The latest: Get your wands ready! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire celebrates its 20th anniversary, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 1 celebrates its 15th anniversary!
The Harry Potter film franchise ruled the box office for a decade, but it also managed the uncommon feat of earning Certified Fresh status for every single one of its installments. It remains one of the most successful movie sagas of all time, and it’s even spawned a spinoff series. But while the first Fantastic Beasts continue the Certified Fresh streak, the second became the first Rotten entry in this cinematic Wizarding World. The third Beasts film, The Secrets of Dumbledore, released in April 2022 and also received a Rotten score. Now, we’re ranking all Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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(Photo by Bachrach / Getty Images. Thumbnail: Emma McIntyre / Getty Images.)
There’s an old industry saying about how a movie is actually created three times: When it’s written, when it’s shot, and when it’s edited. But there is the fourth factor, that last line of effort and creation that unites the movie in a way unseen but is felt stirring the soul: When the music is composed.
For well over half a century, the musical scores of John Williams has ensured that our memories of the greatest moments in American cinema include sight and sound. Immediately, we can collectively recall the menace of a stubborn and malfunctioning shark, the uplift of an airborne moonlit bike ride with our favorite alien friend, and the trampling force of an evil marching empire. Or from the inspiring awe and terror on an island getaway where once-extinct beasts have returned to life, to children coming of age at a hidden school for wizards, and then the theme to all adventures, whether exploring the neighborhood woods or seeking treasure buried deep in a sun-scorched desert.
In our guide to movies scored by Williams with Certified Fresh films featured first, take a look at all his collaborations with directors and within franchises, including Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), George Lucas (Star Wars), Richard Donner (Superman), Robert Altman (The Long Goodbye, Images), Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter), Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon), and even Alfred Hitchcock (Family Plot).
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(Photo by WB/ courtesy Everett Collection)
Everyone came into the Wizarding World through the Harry Potter books and movies, which introduced us to a gifted 11-year-old, his friends Ron and Hermione, and their hallowed school of magic, Hogwarts. Watching the Harry Potter movies in order, seeing the story unfold chronologically in-universe, used to be as easy as finding the one where Daniel Radcliffe looks youngest and starting from there.
But the series has expanded now with the Fantastic Beasts movies, set some 70 years before The Sorcerer’s Stone. So to watch the Harry Potter movies in order, your journey now begins with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, set in 1926 and starring Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scarmander. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is set in 1927. The third Fantastic Beasts intends to release July 2022, with two more movies to close out the Scarmander and Grindelwald saga.
Then the story of Harry himself begins, starting with Sorcerer’s Stone and concluding in the second-part of The Deathly Hallows, for eight Certified Fresh movies in a row. There’s also a Harry Potter series early in development for HBO Max. For now, see our guide below on how to watch all Harry Potter movies in order. —Alex Vo
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(Photo by Marvel Studios / Disney, 20th Century Fox, Miramax, TriStar)
For their bravery, wit, general badassery, and unbroken spirit in the face of enormous challenges (be they gender discrimination or acid-hissing aliens), we pay tribute to 87 Fearless Movie Women Who Inspire Us.
How did we arrive at our top 87? With the help of a fearless panel of women critics made up of some of the best writers in the industry, including a few on the Rotten Tomatoes staff. Starting with a long list of candidates, they whittled down the list to an initial set of 72 amazingly heroic characters and ordered them, crowning the most fearless woman movie hero in the process. Want to know more about the ladies who voted? We included their bios at the end! Then, in addition to their contributions, which make up the bulk of the list, we also added a handful of more recent entries chosen by the RT staff.
The final list (you can watch every movie in a special FandangoNOW collection) gives compelling insight into which heroes have resonated through the years, women whose big-screen impact remains even as the times change. We have the usual suspects along with plenty of surprises (Working Girl, your day has come!), and the only way to discover them all is reading on for the 87 fearless women movie heroes — and groups of heroes — who inspire us!
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#1One of the appeals of science-fiction is the luxury to comment on modern issues and social mores, or even eschew them completely. Take a look at the diverse space crews in Star Trek, Sunshine, or Alien, where people are hired based on nothing but competence, and none have proven their competence under extreme pressure as well as Ellen Ripley. She’s tough, pragmatic, and cunning in Alien. Journey with Ripley into Aliens and we get to see her in a new light: mothering and nurturing with hints of deep empathy (Sigourney Weaver was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this performance), which only makes the Xenomorph-stomping side of her even more badass.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#2And on the other side of the Sigourney spectrum, Weaver here plays Katharine, a particular kind of woman who’s nasty to the competition: other women. The object of her scorn is her secretary, Tess McGill (played by Melanie Griffith), who has her great ideas stolen by Katharine. The plucky Tess in turn pretends to be her boss’s colleague, and proceeds to shake things up in this corporate Cinderella story. Who doesn’t dream of one day suddenly arriving in a higher echelon of society? Of course, it’s what you do once you get there that’s important, and the glowing and tenacious Tess makes the most of it.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel)
#3Hard-drinking, ass-kicking Valkyrie makes no apologies for her choices and draws solid boundaries. Sure, she’s flawed, but that’s what makes her successes so sweet. That she’s played by Tessa Thompson doubles the fun.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
#4Letitia Wright proved that a sister doesn’t have to sit in the shadow of her sibling simply because he’s king. Her Shuri has the smarts and the sass to cut her own path, making her technical genius essential not only to the Kingdom of Wakanda, but also the Avengers’ recent efforts to take down the tyrant Thanos.
(Photo by Fox 2000 Pictures)
#5Don’t ask us to choose a favorite among Hidden Figures’ Space Race heroines: Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson. The Oscar-nominated drama tells the story of a real-life team of female African-American mathematicians crucial to NASA’s early space program.
(Photo by )
#6As Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron blazed a trail for enslaved post-apocalyptic cult wives in skimpy clothing – literally. With an assist from Max (Tom Hardy), soldier Furiosa set the road on fire to rescue her charges from madman Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), leader of the Citadel.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Lucasfilm Ltd)
#7Daisy Ridley gave girls everywhere – and full-grown women, in truth – a fresh new hero to adore when she debuted in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of humble origins, scrappy Rey overcomes her circumstances living as an orphan in a harsh environment to become an essential component in the Resistance. It helps, of course, that The Force is with her.
(Photo by Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures)
#8Despite her superpowers and privileged background, Gal Gadot as Diana – princess of Themyscira and the Amazons, daughter of Queen Hippolyta and King of the Gods Zeus – retains her humility and a genuine care for humanity. She’s also the most rock solid member of DC’s boys club of Justice League superheroes.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#9Come on…she’s Princess Leia. She leads the Rebel Alliance. She saves the galaxy again and again (with a little help from Luke, and Han, and Chewy). She eventually becomes a revered general, but from the very start – when she first confronts Darth Vader at the beginning of Episode IV – A New Hope – she shows a defiant, fiery nature that never dims. In her defining film role, Carrie Fisher brings impeccable comic timing to this cosmic princess.
(Photo by Roadside Attractions)
#10Before she was Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence was Ree, the role that made her a star and earned her the first of four Oscar nominations. A no-nonsense teenager, Ree dares to brave the dangers lurking within the Ozark Mountains to track down her drug-dealing father and protect her siblings and their home. With each quietly treacherous encounter, she shows depth and instincts beyond her years, and a willingness to fight for what matters.
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#11You can’t have any fear when you’re going up against Hannibal Lecter – or at least you can’t show it. He’ll sniff it out from a mile away. But what’s exciting about Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning portrayal of the young FBI cadet is the way she works through her fear, harnessing that nervous energy alongside her powerful intellect and dogged determination. Clarice Starling is a hero for every little girl who thought she wasn’t good enough.
