the space underlying the action.
5. Sorcerer’s Stone Dir: Chris Columbus.
It is difficult to rank the first film so low. It really is a wonderful, magical movie that set the stage for everything that was to come. Chris Columbus is at his best dealing with the light-hearted wonders of childhood, and he manages to introduce Harry and the world of Hogwarts with all the wonder a child would feel. But who could have known the films would get better and better? Here, the kids are adorable, sure, but Snape, oh Snape, he steals the show. Alan Rickman saying “up to something” tells you everything you need to know about the career defining performance he would undertake for the next decade.
Best Direction: Directing the adults. Everyone involved in the series should feel lucky that the three stars of Harry Potter grew into pretty good actors. But it’s in the original film that Columbus sets the stage for countless gifted adults to uphold the reality of the wizarding world. With only the slightest hint of a wink, Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane give the kids the room to act like kids.
4. Deathly Hallows, Part 2 Dir: David Yates
For the finale to be a success, Yates had to make a film that looked great, hit the pivotal plot points with conviction, and most importantly, carry the emotional weight of 15 years of devoted fandom. He did, and more. Hallows part 2 depends on Harry and Voldie, and they live up to it. Radcliffe is surprisingly capable carrying the emotional resonance of the Forbidden Forest, and Ralph Fiennes performance as Voldemort was terrifically, delightfully evil (his Draco hug? awful and awesome). The dragon at Gringott’s was a remarkable CG creation, and the battle for Hogwarts didn’t disappoint. Not much to complain about, except maybe the Epilogue, but what are you going to do about that?
Best Direction: The dragon escape. The emotional conclusion is powerful, but Harry, Ron and Hermione’s escape from Gringott’s on the dragon’s back is a reminder why Yates is being called back in: he can direct really incredible fantasy. The scene seemed to go relatively unremarked upon, but the integration of digital and live-action, and the shift from the bank and Diagon Alley to the lakes of countryside is a stunning directorial achievement. As fine-looking and detailed as any CGI I’ve seen.
3. Order of the Phoenix Dir: David Yates
Mike Newell handled the transition of the kids to teens, but in Order of the Phoenix, the kids become Actors, and are aided along by David Yates drawing the best performances of the ensemble adult cast in the entire series. Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge might be the best performance of all 8 films. Her evil is so well worn in her teeny little giggle, and her office of cat-plates might be the creepiest set of the series. She is so much fun to hate, and Yates’ embrace of this fact makes for some of the best scenes in any film. The office of Umbridge is captured by Yates better than my imagination read it in J.K. Rowling’s novel. Grawp was a bit of a disappointment, but no director can win all the CGI battles.
Best Direction: The battle in the Department of Mysteries. There are a lot of actors in this scene, each with something to do. That they are all managed purposefully is no small feat: the six kids from Dumbledore’s Army, the Death Eaters they encounter, and the Order of the Phoenix who come to the rescue would be enough to make this scene an achievement. But that it all moves purposefully (and circularly around Harry, by the way) to the arrival of Dumbledore and Voldemort, who will duel around Harry, until Voldemort’s possession of Harry’s body. It’s a demonstration in how to handle keeping actors involved as action centers on someone else.
2. Deathly Hallows, Part 1 Dir: David Yates
The most lovely, dramatic, and heartbreaking of the films, Hallows part 1 also takes some of the biggest risks as a film. From the animated sequence of Beadle the Bard to Bellatrix torturing Hermione in the Malfoy Mansion, Part 1 makes a strong argument for the title of best movie of the bunch. Which is a surprise given that so little happens in the film. Another testament to how much Yates manages to pull from his actors. Especially, in this instance, Emma Watson, who gives in this movie the best performance from any film, from any of the three stars.
