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NMT: "Harry Potter" Series Review

Well, here's the thing.

I used to be a Harry Potter fan a long time ago. I had the first movie, "Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone" on VCR (old stuff right there) and would love watching it even though I had no idea what was going on, I just liked the magical aspect of it!

Then I "sorta" saw "Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets." At that age, my brain was becoming more developed so that I can actually pay attention to what the movie was about. That was a long one and I could only remember bits and pieces of that, because I think I fell asleep. That was the first and last one I ever saw in the theater, and my parents stopped taking us to see the following movies, so I fell out of the fandom.

None of you knew this, but for my last birthday, I was given the first six Star Wars movies, because believe it or not, I have never seen them before. I'll get into more details at a later time, but I was going to watch them all and do one big review here. But then, another fandom called to me...again.

It is Harry Potter's birthday month, so my cable provider (maybe yours too, you better hurry up and go check!) decided to put all eight Harry Potter movies for On-Demand, for free. Free.

I have been waiting for so long to get back into this fandom, so I stopped watching Star Wars to take advantage of this temporary opportunity.

So, now that I'm older and can understand plots better, I have went back to the beginning to rewatch the first two movies, and continued to the end.

So, first was "Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone." I give that one a 4.85/5. After watching that so many times as a young child, I recalled a lot of the scenes easily, except this time around I was absorbing words and context better. I have to say, this part was a little long- and maybe a tad bit slow, but there's always something going on that could keep the viewer interested throughout the entire movie. Even today, the visuals have aged fairly well, with the exception of a couple of scenes, but it's nothing that is too distracting- plus, it sorta adds to the oddity of magic existing in the real world, you never really know what to expect no matter how weird it is/looks.

Next, "Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets;" 4.84/5. I feel like this is the one that will determine whether or not you're ready to be a Harry Potter fan. It is the longest installment of the series, and it does feel incredibly slow. However, I wouldn't say it was necessarily "a drag," it was a good kind of slow. It managed to replicate what the last movie did by making sure you're in-tune throughout, just in a larger proportion. But, I did hit a point where I realized I've been sitting for two hours straight- with forty-seven minutes left to go- and felt like I was still in the middle of the plot! I did have a slight headache after, but it was a solid mixture of sitting and staring at the screen for so long, and absorbing the crucial events that took place in the movie. I liked it less than "The Sorceror's Stone," but it certainly did its job in keeping me in the fandom by impressively holding the viewer's attention for so long.

"Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban-" 4.85/5. This redeemed itself from the last part a bit, and I wound up liking it more than the first part. It delved further into the Wizarding World's darker side- without coming off as even the slightest bit edgy (Hey, DC Comics, ever consider bringing in J.K. Rowling for a project?). There were more twists in this movie and a bit more magical action, which did well in making the movie feel like it was worth its time- even though this one was shorter than its predecessors. Also, I was already used to Richard Harris' (R.I.P.) portrayal of Albus Dumbledore-