(Photo by Universal Pictures)
#12Julia Roberts won a best-actress Oscar for her charismatic portrayal of this larger-than-life, real-life figure. Erin Brockovich is repeatedly underestimated because of the flashy way she dresses and the brash way she carries herself. But as a single mom who becomes an unlikely environmental advocate, she’s a steely fighter. What she lacks in book smarts, she more than makes up for with heart. Steven Soderbergh’s film is an inspiring underdog story.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#13Jane Craig is the toughest, sharpest, most prepared woman in the newsroom at all times, but she isn’t afraid to cry to let it all out when the pressure gets too great. Writer-director James L. Brooks created this feminist heroine, this workplace goddess, but Holly Hunter brilliantly brings her to life. She’s just so vibrant. Even when she’s sitting still (which isn’t often), you can feel her thinking. And while two men compete for her attention, no man could ever define her.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#14It would be easy to underestimate Marge Gunderson. Sure, she’s in a position of power as the Brainerd, Minnesota, police chief. But with her folksy manner – and the fact that she’s so pregnant, she’s about to burst – she’s not exactly the most intimidating figure. But in the hands of the brilliant Frances McDormand, she’s consistently the smartest and most fearless person in the room, and she remains one of the Coen brothers’ most enduring characters. You betcha.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios)
#15Danai Gurira plays Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje who specializes in spear fighting and strategic wig flipping. Of late, Okoye has been seen keeping company with Avengers.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#16Things Bridget Jones is prone to: accidents, fantasizing about sexy coworkers, worrying about her weight, and running mad into the snow wearing tiger-print underwear. All totally relatable things, so it’s no surprise she’s the highest-ranked romcom heroine on this list. It also doesn’t hurt that, at their best, Bridget’s movies are what romantic comedies aspire to: They’re fun, cute, and just when it feels like everything’s about to fall apart, there’s the exhilarating little twist at the end that leaves watchers feel like they’re floating on air.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures)
#17It’s true that Cher is a little oblivious to the world at large, but she’s just so earnest and she tries so hard. She discovers a passion for doing good after successfully matchmaking a pair of teachers, and after a series of difficult lessons learned, she makes an honest effort to escape her privileged bubble and become a better person. Like we all should.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#18Thelma and Louise, best friends who stick by each other no matter what. And when their girls’ getaway weekend quickly turns from frivolous to frightening, they find even deeper levels of loyalty to each other. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon have an effortless chemistry with each other, and Ridley Scott’s intimate and thrilling film never judges these women for the decisions they make — or for the lengths to which they’ll go in the name of freedom.
(Photo by Warner Brothers)
#19Enduring racism, misogyny, and emotional, physical, and sexual violence, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg in her film debut) transcends her traumatic life in the rural South, finding friends, strength, and her own voice.
(Photo by Sony Pictures Classics)
#20As a transgender waitress, Marina constantly endures cruelty and confusion from the ignorant people around her. When the one man who loves her for who she truly is dies unexpectedly, she finds herself in the midst of an even more emotional, personal fight. Transgender actress Daniela Vega initially was hired as a consultant on Sebastian Lelio’s film; instead, she became its star, and A Fantastic Woman deservedly won this year’s foreign-language Oscar.
(Photo by TriStar Pictures)
#21Sarah Connor makes many want to be a better mother – or at least get to the gym and work on our triceps. The once-timid waitress crafts herself into a force of nature, a fearsome and visceral manifestation of pure maternal instinct. Played most memorably by Linda Hamilton in the first two Terminator movies, Sarah may seem unhinged, but she’s got laser-like focus when it comes to protecting her son, John, from the many threats coming his way.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#22The return of blaxploitation queen, Pam Grier! What’s not to love? Especially in Quentin Tarantino’s killer love letter to South Bay Los Angeles. As Jackie Brown, Grier exudes classic cool with a tough exterior.
(Photo by Richard Olley/Columbia Pictures)
#23Jessica Chastain has made a career of playing quick-witted characters with nerves of steel. Nowhere is this truer than in her starring role in Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling depiction of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Maya is obsessively focused in her pursuit of the al Qaeda leader. She’s a confident woman who has to be extra prepared to survive in a man’s world. But when the mission is over and she finally allows some emotion to shine through, it’s cathartic for us all.
(Photo by Warner Brothers/ Everett Collection)
#24She’s the smartest kid in the class, regardless of the subject. The hardest worker, too. And she’s proud of those qualities, making her an excellent role model for girls out there with an interest in math and science. But Hermione isn’t all about the books. Over the eight Harry Potter films, in Emma Watson’s increasingly confident hands, Hermione reveals her resourcefulness, loyalty, and grace. She’s a great student but an even better friend.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/ Everett Collection)
#25Howard Hawks’ celebrated screwball comedy benefited from a not-so-small change to the stage play it was based on: In the original The Front Page, Hildy Johnson was a male. But thanks to Rosalind Russell’s lively performance, as well as a few script changes she personally insisted upon, the character blossomed into an early icon of the independent working woman who’s not only just as effective at her job as her male counterparts, but also equally adept with a witty comeback.
(Photo by Walt Disney/ Everett Collection)
#26Elastigirl takes on all the trials of motherhood: She’s got hyper kids, a bored husband, and has to witness certain parts of her body unperkify. Elastigirl also just happens to be a superhero, with the fate of the world resting on her shoulders.
(Photo by Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)
#27Fans of the short-lived but beloved Fox sci-fi series Firefly were already familiar with Gina Torres‘ badassery as Zoe Washburne in Serenity. A veteran of the Unification War and second in command of the ship, Zoe is a strong and loyal ally who rarely pulls punches, whether she’s stating a controversial opinion or engaged in a literal fistfight. With her free spirit and deadly skills, it’s no wonder she became a fan favorite.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#28Dolly Parton is a national treasure, and 9 to 5 allows her to light up the screen with her sparkling, charismatic personality. But while Doralee may seem like a sweet Southern gal, she’s got a stiff backbone and a sharp tongue, and she isn’t afraid to use them when she’s crossed. When she finally stands up to her sexist bully of a boss alongside co-workers Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, it’s nothing short of a revolution – one that remains sadly relevant today.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
#29The story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is one that deserves to be told, and it’s Geena Davis‘ Dottie Hinson who grounds this fictional account. She’s a talented local player who becomes the star of the Rockford Peaches, and it’s her quick thinking that brings publicity to the sport. When her decision to play in the World Series leads to a spectacular finish, she also demonstrates a very human vulnerability, making her a strong but relatable heroine.
(Photo by Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection)
#30Jane Austen’s classic heroine Elizabeth Bennet jumps off the page in the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley, who gives audiences an intelligent, down-to-Earth, sometimes literally dirty, but uncompromisingly steadfast leading lady.
(Photo by Everett Collection)
#31Never underestimate a sorority girl. They are organized and they know how to get what the want. In the case of Elle Woods, she goes after her law school goals with a smile on her face, a spring in her step, and an impeccably coordinated wardrobe. Reese Witherspoon is impossibly adorable in the role, with a potent combination of smarts and heart to shut down the naysayers who are foolish enough to judge her simply by her looks.
(Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection)
#32Talk brashly and carry a big sword. As Tom Cruise’s character unravels a complex time travel sci-fi story, a constant in his fluctuating world is Rita Vrataski aka the killer Angel of Verdun. But Emily Blunt gives life to Rita beyond burgeoning love interest. She takes the lead and makes the movie just as much her’s.
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
#33When Nick Fury sent that mysterious intergalactic text message right before disappearing into dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, eager fans knew what was in store. As played by Brie Larson, Captain Marvel is one of the most powerful superheroes in the MCU — if not THE most powerful — and she’s in such high demand that she spends most of her time battling evil on other planets. She shows up when it counts, though, and she can rock a mowhawk like nobody’s business.
(Photo by Paramount /Courtesy Everett Collection)
#34Though hit hard by tragedy and seemingly insurmountable odds of surviving an alien invasion, mother and daughter duo Evelin and Regan Abbott prove their mettle in A Quiet Place.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures / Courtesy: Everett Collection)
#35Played first in film by the groundbreaking star of the Star Trek TV series, Nichelle Nichols, the role was passed on to Zoe Saldana in the 2009 reboot film. Uhura, the USS Enterprise chief communications officer, was a critical crew member throughout the franchise in both TV and film.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#36Who can stand up to Hugh Jackman’s fierce Wolverine without flinching? His cloned daughter X-23. Dafne Keen imbued the preteen mutant, a.k.a. “Laura,” with a volatile mix of anger, despondency, obstinance, and hope – that we would very much like to see more of.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#37She’s Buffy. She slays vampires while juggling cheerleading and the SATs. But while Kristy Swanson gives the character a satricial bent, it’s the legendary TV adaptation that gives this character a lasting legacy. But the movie ain’t a bad place to start.
It’s the Super Bowl of fantasy series showdowns in the latest edition of Vs., in which we’re pitting the Lord of the Rings movies against the Harry Potter films – including, for both franchises, the prequels. (And no, this does not help either side on the scoreboard.) Do Peter Jackson’s big-screen takes on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels walk all over the movie adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s books like so many Ents stampeding through a forest? Or does the Boy Who Lived snatch up victory as if it were some quick-darting Golden Snitch? Find out as Rotten Tomatoes Contributing Editor Mark Ellis breaks down each franchise by Tomatometer and Audience Score, box office, heroes and villains, and one special wild card category.
The Lord of the Rings films are available to rent or buy on FandangoNOW, Vudu, iTunes, and Amazon. The Harry Potter films are available to rent or buy on FandangoNOW, Vudu, iTunes, and Amazon.