Best Direction: The first 3 minutes. Open extreme close-up on Rufus Scrimgeour’s (Bill Nighy) eyes, as he declare the Ministry’s commitment to the fight (“we, ever your servants,”). That public act of politics is played against the intimate, unknown act of Hermione erasing herself from the memory of her parents. It’s not just the sadness of what is literally happening, as Hermione watches herself disappear from her childhood photos, that makes this scene special. It is the dignity and strength with which Watson and Yates allow Hermione to carry out the action, turn from her home, and stride into an empty street. Paired with the Ministry’s bravura and Harry’s final, cold departure from the Dursley’s, Yates indicates that, finally, Harry Potter will be driven primarily by drama and acting, and not the wonders of the wizarding world.
1. Prisoner of Azkaban Dir: Alfonso Cuaron
The most beautiful and unique of the films. Alfonso Cuaron brought a magic that rivals the magic of Hogwarts, and the film still stands out as something special, not just as an installment in the Harry Potter series, but as a piece of family entertainment in the new century. Watching it is a different experience than any of the others, and reminds the audience that, despite how good the series as a whole is, Alfonso Cuaron is on an entirely different level. No moment is lost for Cuaron, which is what makes a Cuaron movie unique.
Best Direction: That Cuaron style. He designs sets and stages bodies in such detail (he’s a master of mise-en-scene). The image I gravitate towards in Azkaban is in the opening sequence at the Dursley’s. Harry has blown up Aunt Marge and the Dursley’s watch her float away. The house is in chaos, and the camera pulls in through the window, past Dudley who is watching a small television and then into the dining room, where there is another television playing the same channel. The image holds for about 1 second, allowing viewers to be wowed by the visual information before moving us along. It’s the mundane beauty that makes Cuaron brilliant.
Thanks for the comprehensive and thoughtful list! I regularly go back to watch movies 5 through 7. Although it’s well known that 3 is a fantastic film on its own, I just find that it takes effort to watch the younger actors. But it’ll be fun to go back and watch them all sequentially at some point (except for 4….ugh).
Thanks Levi. I’ve long been a huge Harry Potter fan. Now I’m finding a lot of great ways to return to the series. Always fun to consider the project as a whole. There’s just so little that is like it: both as a decade long project, and of such high quality.
With the recognition that opinion is opinion… argh, I disagree with everything in this article! >.<
Everything? Could I really miss on everything?
wanderlake says
Pretty much. I can’t believe Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Order of the Phoenix are so high on the ranking. The are two of THE WORST movies I’ve ever suffered through, despite being an avid HP fan my whole life. I won’t shell out a whole article myself, but my ranking worst to best would have been 8, 5, 4, 6, 2, 7, 3, 1. That first movie was so fun and magical, it will always be my favorite.
bmac says
I agree with wanderlakes assessment. Anyone that read the books had to cringe with the way Yates ruined the final scene with Voldemort and Harry. So DH pt 2 was the worst. I’d bump up Order of the Phoenix though simply for the Dumbledore/VOldemort battle. That was fantastic.
Worst to Best
8, 6, 4, 5, 2, 7, 3, 1
Same, I totally disagree to this article.
so how would you rank them? it’s easy to disagree.
Daniel says
Really enjoyed reading your article. I TRY to look at the books and movies separately.
Here are some things I loved in the movies:
1. The magical wonder and innocence of Stone. Fantastic way to reel you in to the movie series. The three kids were all fun. Emma’s attitude and Rupert’s faces.
2. Alan as Snape. 3. Argus Filch in that first one is FANTASTIC. Every one of his lines surrounding the detention in the forest are laugh out loud funny. Unfortunately, he wasn’t used much after that.
4. The music. John Williams at his best IMO. Just wonderful orchestration and melodies.
5. Lockhart. A job very well-done for the vibe of that movie.
6. Prisoner of Azkaban. The most rewatchable one for me. (Helped that it was the best stand-alone story)
7. Umbridge was incredibly hatable. Fantastic job.
8. Dumbledore/Voldemort brawl. That could’ve lasted 30 minutes and I would’ve been here for the whole thing.
9. The music in the Order of the Phoenix. Much different vibe from the first four. Really fitting melodies.
10. I actually enjoyed a lot about HBP, though I understand it was mostly a setup for DH— Harry learning about the horcruxes and Dumbledore dying. I thought teenage Tom Riddle was AMAZING. That kid really sold that he had control of the room with a look. And you’ve got to love the performance of Slughorn; and Felton crushed it. Finally, it was the best Dumbledore performance of all.
