Best to Worst Harry Potter Movies

The Harry Potter film series, ranked from best movie to worst. Now that all 8 films in the Harry Potter franchise have been released, we can look book on the complete collection to determine which were the best and worst individual films. Most fans agreed that the series got off to a relatively slow start, with the 2 first entries from director Chris Columbus - "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's) Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" - taking a somewhat juvenile tone. Later films from Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates expanded the mythology of the Potter Universe, took a somewhat darker and more realistic tone and expanded the scope of the films considerably, to great effect.

The film series spanned an entire decade; the first entry, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," was released in 2001, and the final film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" arrived exactly 10 years later in 2011. The talents of 4 directors were involved, with David Yates taking on the bulk of the series, everything from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on. Columbus and Yates are the only two filmmakers to return for more than one "Potter" film. Nonetheless, the movies' acting cast, writers and some crew members remained remarkably consistent. Steve Kloves wrote all the Potter films (with assistance from "Potter" author JK Rowling) except for "Order of the Phoenix," which was penned by Michael Goldenberg. The main cast of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione (respectively) featured in all 8 films, as did Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. Richard Harris portrayed Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the first two films, but passed away on October 25, 2002. He was replaced by Michael Gambon in all the films to follow.