Thumbnail images by Universal courtesy Everett Collection
As we all settle in to stay at home and socially distance ourselves, the planet has been given a unique resource not often afforded in the modern world: time. With no place to go, what shall we do with this new abundance of free hours? Time to finish that book you have had on your bedside table? Maybe take an online French class or learn to play an instrument? Time to binge every series that ever was? Or perhaps, like us, you’re thinking of all the films you wished you’d seen but never had the time to before.
Maybe one of those epic movie franchises that seemed too daunting to jump into late in the game – don’t ever admit you’ve never seen an MCU movie, ever – or a series of which you’ve caught a few entries but want to fill in the gaps. Fear not – we have you covered with our Epic Franchise Movie Binge Guide. Read below as we break down some of the most beloved long-running movie franchises – like The Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, or the granddaddy of them all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and tell you the best way to approach watching them, how long the binge will take, and which titles you can skip. Because hey, even all the time in the world may not be enough time to make you sit through A Good Day to Die Hard.
Disagree with our picks or have a suggestion for a franchise movie binge? Let us know in the comments.
What is it: The film adaptations of the fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, set in ”Middle-earth,” the fictitious medieval land where elves, men, dwarves, wizards, and hobbits co-exist, often not so peacefully. Over the course of several films, we follow hobbit Bilbo Baggins and later his young heir Frodo Baggins as they go on adventures and battle against the forces of evil.
How many hours: Extended editions: 20 hours 30 minutes; Theatrical cuts: 17 hours and 12 minutes.
Starts with: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) 64%
Ends with: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 94%
Best way to watch: Some would argue the second trilogy – though the first by story chronology – from Peter Jackson was an unnecessary and bloated cash grab that should be avoided at all costs, but we have a better suggestion. We suggest you begin with the LOTR animated film from 1978, which will give you all the events of the films in a quicker and to-the-point format. Then, if you are compelled to see the best of The Hobbit live-action series, we would say check out the standard edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is the best of the three. We would also suggest you try to watch the extended editions of the original live-action LOTR series – they are more than worth it for the extra content. This recommendation would make for a shorter, 16-hour watch, which could be broken up easily over two days.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. The Two Towers and The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King standard editions are streaming on Netflix.
What is it: The 23-film saga that chronicles the epic adventures of various superheroes, based on the comics first distributed by Marvel and its subsidiaries.
How many hours: 50 hours and 3 minutes.
Starts with: Iron Man (2008) 94%
Ends with: Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) 91%
Best way to watch: Not surprising for a franchise that grossed over $22 billion at the global box office, but Marvel Studios’ 23-film, decade-long opus is quite watchable as is. Some folks would have argued in 2010 that Avengers: The Age of Ultron is a skippable mess, but as we detail here, it is essential viewing to truly appreciate the first four phases of the saga that culminated with Avengers: Endgame. Sorry for those looking for a shortcut, but watching it all is worth it. Viewing all 23 movies straight through, without breaks, however, is not the way to do it.
Instead, we suggest you go in release order and complete each day as follows: day one after Avengers; day two after Ant-man; day three after Black Panther; and finish on day four with Spider-Man: Far From Home. If you’ve previously watched the MCU and are looking to watch it in a new way, use our guide here to watch in chronological order based on the events of each film. If the thought of 50 hours of superheroes is still too intimidating for you, but you want to understand enough to get by, watch these character introduction films (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy) and these team-up films (Civil War, Winter Soldier, Avengers, Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame). Once you have finished that, check out our Oral Histories of the MCU, in which the directors, producer, and casting director who worked on the epic franchise break down all the behind-the-scene secrets.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. All of the films save The Incredible Hulk and the Spider-Man films are streaming on Disney+. The Avengers: Infinity War and The Avengers: Endgame are streaming on Netflix; and Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, and Thor are streaming on Amazon Prime.
What is it: Follow John McClane, a police detective who seems to be a magnet for maniacal criminals no matter which city/structure he is in, and proves to be a tough man to kill.
How many hours: 10 hours and 14 minutes.
Starts with: Die Hard (1988) 94%
Ends with: A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) 15%
Best way to watch: The original Die Hard is so beloved that many argue it’s the greatest action film ever made – or maybe the greatest Christmas movie, but that is a debate for another day. The film and its follow-ups have a loyal fanbase, and though the second and third entries pale in comparison to the first, we still say they’re worth a watch. The fourth film, Live Free or Die Hard, is a true return to form and, frankly, it’s where you should stop unless you are a true completist. The series’ most recent film, A Good Day to Die Hard, is the only PG-13 entry on the list, and without McClane’s iconic “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf–ker,” there’s really no point pushing play.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discounted Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Die Hard and Die Hard with a Vengeance are streaming now on CinemaxGo; Live Free or Die Hard is streaming on the Starz app.
What is it: Follow Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew, which he calls his family, as they shift from illegal street-racing criminals to heist experts and then finally emerge as a new crime-fighting unit that tackles the world of espionage.
How many hours: 15 hours and 57 mins.
Starts with: The Fast and the Furious (2001) 55%
Ends with: Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019) 67%
Best way to watch: As Dom and everyone in the Fast franchise says – quite often – this is about family. So, if you’re looking for something to skip, it’s hard to imagine who you’d want to kick out one of the family – though, let’s be honest, 2 Fast 2 Furious is definitely not Dad’s favorite. Without Vin Diesel, that entry can barely call itself a Fast and Furious movie, and the 2009 series soft reboot, Fast & Furious, is not much better and an easy call to skip, as well. We would caution against skipping third entry Toyko Drift; its charms are significantly more than its 37% Tomatometer score would suggest (something we wax about in our book Rotten Movies We Love). Not to spoil anything, but when we finally get Fast 9 in 2021, you’ll need to have seen Tokyo Drift to understand everything fully – check out #JusticeForHan after you finish the series, and you will understand.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Hobbs & Shaw and Fast Five are streaming on HBOnow; Fast 6 is streaming on FXnow.
What is it: Follow Philly underdog boxer-turned-champion, Rocky Balboa, as he battles various fighters in the ring, as well as his own issues outside of it, and later trains the next generation of champions.
How many hours: 14 hours and 55 minutes.
Starts with: Rocky (1976) 93%
Ends with: Creed II (2018) 83%
Best way to watch: This one’s real simple: trust us and skip Rocky V. Just pretend it didn’t happen; we’re pretty sure Sylvester Stallone did.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Rocky Balboa is streaming on the Starz app; Creed II is streaming on Hulu and Amazon.
What is it: The franchise based on JK Rowling’s phenomenally successful novels follows the adventures of Harry Potter, an orphan-turned-famed wizard, the evil He Who Must Not Be Named, and the Wizarding World they inhabit.
How many hours: 24 hours and 6 minutes.
Starts with: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) 74%
Ends with: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) 80%
Best way to watch: As this is a British series, allow us to put this as politely as possible: Fantastic Beasts is simply not quite on form. The first entry is saved by Eddie Redmayne and mesmerizing magical effects; the second entry is the first and only Rotten flick from the Wizarding World and very skippable at this stage. The original seven films are near perfect, but if you wanted to pass over The Chamber of Secrets you wouldn’t miss much – you won’t be too confused later in the series. (Though if watching as a family, this is one the kids tend to like.) If you follow that suggestion, you can finish the entire series in one day.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is streaming on HBONow.
Starts with: X-Men: First Class (2011) 86%
Ends with: Logan (2017) 93%
How to watch: The critics will tell you that both X-Men: The Last Stand (the third of the original films) and X-Men: Apocalypse (the third of the rebooted, second-gen films) are shells of their brilliant predecessors. And with the last X-Men film to enter theaters, Dark Phoenix, disappointing on the Tomatometer and at the box office, you should essentially skip any film that has anything to do with Jean Gray’s Dark Phoenix. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is admittedly a hard watch to suffer through, but you kinda have to just to appreciate the brilliance of Deadpool and its sequel, if only for what they did differently with the character. Every film that character is in after Origins highlights why Ryan Reynolds was born to play the “Merc with a Mouth.”
Watching in the order of events is the best way to approach things if you don’t want to be confused by the time travel that happens later in the series. That order is: First Class, Days of Future Past, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Wolverine, Deadpool, Deadpool 2, Logan. If you leave off the aforementioned weakest entries (The Last Stand, Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix) you can complete the entire series in one day.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. X-Men: Days of Future Past and Deadpool are streaming on FXNow; X-Men Origins: Wolverine is available to stream on the Starz app.