11. The tale of the three brothers was incredibly well done.
12. All the actors that were polyjuice potions drinkers in DH were great.
13. The Snape reveal was powerful.
Things I strongly disliked:
1. The Goblet of Fire. I thought it was by far the worst movie. I felt like it treated us as kids in ways that PoA had not. Just totally missed the mark for me.
2. Gambon in Goblet of Fire was just horrific. I don’t know if that was Newel’s fault or what but OOF that was hard to watch.
3. EVERYTHING GINNY. I get they can’t know how a kid will turn out to be as an actor, but wow. So, so dull. The chemistry was obviously not there between Dan and her and it was awkward to have to watch. I know that’s why they minimized the Ginny stuff in the movies. They spent more time on Cho because she was so much better.
Movies worst to first for me as far as willing to rewatch:
4
HUGE GAP
8, 2, 5, 7, 1, 6, 3
I disagree with a lot of this. The third was the worst one. He took away a lot of what made the entire series surreal and special. It was a world separate from ours and he shoved ours into it making it less special. The shine of it all left and innocence of the series forever tarnished. Key characters missing, robes gone, witty remarks less, important thoughts not portrayed, and most importantly it was just much more grim throughout. I mean at least the book gave you relief but the film didn’t really.
I think the first 4 movies were good. Not everything from the book can be included in a movie. But some important things were missing in those too. But movies 5-8 were disaster. David Yates ruined the series. Especially while watching the final Harry-Voldy battle in Deathly Hallows 2 I wanted to run away from the theatre. It was not at all magical. If I hadn’t read the books I surely would have hated the last 4 movies JK Rowling untied intricate knot by knot in the final book. It was split in to two movies and Yates could have captured almost everything in the movie. So many characters were missing and Snape’s story and King’s cross were the most important elements and he ruined those.
Thank you!! Although I don’t agree with movie 4, I think Yates did ruin the series. The acting of the main characters went downhill, the dialogues were slow with too many pauses. It was just embarrassing to watch. Sometimes I thought I was watching a video game.
Ana says
I sometimes think I’m a Harry Potter purist because JK Rowling did such an incredible job creating that world for us, and to have a director take “license” and change the story for his own vision doesn’t work for me. David Yates had no movie credits as a film director before he took over the HP franchise. He worked as an assistant or directed shorts and documentaries. I left movies 4 -8 thinking during the whole time Yates thought “I vaguely remember hearing about a character named Harry Potter”. He created his own story and not J.K. Rowling’s. The scene of Harry and Hermione dancing in the tent after Ron left is silly, Yates was quoted as saying that two young people of the opposite sex in close quarters probably feel some attraction. Even though, from book 1, Hermione and Harry have been written as feeling like brother and sister. The end, oh the end of movie 8!!! What the hell was he thinking?????!!!!!! Harry broke the wand and that’s it???!!! We lost the whole story and what the Deathly Hallows was all about.
David Yates ruined the HP series. I can deal with the changes from book-to-movie for 1 - 4; I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive David Yates for ruining the best book series ever.
Jay Moore says
Boy, I sure agree with Ana, in the book Harry repaired his old wand with the elder wand. What happened to that - in Order, Dobby tells Harry about the room of requirement and warns the DA of Umbridges coming (and most escaped ). Cho didn’t let the cat out of the bag, it was her friend - did Yates read any of the books??? My favorites are 4,then 3,2/1, 6,8,5 and lastly 7 (boring and long). Jay Moore
bmac says
100% agree that Yates ruined the HP series
Prisoner of Azkaban is, undoubtedly, the best magical movie ever created, not only from harry potter series. It captured pure magical essence, from the coffee stir, bottle wiping and table packing at the leaky cauldron to long cinematic shots, whomping willow shedding snow, the clock tower, the cloaked dementors (I swear I used to get frightened by them, while yates killed the horror element in them), double trouble, dumbledore’s dialogues… all in all it was one of the finest movie I’ve ever seen!
