Potterheads, this is for you. It is time for you to end the debate of which is better finally – Harry Potter books or movies?
If you ask us, we, too, have mixed opinions about it, so let’s get into this topic with details to understand each factor that contributes to making either point stronger.
If you haven’t already, you can stream Harry Potter on Netflix and decide which one you think is better. So, without any further ado, let’s get into it!
1. Attention to Detail
Multiple things matter when bringing life to a story, and attention to detail is one of them.
The Harry Potter books contain explicit details about various places, characters, and their histories. For example, the fact that Peeves was missing, Harry snapping the Elder Wand in half, or ‘calmly’ (only real HP fans know the context) was shown entirely wrong in the movies.
The books, with their details related to these, brought much depth to the plot and contributed to its greatness.
As for the cast, there are no better actors to bring life to the role of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Draco the way Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Tom Felton did in the movies.
2. Missing Characters
Various characters were missing from the Harry Potter movies, like Peeves, Andromeda and Ted Tonks, Winky, Professor Binns, Marietta Edgecombe, Rodolphus Lestrange, etc.
Their presence in the books had some crucial details attached to them that contributed to the storyline’s progress with precision and intensity.
Their absence in the movies could have made more sense, and the readers were quite disappointed to see some important characters not appearing on the big screen.
3. Character Development
The villains we grew up hating in the Harry Potter books had impressive character development.
While we may not actually love them, their grey area makes them look human and even relatable to some readers.
Some of the characters in the books which went through the development in their personalities included Draco, Narcissa Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, Kreacher, and even Snape.
These characters had some weak and even dark history, which was exposed in the books, and the readers witnessed their impressive growth till the Deathly Hallows.
This kind of detail makes a movie even better to watch, and the readers are deprived of that.
4. Wrong Details
The wrong details in the movies could have made more sense which would have easily been shown as they were written in the books.
For example, Dumbledore pushing Harry by the wall and yelling at him when his name appeared in The Goblet of Fire was the complete opposite in the books.
Or the fact that Harry did not snap the Elder Wand in half but instead buried it with Dumbledore in his grave.
There are many more details that should have made it in the movies but failed to, and it left a void in the plot for the viewers to see.
5. Harry’s POV
What made the books so engaging for the readers was how intense, witty, and downright palatable the content was for them.
And it all made sense because it was written from Harry’s perspective. What made Harry a brilliant character is based on how beautifully he was written from the beginning as a child till he became an adult, making all the silly mistakes every teenager makes.
His POV was shown in the books by him simply being human but with a lot of challenges and traumas being directed his way. This aspect was skipped from the movies, although understandable, but a loss nevertheless.
6. Rushed Storyline
Every genuine Harry Potter fan feels that the movies were rushed and should have contained more details to make the plot at least closer to the books.
The rushed storyline missed out on details and created a somehow flawed context for those who didn’t read the books before watching the movies.
That being said, there is only so much which could be adjusted or instead squeezed into the movies, but the makers still did a good job, especially with their selection of the cast.
Final Thoughts
As die-hard Harry Potter fans, we understand both sides of the argument because both movies and books give the franchise life by focusing on the details and giving it a visual representation, which brings life to the characters and scenarios.
While each side has weight, movies should have been either given more screen time, or they should be turned into series to make space for more details to fit into it.
But despite its flaws or lacking, there is absolutely no comparison to the Harry Potter franchise, and we wouldn’t have it any other way with the original cast and crew in the making.