What is it: In these films, we welcome you to Jurassic Park, a theme park – and eventually various associated islands, mansions, West Coast cities – where dinosaurs have been genetically recreated to walk the Earth alongside humans. Over the course of series we watch as that combination invariably doesn’t work out well for the humans.
How many hours: 10 hours and 1 minute.
Starts with: Jurassic Park (1993) 91%
Ends with: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) 47%
Best way to watch: This was a subject of contentious debate among the RT staff: some thought the Jurassic World part of the franchise is unwatchable, while others had strong takes on Jurassic Park 3 and The Lost World. As this is only a five-film series so far, we compromised: Watch them all and make your own determinations. Either way, we all agreed that the original Jurassic Park is a bona fide classic, and if you haven’t seen it, please remedy this injustice as soon as possible. It only takes a day to watch them all.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is streaming on CinemaxGo.
What is it: Watch secret agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew of talented spies as they battle the world’s most dangerous criminals along with the bureaucracy of his own organization, the IMF. The films are based on the 1960s television show.
How many hours: 13 hours and 3 minutes.
Starts with: Mission: Impossible (1996) 67%
Ends with: Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) 98%
Best way to watch: It’s apparent after six films (with a seventh on the way): Tom Cruise really likes playing Ethan Hunt. And with every film, Cruise looks to top the jaw-dropping stunts from the last. Still, there is a stark contrast between the first three films and the rest, in regards to quality and scope. Many will tell you the second film, directed by John Woo, and the third, directed by J.J. Abrams, are the weakest of the set, but they’re still thoroughly enjoyable and feature some truly astonishing stunts – so we suggest you watch them all. And thankfully this is not – yes, we’re gonna say it – impossible to do in one or two days.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Mission Impossible: Fallout is streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu; Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation are streaming on FXNow.
What is it: James Bond, MI6 intelligence officer and international playboy, charms women, thwarts terrorist plots, and sips a shaken martini in well-tailored suits. Based on Ian Fleming’s iconic novels.
How many hours: 55 hours and 11 minutes.
Starts with: Dr. No (1962) 95%
Ends with: Spectre (2015) 63%
Best way to watch: For completists, we recommend you start with the Connery films on day one, then do a day of Timothy Dalton, David Niven (the satire Casino Royale from 1967), and George Lazenby’s films, adding one or two of Roger Moore’s. Finish with Moore on day three, then do a full day of Pierce Brosnan for day four, and end the series on day five with Daniel Craig. If that’s a bit too daunting, you can break up the films we suggested for one day across two days instead. If you’re looking for a few to skip, we’d suggest A View to Kill and Octopussy. We’d also suggest you skip Never Say Never Again, as it is a shadow of Connery’s older work; Moonraker is only enjoyable for how laughable it is; and there’s not enough vodka on earth to make The World is Not Enough a good time. Quantum of Solace is another one you can miss, but at least watch the opening scene – it’s fantastic.
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, Itunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day are streaming on Netflix; Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale (1967) are streaming on HBONow.
What is it: These are the stories of the USS Enterprise, crafted for the silver screen. Watch Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and later Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) as they lead their crews to the furthest reaches of the universe on a peacekeeping mission to discover new worlds. The films are based on the Star Trek television series and its subsequent spin-offs.
How many hours: 25 hours and 17 minutes.
Starts with: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 51%
Ends with: Star Trek Beyond (2016) 86%
Best way to watch: At the risk of angering the original series Trekkies, the first film – Star Trek: The Motion Picture – is simply not very good (it’s 42% on the Tomatometer). The same can be said of The Final Frontier. When we shift into The Next Generation part of the franchise, the series starts off strong but fizzles with Star Trek: Nemesis. We suggest you should skip those four. When you start the reboot franchise, some would advise you to skip Star Trek: Into Darkness, which was much maligned by the fandom but which we say is worth seeing for Benedict Cumberbatch, if nothing else. As far as ordering your binge, watching the series as the films were released is the way to go. Begin with the first set of films featuring the original series characters, followed by the films centering on the cast of The Next Generation, and finish with the reboot films that started in 2009. If you are skipping films following our advice, the new order is original series (The Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country), followed by the Next Generation films (Generations, First Contact, Insurrection), and finishing with the 2009 reboot films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond).
Where to watch: FandangoNOW (Discount Bundle), Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay. Star Treks 1-6, First Contact, Insurrection, and Generations are streaming Amazon; Star Trek: Into Darkness is streaming on FXnow; and Star Trek Nemesis, First Contact, Generations are streaming on Crackle.
Thumbnail image: yParamount, Paramount, courtesy of the Everett Collection
(Photo by courtesy of HBO)
As this year’s Marvel’s Spider-Man proved, games based on popular film and television properties are best served when they don’t attempt to retell the same stories we’ve already seen on the big and small screens. Following in Spidey’s spandex footsteps, a number of new and upcoming games have adopted similar approaches, cleverly expanding on existing universes rather than retreading them for the interactive entertainment medium.
From blockbuster film franchises (Fast & Furious) to streaming serial hits (Game of Thrones), more and more of our favorite fictional universes are offering fresh, original opportunities for fans to interact with their characters, live in their worlds, and even shape their stories.
Whether you’re a gamepad-clutching Potter fan, a Ghostbusting smartphone geek, or a virtual reality enthusiast with a superhero complex, these 12 titles include some that should keep you busy between TV binge sessions and movie marathons this holiday season, a few great video games to give as gifts for Christmas, and others that you can look forward to in 2019.
How to give mobile games as gifts: iOS | Android
Developer: Nerial
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Systems: iOS, Android, Steam
Release Date: Available now
Game of Thrones doesn’t return to HBO until next year, but winter has already come in the latest game based on the Seven Kingdoms-conquering series. Offering a fun twist on the high-fantasy franchise, Reigns: Game of Thrones puts players under the capes and crowns of would-be rulers — from Sansa and Tyrion to Cersei and Daenerys — and lets them live out potential alternate futures and fates based on Melisandre’s mysterious visions.
Developer: Next Age
Publisher: FourThirtyThree Inc.
Systems: iOS, Android
Release Date: Available now
A new take on the location-based, augmented-reality genre that saw millions of players capturing Pokemon in their local park, Ghostbusters World puts players behind a Proton Pack. Well, fans will actually wield their smartphones, but they’ll barely notice the difference once they’re using the smart-devices to suck up Slimer, battle the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in their backyard, and bust hundreds of other ghosts in real-world locations.
Developer: Wolf & Wood
Publisher: Fun Train
Systems: PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
Release Date: Available now
Thanks to the immersion-cranking effects of virtual reality, The Exorcist: Legion VR subjects fans to scares more terrifying than those that defined the classic horror franchise. Beneath the reality-ratcheting headset, players assume the role of a demon-hunting detective who — over the course of five nerve-fraying episodes – explores creepy tombs, investigates ritualistic killings and, of course, raises a few crucifixes in the face of demonic possession.
Developer: Survios
Publisher: Survios
Systems: PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
Release Date: Available now
Based on the rejuvenated Rocky franchise, Creed: Rise to Glory isn’t just another mindless, button-mashing boxing game. Brought to face-pummeling life in virtual reality, the experience not only puts you in the gloves of Adonis Creed — while training with the Italian Stallion himself — but its physical gameplay offers a workout that’d make Ivan Drago break a sweat.
Developer: Sanzaru Games
Publisher: Oculus Studios
Systems: Oculus Rift
Release Date: Available now
Marvel fans who’ve dreamed of smashing foes from behind Hulk’s fists or webbing-up baddies with a flick of Spider-Man’s wrists will want to suit-up for Marvel Powers United VR. A fan-pleasing mix of virtual reality and Marvel’s massive roster of heroes and villains, the game lets players unleash all the powers and weapons — from Thor’s hammer and Cap’s shield to Deadpool’s katanas and Wolverine’s claws — from a first-person perspective that feels incredibly real inside the Oculus Rift headset.
Developer: TT Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Systems: Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4
Release Date: Available now
Whether you’ve adventured through the LEGO Harry Potter games a hundred times or you’re a newcomer looking to bust some bricks in the Wizarding World, this definitive, remastered edition provides the absolute best way to kick Voldemort’s block-y butt. This Hagrid-sized compilation, which features both games and spans all eight films, includes enhanced graphics, environments, and visual effects, as well as a pair of magic-expanding DLC packs.
Developer: DIGIT Game Studios
Publisher: Scopely/CBS Interactive
Systems: iOS, Android
Release Date: Nov. 29, 2018
With Star Trek: Discovery prepping to beam up for its second season and Jean-Luc Picard’s return confirmed, there’s never been a better time to be a Trekkie. The fan service continues with Star Trek Fleet Command, a multiplayer mobile offering that combines role-playing elements and real-time battles to deliver story-driven, deep-space skirmishes that should please fans of any faction.
