Harry Potter: Books vs. Movies

Okay, so I live in a very traditional, conservative area where saying you like Harry Potter is almost an equivalent to saying you worship Satan for some people. I, contrary to popular belief, do not worship Satan despite my love for the Harry Potter franchise. I think that conservative/traditional/religious people who hate Harry Potter are just looking for things to consider "evil" at this point. I mean, yes, there is witchcraft in the series (obviously). Is witchcraft considered evil in the Bible? Yes. There are also snakes. Are snakes evil in the Bible? Yes. But do you know what else has snakes and witchcraft in it? The Bible.

Okay, so now that we've got that out of the way, I can talk about the whole "Books vs. Movies" debate. Do I love the movies? Absolutely! The cast is amazing, the directing in some of the films is incredible, the story is always beautiful, but do the movies measure up to the books? Not in the slightest.

I am telling you, whether you are a reader or not, if you love the Harry Potter movies, or even kind of like them, you will not regret reading the books. I've only willingly read 3 different book series in my whole life, and I've read Harry Potter 4 times because it's that good.

But why read the books when you can just watch the movies? I mean, the story is basically the same, if not exactly the same anyway right? Yes, I suppose, but there's a lot more to a movie or a book than just the basic story. There are characters, extra scenes, different tones, explanations, and more detail.

Characters

Movie Hermione knows everything. She's nearly flawless aside from her slight "bossiness" which doesn't really appear in any movie but the first. In the first movie, when Harry and Ron are trapped in Devil's Snare, Hermione gets them out all on her own. Ron is simply there for a joke and a laugh. In the book, Hermione remembers how to defeat Devil's snare, but she forgets that she's a wizard and basically says "I need to make a fire, but I don't have any wood," to which Ron replies, "Are you nuts?! You're a wizard! All you need is a wand!" See, in the books, Hermione is far from perfect. She's easily stressed, and the movies almost just glance over the fact that she couldn't make any friends because she was so bossy. As for Ron, he is the only one of the three who grew up in the wizarding world! In the books, it's very clear the Ron knows more about the wizarding world than both Harry and Hermione. It's his role in the group to know things that the other two don't. This is a fact that is not at all translated in the movies.

Extra Scenes

There are so many scenes that never made it into the movies, including every scene with Peeves; an entire lovable character was that was never even mentioned. For those who don't know, Peeves is a poltergeist. According to J.K. Rolwing, he is the ghost-like embodiment of everyone's sneakiness and tricks. Peeves floats around the school pulling pranks and dropping dung-bombs while cackling and being chased around by Filch. Because of Peeve's absence in the movie, everyone who has never read the books missed out on one of my favourite scenes of all time.

Fred and George have just let off the master of all fireworks because Umbridge has taken over the school, and they turn to Peeves to say, "Give her hell from us Peeves."

And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

Do you see? I get goosebumps ever time I read it.

Different Tones

Aside from the most popular tone translation, aka, "HARRY, DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?," There's also a difference in tone when if comes to knowing Harry's point of view. In the movies, it's easy to see Harry being a hothead occasionally, but in the books, you're seeing everything the way Harry sees it. You understand his heart, and his heartbreak. Harry is not just hotheaded, he's hurting.

Explanations and More Detail

My least favourite movie when it comes to lack of explanation is easily the Half Blood Prince. As someone who saw the movies before reading the books, I watched this particular movie numerous times, and it was very hard to follow. I was also especially confused with the scene where Bellatrix and Fenrir appeared at the Burrow, and burned the whole place down, then the proceed to disappear and that was that. It made no sense! Why did they do it? Well the answer to that is - They didn't. That scene never happened in the books! The Half Blood Prince is the book that explains everything. It explains the connection between Harry and Voldemort in depth. It explains why Harry was targeted. It explains the whole reason everything happened the way it did, and yet, the movie left me with more questions than answers. The fact that they didn't take the time to explain everything in the movies, and instead filled that time with the useless burning of the Burrow aggravates me to the core. In fact, I would go so far as to say, if you really hate reading, feel free to watch every single movie except the Half Blood Prince, and just read that one book out of all of them (after you've watched the movies before that of course). You'll be far less confused, and you'll appreciate the movies a heck of a lot more.

As for the fact that half of the Weasley family is barely even mentioned in the movies is argument I can't even get into without overheating.

No, the movies are definitely not perfect. Almost no book-to-movie transition is, but I won't deny the beauty of the films. I still love them more than most other movies, and Harry Potter is a story I'll bring with me wherever I go.