While I strongly disagree on OOTP and DHP2, I feel the former was the worst movie I could have seen, no clear explanations, it was like a chinese film, only action without any motive, he dint explain why voldemort was after prophecy, why all are fighting… and killed that priori incantemum effect by using it in every duel! N hell, they can get kreacher then why not dobby? Lupin’s character was badly killed! No emotional connect….
While both of these movies did omit large chunks of information from the books, one became the best movie and other was awful!
I wish Alfonso or Mike, or even chris have directed the 8th!
Covarr says
I very much thought that 1 and 7 were two of the weakest in the series. The first film, despite its massive successes in tone, music, and production design, had some serious pacing issues, and seemed to prioritize the world over the characters or story. It’s just so frustrating for me to go back and watch, to see that most of the nuance of the first book is completely missing. Nearly Headless Nick served an important purpose in the first book (as did Peeves), but that purpose is stripped; all he’s there for is to be ready for his plot point a whole movie later, and so that the audience say “ooh, look, magic!”
The seventh film was even worse, though. The camping scene was simply way too long for the amount of plot it contained. It doesn’t really push the story forward at all. Oddly enough, there are a few deleted bits within the camping portion of the movie which, though they make it longer, also make it enough more purposeful to justify the length. But without either reinserting those deleted segments or cutting even more of the camping, it just ends up screwing up the pacing of the whole movie.
Sabrina says
Personally Prisoner of Azkaban is my least favourite movie… I like Cuaron, I don’t know why I am not as enthralled by the 3rd movie…
peej44 says
i love seeing the films through the eyes of someone else. and although i disagree with some of this (i do agree with much), its a fantastic article and i really enjoyed it. i’m late to the game since this is a few years old but yay for the internet for letting me stumble upon it. i think you underestimate the half blood prince. although you did reference the astronomy tower, tom felton, throughout is fantastic. when he runs to bathroom in a sweat in the sectumsempra scene i actually feel for him. the opening with slughorn in the muggles home was well done too. the scene in hagrid’s hut between harry and slughorn is one of my favorites of any of the films. as a standalone film it may not be a work of art but is extremely successful in building relationships and moving towards an amazing finish with hallows I & II. (i could have done without the addition of the non-canon skirmish at the burrows). and although i agree that cuaron’s movie has its moments that are absolute genius and cinematically beautiful (he made a very complicated story understandable to which i credit as well) it can almost be single-handedly undone by the last 30 seconds of the film and harry’s awkward exit and yell on the broom. seriously what was that and how can you gloss over that, lol. deathly hallows part I is the best of the lot as far as direction goes in my opinion.
Cuaron’s work is almost unimpeachable in my eyes, frankly. but yes, the freeze frame at the end of Azkaban is very strange indeed. out of pace with the tone of the rest of the film. but it’s such a minor moment, does it really count for much?
you’re definitely right about Tom Felton in HBP. It’s his best work in the series, and his performance in that film is the best of anyone (though Emma Watson also does great, and surprising, work with the comedy).
skidrow82 says
I agree with you 100%, except on the ranking you gave to TGOF… To me, that one is the worst film. Such a shame, actually. The book is so good!
Roxanne says
When it comes to direction of the film’s I agree with you ALMOST 100% lol. While I completely agree with POA as The best directed Potter film, I cannot get behind the ranking of HBP. I would swap out Philosopher’s Stone & HBP in your list, but otherwise SPOT ON SIR I’m not kidding when I say that I watch Prisoner of Azkaban AT LEAST once a wk….. even after all these years!! One of my top 3 film’s of all time actually. Though I do have to agree with peej44 that the end scene is HORRENDOUS! ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS! But as u stated, “its such a minor moment, does it really count for much?”
dimitri says
I absolutely disagree with everything you are saying.