Developer: SMG Studios
Publisher: Universal Games, Digital Platforms
Systems: iOS, Android
Release Date: Late 2018
The next Fast & Furious film has been delayed a year, but fans needn’t wait till 2020 to satisfy their need for speed. Fast & Furious: Takedown puts players behind the wheel of 60-plus licensed rides, including favorites from the films — like Dom’s Dodge Charger and Hobbs’ tank-like truck — before letting them tear up the blacktop in missions guided by the movies’ popular cast of speed limit-breaking characters.
Developer: Blue Giraffe
Publisher: FTX Games
Platforms: iOS, Android
Release Date: Late 2018
This mobile-game take on the long-running CBS crime drama puts fans behind the case-cracking skills of a Behavioral Analysis Unit agent. Alongside favorite characters Rossi, Prentiss, Reid, J.J., Garcia, Lewis, Alvez, and Simmons, players race against the clock to profile suspects, analyze crime scenes, and follow the clues that’ll ultimately help the BAU team put the country’s most twisted criminal minds behind bars.
Developer: Ludia
Publisher: Universal Games, Digital Platforms
Systems: iOS, Android
Release Date: Early 2019
Ahead of next year’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World from DreamWorks Animation, fans are invited to reunite with their favorite fire-breathers in a match-3 mobile offering based on the animated fantasy franchise. Titan Uprising puts a fresh spin on the popular genre, challenging players to build the ultimate team of winged creatures by hatching, nurturing, and creating powerful dragon hybrids to conquer nearly 800 puzzle battles.
Developer: WB Games, Niantic
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Systems: iOS, Android
Release Date: 2019
The clever folks behind the Pokemon GO phenomenon are applying their augmented-reality magic to a new, Wizarding World–themed take on the genre. Of course, it’s the fans who will be casting spells, as they wield their smart-devices like wands in the real/muggle world to interact with the Potterverse and its populace of menacing creatures and mysterious characters.
Developer: Aquiris Game Studio
Publisher: Scopely/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: iOS, Android
Release Date: 2019
With Space Jam 2 headed to the big screen, it’s the perfect time for Looney Tunes fans to reacquaint themselves with their favorite friends and foes from Warner Bros.’ stable of animated stars. Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem invites players to do just that, as they build a dream team of toon brawlers, from Yosemite Sam and Sylvester to Tweety and Taz, to take on opponents in epic, explosive, over-the-top displays of cartoon violence.
It’s been seven years since Rupert Grint played Ron Weasley, but it could be 70 and Harry Potter fans won’t forget him. So when Grint found himself filming the second season of his Crackle series Snatch in Costa del Sol, Spain, he met Harry Potter fans unlike any he’d met before.
“[They’re] touching, quite tactile,” Grint said. “Hugs are a big thing down there.”
The hands-on fans didn’t hold up filming at all, however. Most of the scenes in Snatch occur in remote beachfront settings. And when the crew ventured into the city proper, Grint was impressed by the Harry Potter devotion he’d see — plenty of fans he encountered had their HP love inked on their bodies.
“The most classic tattoo I see is the Deathly Hallows symbol,” Grint said. “It was nice. They’re quite passionate fans over there. It’s kind of big in Spain. It really sparked something in that culture, I guess.”
Grint shouldn’t have been too surprised, since the off-the-grid actor — he’s not on social media at all — still gets snail mail from fans, many of them located in Spain. But hugs, tattoos, and fan mail are the closest Grint gets to Harry Potter these days. The movie franchise has moved on to Fantastic Beasts, Grint has pretty much ruled out a return. By the time the timeline catches up with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Grint would be old enough to play a Hogwarts teacher.
“I’ve kind of really closed that book, I think,” Grint said. “I mean, I never say never. I saw the play a few years ago, and it was very strange seeing someone else embody a character that you know so well. I’m very emotionally connected to that character so it was a very strange experience.
“If they made a film about The Cursed Child, I don’t know how I’d feel if I saw someone else play Ron,” Grint continued. “That’d be quite weird. A weird experience.”
(Photo by Crackle)
With 20 total hours of Snatch over two seasons, Grint has racked up about as much screen time as Charlie as he did as Ron Weasley. Although the Hogwarts crew reunited every year to make another film, they had the job security of seven books to assure them they were coming back. Season 2 of Snatch was more of a gift.
“This was a little bit more unexpected,” Grint said. “With Potter we always knew that was coming around the corner. It was a much more intense process. Plus I was in school as well, so it was a whole other kind of thing. It’s a very similar experience on Potter really, really getting to know one character you can grow over a long period of time. I really enjoy that.”
The second season of the Crackle series was delayed, and its location was changed several times before the details came together. Series creator Alex De Rakoff considered seasons in Colombia, Fiji, and the Dominican Republic, and each would have told a different story. But something about Spain just made the most sense.
“That is a perfect place to set Snatch, I think: the Costa del Sol,” Grint said. “A lot of British criminals, it’s their first port of call when they leave the country. They go to the Costa Del Sol and hide out. You can really feel that in the air. This place is probably, at that very moment, hiding a lot of bank robbers.”
Season 2 reveals that, after the gang sailed away from England with the money at the end of season 1, hijackers attack the boat on the way to Spain and make off with the score. The group washes up on the beach and subsequently attempts to go straight by running a beachside bar. Albert (Luke Pasqualino) especially wants to run a legitimate business, but it’s not long before the life of crime comes calling again.
(Photo by Sony Crackle)
This restart means it’s a perfect entry point for people who didn’t see season 1.
“The first season is rarely referenced really,” Grint said. “I think it helps to know these characters but it’s a good point because we have nothing. We have to start again. Now Albert is in control, and he’s telling us all what to do, which is kind of great for Charlie.”
Charlie isn’t necessarily made for the criminal life, which made him a very difficult character for Grint to wrap his head around.
“He’s a very strange character,” Grint said. “You never really know where it’s going to go. He is kind of an illusion. Charlie’s just not a very natural fit for this kind of world. He’s just not made for this. He hates violence. He hates guns, which is kind of a problem with this vocation. It’s quite interesting watching him struggle.
“I think in this season he’s very much desperate to take charge,” Grint continued. “That’s why he and Albert butt heads a lot. They’ve got very different strategic plans.”
(Photo by Sony Crackle)
Adapting to the Spanish lifestyle was a major task for both the actors and the characters of Snatch — style included. Charlie still wears suave suits, but they’re much more colorful and bright.
“It’s something I’d never wear myself,” Grint admitted. “It wasn’t the most practical thing to wear in this really hot season, but it was fun. There was a light blue one that was quite cool. The cravats were a new thing as well. Quite an accessory. Whenever you can get as much costume as you can possibly get, it’s more layers, the more of a mask to escape into.”
Even less comfortable was the fake tan they painted on Grint to simulate having spent months luxuriating on the beach.
“They’ve bronzed me up, because he’s supposed to be there for six months, and I am the most palest, transparent person,” Grint said. “They used a lot of fake tan.”
Television has been a fruitful place for the former Hogwarts class. Tom Felton did Murder in the First, an arc on The Flash and the upcoming Origin. Even Daniel Radcliffe has the upcoming comedy Miracle Workers. While separate careers have kept them apart, Grint says the Harry Potter cast will always have a bond.
“We all experienced such a unique way of growing up, there’ll always be a bond there,” Grint said. “Whenever we do see each other, it’s very quick and very easy to reconnect, just like we never left. It was a mad, mad time in our lives, and I think it’s been nice to do new things and unwind from that. We’re still very proud to be a part of it. It’s great to see it live on in lots of different ways.”
Snatch season 2 hits Crackle on Thursday, September 13.
The Harry Potter film franchise ruled the box office for a decade, but it also managed the uncommon feat of earning Certified Fresh status for every single one of its installments. It remains one of the most successful movie sagas of all time, and it’s even spawned a spinoff series — currently in progress — with the Fantastic Beasts franchise. With all of that in mind, we decided to take a look back at every Harry Potter movie ranked, Total Recall style!
(Photo by Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. courtesy Everett Collection)
After struggling for years to trim J.K. Rowling’s increasingly unwieldy books down to feature length, Warner Bros. decided to split the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into two films — a controversial move that was applauded by those who felt it would give the filmmakers an opportunity to spend more time fleshing out the story, and derided by others, who saw it as a money-grubbing move by the studio. Whatever the reasons for the split, it meant that Deathly Hallows, Part 1 would end roughly in the middle of the book, which finds Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the run from Voldemort and his minions while they struggle to find and destroy the Horcruxes — bits of the Dark Lord’s soul, magically preserved in a series of artifacts, granting him immortality as long as they exist. It all adds up to a film that couldn’t help but feel like a setup for the final chapter, which had a definite dampening effect on some critics’ enthusiasm. For others, though, the penultimate Potter stood on its own merits: “Even though it ends in the middle,” argued the New York Times’ A.O. Scott, it “finds notes of anxious suspense and grave emotion to send its characters, and its fans, into the last round.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
As the curtain rises on the fifth Potter film, the wizarding world is in a tizzy over Lord Voldemort’s return, split between two factions: those who believe Harry’s contention that He Who Must Not Be Named is back for vengeance, and those who think the whole thing is nonsense. Unfortunately, Hogwarts’ newest professor, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), falls squarely into the latter camp — and when Harry, Ron, and Hermione take it upon themselves to lead a group of students through secret self-defense courses, she makes it her mission to keep them in line by any means necessary. New director David Yates and incoming screenwriter Michael Goldenberg had their work cut out for them when it came to whittling down the 870-page book, and ultimately, plenty of fans and critics felt Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix suffered in its screen translation — at 78 percent on the Tomatometer, it’s the worst-reviewed in the series. But even if it wasn’t quite on par with its predecessors, Phoenix was enough for critics like Desson Thomson of the Washington Post, who said Yates and Goldenberg “have transformed J.K. Rowling’s garrulous storytelling into something leaner, moodier and more compelling, that ticks with metronomic purpose as the story flits between psychological darkness and cartoonish slapstick.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
By 2001, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were a worldwide phenomenon, with the first four installments in the series selling millions of copies and helping reignite the market for young adult literature along the way — but that was still no guarantee that filmgoers were going to turn out when the Hogwarts gang showed up on the big screen. Of course, we all know what happened next: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone kicked off our ten-year cinematic infatuation with Ron, Hermione, and the Boy Who Lived, grossing nearly $975 million while doing an impressive job of managing the nearly impossible balancing act between staying true to the book and offering a reasonably streamlined film. It entertained audiences while piquing the curiosity of critics like Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader, who wrote, “I hear the J.K. Rowling books are great, and on the basis of this 2001 movie I’m ready to believe it.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
After setting up the war between Harry and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) with Sorcerer’s Stone, the Potter series set about untangling the mysteries of the Dark Lord’s past with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which posed a crucial riddle (Tom Riddle, to be exact) regarding the evil wizard’s true identity while foreshadowing Harry’s eventual romance with Ginny Weasley. Along the way, Chamber served up a deft blend of comedy and drama, plenty of magical thrills, and a terrific supporting cast that included John Cleese and Kenneth Branagh. “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is superior to its predecessor in every way,” wrote Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press, calling it “more thrilling, more entertaining and, yep, more magical.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
For most of the Harry Potter films, Voldemort lurked in the peripheral darkness, gathering his forces and getting ready to strike — but after the climactic battle that closed The Order of the Phoenix, everyone was aware of his return, and all bets were off. As Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens, Voldemort’s campaign of terror has begun in earnest, and his army is everywhere — even within the hallowed halls of Hogwarts, where Harry and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) are working overtime to thwart a plan involving Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) and Harry’s nemesis, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Calling it “the franchise’s best so far,” David Germain of the Associated Press praised Prince for “blending rich drama and easy camaraderie among the actors with the visual spectacle that until now has been the real star of the series.”
(Photo by Warner Bros. courtesy Everett Collection)
At a whopping 734 pages, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire nearly doubled the length of Prisoner of Azkaban, leaving screenwriter Steve Kloves the more-difficult-than-usual task of pruning away all but the most essential bits of story for the film. The final result clocked in at more than two and a half hours, but still skipped over or condensed quite a bit of the book. Fortunately, the story that remained — an account of an underage Harry’s surprise entry in the Triwizard Tournament, his struggles to overcome the challenges of the contest, and his first showdown with an ever-more-powerful Voldemort — was more than enough for filmgoers, who shelled out more than $895 million at the box office, as well as critics like Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote, “It’s not until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that a film has successfully re-created the sense of stirring magical adventure and engaged, edge-of-your-seat excitement that has made the books such an international phenomenon.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
In Harry Potter’s world, things are often not as they seem — whether they’re magical train stations, flying cars, talking paintings, or even the legends of long-lost family friends who have been locked away in wizard prison for murdering one’s parents. It’s a lesson Harry learned in Prisoner of Azkaban, which introduced filmgoers to the menacing Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), a shapeshifting convict whose escape is of grave importance to Harry and his friends — but not for the reasons they might think. The recipient of the Potter films’ best reviews (until Deathly Hallows, Part 2 came out, anyway), Azkaban found things getting mighty dark for our young wizards — and gave Alfonso Cuarón a turn in the director’s chair, taking over after Chris Columbus handled the first two installments. As far as Salon’s Stephanie Zacharek was concerned, it was “The first true Harry Potter movie — the first to capture not only the books’ sense of longing, but their understanding of the way magic underlies the mundane, instead of just prancing fancifully at a far remove from it.”
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
After teasing all that pent-up demand for the final showdown between the Boy Who Lived and He Who Must Not Be Named, there was a lot riding on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 — and director David Yates delivered with aplomb, using Hallows‘ halved structure to leave himself more than two hours to play with in an action-packed final chapter. Everyone knew it was going to be a hit long before it arrived in theaters, but few would have dared predict just how successful Part 2 would be on a critical level: at 96 percent on the Tomatometer, it outpaced every other entry in the series, sending the franchise out on a triumphant high note. “It has been extraordinarily fun, and now the decade-long saga has reached its grand finale. The best,” wrote Claudia Puig for USA Today, “has been saved for the last.”
(Photo by Matej Divizna/Getty Images)
Alan Rickman, whose dramatic breadth and distinctive vocal delivery made him a legend among cinematic villains and a versatile supporting player in a long list of critically acclaimed films, has passed away at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer.
Born in the Acton ward of London’s Ealing borough, Rickman gained his first acting experience as a teenager, although his working-class background prevented him from immediately seeking it out as a profession. Initially pursuing a career in graphic design, he eventually auditioned with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, earning a spot among the student body and winning several awards during his tenure at the school.
Initially focusing his efforts on the stage, Rickman picked up some early TV credits — including an appearance in the 1982 BBC program The Barchester Chronicles — but his first taste of widespread acclaim came courtesy of his Tony-winning portrayal of the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a role he held during the play’s 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company run and reprised when the production moved to Broadway in 1987.
Rickman’s first major film appearance arrived in 1988’s Die Hard, in which he played Hans Gruber, the delightfully snide terrorist whose takeover of a Los Angeles high rise is foiled by the indefatigable efforts of New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) — but not before hero and heavy engage in a battle of wits and one-liners that spawned several sequels and a legion of countless action-thriller imitators. It was followed by a number of memorable roles that included eminently loathable bad guys (like the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), comedic turns in films such as Dogma and Galaxy Quest, and several appearances as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise.
Along the way, Rickman continued to compile a varied list of stage and television credits. He moved into directing, helming The Winter Guest (1995) and A Little Chaos (2015). His voice could be heard in episodes of King of the Hill and Back at the Barnyard. He won a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in the 1996 HBO movie Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny — and as a recent testament to his range, in 2013, he portrayed Ronald Reagan (in The Butler) as well as legendary club owner Hilly Kristal (in CBGB).
One of Rickman’s most frequent collaborators, Emma Thompson, was among the first to pay tribute after news of his passing broke, sharing that she’d “just kissed him goodbye” and offering a tender eulogy filled with fond memories of their relationship. “He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics,” wrote Thompson. “I trusted him absolutely. He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”
Touted as the first great horror movie of the year, The Witch offers a visceral exploration of black arts and superstition in a bloody tale set within 17th century New England. The film inspires this 24 Frames gallery of the most iconic witches from movie history.
Lily Collins was born into fame — her dad, Phil, could bang a drum and write a hit tune or two — but she found her own way into an acting career, performing in stage productions as a kid before working as a teenage Hollywood reporter and scoring small roles in movies like The Blind Side. This week she steps into the limelight as the star of Mirror Mirror, director Tarsem’s visually energetic remix of the Snow White fairytale — the first, and likely funniest, of this year’s adaptations of the classic story. As the fairest of them all, Collins dazzles in the late, great Eiko Ishioka’s exquisite costumes, while getting to put Julia Roberts’ evil queen in her place and sharing her first kiss with Prince Winkelvoss, er, Charming, played with a degree of good sportsmanship by Armie Hammer.
We sat down with the English-born Collins recently in her adopted home of Los Angeles, where she talked about the movie, working with Tarsem and her thoughts on Kristen Stewart’s not-really-a-rival take on Snow. First up, she talked us through her five favorite films.
Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003; 63% Tomatometer)
These are so raw — this is who I am, these movies. [Laughs] They’re very girly. In no particular order… Love Actually. Most of these movies have British accents in them, because, being from England, there’s something about films that I watch that have a British accent that I just feel so at home with. That film I can watch any day and it makes me smile; and I love Christmas, so it kind of matches perfectly.
Pride and Prejudice. I love sweeping British drama period pieces and I hope that one day I can do one just like that, because, to me, I love old English literature. And I’m a big Keira Knightley fan. It’s just so beautiful aesthetically and in terms of story.
Harry Potter. All of them. [Laughs]
That’s cheating. Do you have a particular favorite?
Is it cheating? [Laughs] It’s hard to pick. I wouldn’t necessarily know which. I mean, I love the Goblet of Fire. I don’t know. Maybe the Goblet of Fire. I read those books so quickly when I was a kid, because that whole world was so, like… it took me out of my reality. And I just love magic and I loved that whole world, the creatures, and just how you felt so friendly with all the characters. The way they translated that into movies, I thought was genius. You know when they take a book, and they make it a movie, and you hope that it’s gonna be everything that you hope for and more? To me they just succeeded. I don’t know, I just love them so much. Every time I’m sick I’ll watch a marathon of them and I can repeat all the words.
Hopefully you’re sick for a while… I mean, so you can watch them all.
[Laughs] I know, they’re so long. I just had laryngitis, so…
Breakfast Club. I was actually having trouble because I would say Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club, but that would be three. Of all three, Breakfast Club is my favorite. But those John Hughes films, with Molly Ringwald and the Brat Pack, those are my favorite grouped films. They’re just so… they’re timeless. I feel like, even when you’re watching them now, they’re so modern, and the characters are so real. They’re just so appealing to me. I watched them with my mom when I was really young. I always would watch things with my mom that maybe other moms wouldn’t allow their kids to watch. I associated with them right away. I just really, really love John Hughes.
Who’s your favorite character in the movie?
I love Molly Ringwald. But I also love the basket case, Ally Sheedy — you know, with the pixie sticks and the crunching of the sandwich. She’s so fantastic.
Sabrina, with Audrey Hepburn. I actually spent my New Year’s this year watching Sabrina, and as it turned midnight I paused it and it was just her face on screen, smiling. I was like, “What a cool way to start the New Year.” She is just someone I’ve always admired. She says so much without saying anything at all. And back then they didn’t do such fast cuts in films; they stayed on a character’s face long enough for them to go from one emotion to another, and for the audience to really feel the emotion with each character — and she in that movie just goes from so many endearing moments to moments of sadness and laughter. It’s just such a classic, and I love black and white. So, that’s my list!
Next, Collins on playing Snow White in Mirror Mirror, what she thinks of Kristen Stewart’s take, and her favorite song by her dad.
I noticed you’re nostalgic for a kind of idealized English home, but you moved here when you were quite young, right?
Lily Collins: Yeah, I moved here when I was about six.
So you went back and forth between LA and England?
I did. I used to go for every summer, for like two-and-a-half to three months. The last two summers I haven’t been able to because I’ve been working — no complaining — but I haven’t been able to go in the summer. But I’ve been going at Christmas time. And I can put the accent on. I auditioned for this film, Mirror Mirror, with an English accent, but they went in a different directions. I mean, I did it in both accents. I can turn it on really quickly. There’s something at times that feels more just, natural when I have a British accent. It just feels very me.
Your mom is American?
Yeah, my mom is here and my dad, obviously, is English. I pick up things when I go back, and I still say things like “the car boot,” or “the loo,” or “the bin.” It’s just so beautiful over there. It’s something, like — ’cause I go out in the countryside, so it’s not the hustle and bustle of London. And LA compared to the countryside, I just relax right away. I just love going out in the garden and walking and reading and not answering my phone; just being and talking to people. You know, it’s like all these revolutionary ideas that you just don’t do in the big city. It’s a slower pace way of life. I love it. [Pauses to look out over the Santa Monica beach] I say that as we’re here with the lovely ocean — you don’t get that out in London. [Laughs]
Let’s talk about Mirror Mirror. Were you worried at all about playing an icon like Snow White?
I was more excited, I think, than anything. I was one of those little girls that created their own fairy tales in their head, growing up, and I know that every young girl has their own version of what a fairy tale princess is and should be. So I wasn’t really worried about making sure that I felt like I was everyone’s version of a Snow White — I just wanted to be a young girl that people, you know, that young girls as well as adult women could relate to. I felt like everyone has a little bit of Snow in them. So I wanted to be someone that people thought, “She could be a friend of mine.” Not a caricature of a fairy tale princess, because the [Disney] cartoon does enough justice. The cartoon is the cartoon, and the animation does what it does; it serves its purpose and it’s amazing. You don’t wanna just take that and make it a real-live person. You wanna take something different about it and modernize it and make it more real. My concern is that I wanted to make sure that she was a real girl.
You’ve worked with Sandra Bullock and now Julia Roberts — two of “America’s sweethearts” — and yet, in this movie, Julia is so awful to you.
She was horrible!
I trust she was more civil between takes.
Oh, she’s so cool. The second they yelled “cut” she’s all apologizing, and so sweet.
Is it true that she ripped some of your hair out?
Yes! In one of the scenes, because my shoe got caught in my dress, and I wasn’t as close to her as I was in the rehearsal. But we didn’t stop shooting, because my dress was so big and no one knew, and I wasn’t about to stop the scene. She leans over to do the hair pull, and had to pull me a bit further and harder, and so she pulled my hair out. I was like, “Okay, I’m not gonna react because they’ll probably use this,” and they ended up using that take in the movie, where she ripped it. They yelled “cut” and she goes “I’m so sorry!” So she totally was cool, when we weren’t filming. Even when we were filming, I was having so many moments in my head where I’m looking at her being mean to me and I’m beaming inside and so excited, but I’m not supposed to be smiling — so it taught me a lot about how to mute out everything else you’re thinking but what’s in the scene. If I was showing what I was feeling, Snow White would have been smiling from the get-go.
And yet she’s smiling at you, even while she’s spitting out the nastiest remarks.
I know, right? It’s like in high school when someone’s saying, “Oh I just love your sweater, it’s so cute…”
And they’re really thinking, “I’m gonna kill you…”
Exactly. It’s scary. You don’t know if you love her or hate her.
Have you talked to Kristen Stewart about her Snow White, and is there any competition between you two?
It’s funny, we’ve actually laughed about the fact that we’re apparently rivals — because we’re so not.
So you’re friends?
Yeah. She’s so cool, and I’m very excited for the other film. It could not be more different. They’re polar opposites. I think the advertising campaigns prove to everyone how different they are: everything from the tone to the rating to the costumes; everything. She and I, we’re very, very different characters and we just have laughed about it. I’m happy for her, she’s happy for me. I think there’s definitely room for both.
Tell me about working with Tarsem. He seems pretty out there, in a good way.
[Laughs] He’s so cool. He’s lovely. He’s definitely got an interesting sense of humor: you either understand it or you don’t. I totally get it, but things can be taken out of context. But he is — visually, he’s a visionary genius. He’s so… he’s a wizard when it comes to the aesthetic of a film. And also, when it comes to actors, he is all about, “Do you feel comfortable, do you feel confident? How are you feeling? What do you think? Let’s collaborate.” It’s so nice to work with somebody that truly has your best interests at heart and wants you to forget about all the nonsense or politics and just really focus in on your moment: “This is now, here — how do you feel, and let’s work on this together.” It was a really nice environment to be in when you’re taking on this kind of a role; when you’re fighting and you’re hot and you’re tired but you have a director who really believes in you. And from day one he really believed in me, and he never made me feel any different.
I’m compelled to ask this, because I’m an idiot: Does your dad sing “Lily, don’t you lose my number” to you?
[Laughs] Well he used to sing to me all the time.
Do you have a favorite song?
A favorite of my dad’s songs? It’s funny because everyone will probably go, “Really? Not one of the classics?” But I think, because of the sentimentality of it, the song from Tarzan: “You’ll Be In My Heart.” I was there throughout that entire process of creating Tarzan and the songs and everything. I was there for the process of each song, and the animation. Part of that song was written as a lullaby to me, so it’s such a personal song. I just see him as dad. Obviously I know everything he’s accomplished, but when I think of his songs I think of what touches me the most — and that song for sure is one of them.
Mirror Mirror opens in theaters this week.
“It’s actually a thrill to be talking about something else,” Daniel Radcliffe chuckles, pausing to consider a question about his new movie The Woman in Black. He is, of course, referring to the ubiquitous presence of a certain blockbuster franchise that has consumed almost half of his life on the planet. Radcliffe was just an untested 11-year-old when cast as the eponymous hero of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone way back in 2001; now, having triumphantly wrapped the series with last year’s Deathly Hallows, he’s a seasoned 22 and ready to spirit himself into the realm that lies beyond Hogwarts.
“To be honest,” Radcliffe admits, “I want to just cram in as many, and as diverse a range, of parts in films as I possibly can in the next few years — while I’m in this stage of transition from out of the world of Potter.”
Though he’s done a couple of small films between his wizarding gig (and received praise for his stage work in Equus), The Woman in Black represents the first significant step in the actor’s post-Potter direction. Based on a popular English novel and produced under the vintage Hammer label, the Gothic horror is set in a remote village whose children are being terrorized by the specter of dead woman. Radcliffe plays the young lawyer dispatched to investigate — and it’s a role the actor hopes will help cultivate a new screen image.
“The fact that the part is different, in that I’m playing older and I’m playing a father; there’s stuff that will physically separate me from Harry in people’s minds,” he explains. “But what’s more important to me is that the story of this film is so compelling — that even if people go in thinking, “Oh let’s see how he does in his next thing,” within, like, 15 minutes they’re going to be, hopefully, wrapped up in the story; because it’s a great story, and really compelling and scary.”
Audiences will have their chance to see Radcliffe’s transformation (and marvel at his dashing new accoutrements) when The Woman in Black opens in theaters this week. In the meantime, we asked him to talk through his all-time five favorite films.
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957; 100% Tomatometer)
My five favorite films change all the time. Well, no — the top three never change, but the last two are kind of up for grabs constantly. 12 Angry Men is, I think, a feat of writing. It’s brilliant. The fact that it all takes place in one room — I think there’s maybe two minutes, three minutes of screen time that is not in the one room in that film — and yet it is one of the most compelling things I’ve ever seen. I mean, you can’t look away. You’re gripped by the dynamics between the people, by what’s gonna happen, and by the fact that it’s a whodunit, based in one room, which is brilliant.
I think A Matter of Life and Death is one of the great works of imagination in cinema. It’s a brilliant story. David Niven could not be more charming in it if he tried. He starts off, you know, as a World War II pilot about to crash his plane whilst quoting Andrew Marvell down the phone to the mayday operator, who he then falls in love with. There is one shot in it, actually, of the heavenly court before it goes into session, which we absolutely — and I haven’t actually spoken to Mike Newell about this — but we lifted almost identically for the start of the Triwizard tournament in Potter, in the fourth film. There is one shot — because I think I watched Matter of Life and Death shortly after we finished that film — which I watched and went, “Oh my god, we’ve just stolen that!”
Well if you’re gonna steal, steal from the Archers.
Absolutely; if you’re gonna steal, you can’t do much better than those guys. So that would be one of my favorite films. Possibly — possibly — even more than 12 Angry Men.
Dr. Strangelove showed me, I suppose taught me, a lot about comedy. The stuff that’s funniest is the stuff that scares us most — because all good comedy comes out of fear of death, fear of humiliation, fear of public awkwardness, fear of, you know, all those kinds of things. To have truly, really dark comedy where at the end of the film everyone in the world dies, that was very funny to me. I went to the Kubrick exhibition and there was this whole section on how originally the film had ended with a gigantic pie fight, and it was cut; but in a way I get what that might have been going for — the fact that it is all so ridiculous.
Little Miss Sunshine: I find it to be the sweetest, funniest… it’s a modern classic, I think. And I think Steve Carell is brilliant in it; heartbreaking. Also the fact that it came out of nowhere — that I went to the cinema knowing nothing about it.
The fifth, because it is the film of my childhood, and I still think the skeleton sequence is one of the scariest effects sequences ever, is Jason and the Argonauts. That is the film that, within the first six months of a relationship of any girl that I’m with, I have to make her watch that film — and if she doesn’t react the way I’d like, then that’s kind of a deal-breaker. If you don’t like Harryhausen’s stop-motion then you are not going to be in my life. [Laughs]
Has it ever come to that?
No, fortunately not. Fortunately I think that they all picked up that the stakes were quite high — so at least they pretended to like it.
Really, what kind of awful person wouldn’t like it?
You really have to kind of just have a heart of stone to not be able to get into that film, ’cause it’s just brilliant. You know the other film I like? The Vikings, that Tony Curtis-Kirk Douglas one. It’s really good, just because it’s… well, it’s Vikings; but I think Ernest Borgnine plays, like, Ragnar, the king of the Vikings, and it’s a hysterical film — ’cause made in the ’50s, and there are these shots where they’re panning down the rows of Vikings and they’ve all got horned helmets and scraggly hair, and then you get to Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas who’re just perfectly coiffed, beautiful men still. [Laughs]
The Woman in Black opens in theaters this week.
When David Yates was hired to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, fans took one look at his TV-heavy resume and panicked that he wouldn’t be able to bring the same scale to the franchise that previous directors Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Alfonso Cuaron (A Little Princess) and Chris Columbus (Home Alone) had managed with aplomb.
If the resulting feature didn’t settle those minds — and it largely did — then Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince most certainly will. Yates is only the second director to return to Potter, and while Chris Columbus struggled to find a unique voice to bring to his second Potter, Chamber of Secrets, Yates doesn’t seem to have had any such problem with Half-Blood Prince. On its day of release the film is one of the best reviewed of the year, and certainly the best-reviewed Potter film. RT sat down with David Yates on set to learn more.
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David Yates: It’s great fun, actually, and I enjoyed it so much last time which is why I came back. We had some guests on set about two weeks ago and the first thing they said after they’d had a tour around the studio was that they couldn’t believe that it was a film set and everyone seemed to be smiling all the time. There’s a really positive atmosphere here, so it’s a great working environment; everyone feels very committed to their particular craft and what they’re doing. There’s a terrific vibe and while you’re creating, and working and trying to deliver story, that atmosphere really helps.
I’m having probably even more fun on this one than I had on the last one. The last one was quite intense because of the scale of it; these are big films to make, and they just inevitably require you to multitask a bit, and I think I’ve gotten used to that multitasking approach to directing. Which is now, for me, quite an adrenaline rush; I think I really enjoy having two or three sets going at any one time.
I’ve got a terrific second unit director called Stephen Woolfenden who I worked with on Order of the Phoenix and we have a very close working relationship. We’re like twins, really. Traditionally second unit directors go off and do their own thing, but Stephen and I work really closely together and that’s terrific.
I’ve also brought a new D.O.P. called Bruno Delbonnel who shot Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. He’s French and he’s got a really good sense of humour. So we’re having a good time so far!
DY: It’ll be warmer than the last film. Order of the Phoenix was dealing with teenage angst and it was dealing with that period in life where you start to rebel a wee bit and you’re struggling against authority and all of that, while this film is much warmer and much more romantic. It’ll have a much richer and more romantic feel to it than Order of the Phoenix which was a bit darker and bit more intense.
DY: There is. The sixth book essentially deals with the politics of romance. We’re tuning into the spirit of all of that and because the characters are all getting a little bit older and the actors are all getting a little bit older, there are more nuances, I think, in the relationships. There’s a lot more character development in this one.
With Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright.
DY: Yes. In the sixth book Jo talks about the Death Eaters attacking, kidnapping and striking terror into communities and she plays that idea backstage in the book. You read about it but you don’t experience it. We wanted to bring that experience to the fore for the audience so they kind-of felt what it was like and they could actually see what the Death Eaters were doing. We’ve introduced two moments in the film where we see the Death Eaters do what Jo actually described them doing, but off the page as it were.
In the book Jo describes the collapse of a Muggle bridge. We never see it but she relays it. I just thought it’d be really cool to see that, again just to make the audience feel what the Death Eaters are doing to the Muggle world. It’s such a cool thing to experience and it’s quite frightening. So again we just took it straight from the book, the notion of it, and we’ve just put it into our story at the beginning. None of our principal characters will be involved.
The other scene is at the beginning at the railway station; traditionally these films have always opened at the Dursleys’ and there’s a pattern, the audience is used to that. Steve came up with this notion of breaking it. You sit down, you see the WB sign, you hear the tinkly-tinkly stuff and then, oh, it’s the Dursleys. It’s that comic Dursley bit at the beginning and then we’ll get on with the story. Steve came up with this notion that after Order of the Phoenix Harry’s in this quite intense, dark place and he’s riding the trains to free his brain a wee bit and he meets this really attractive waitress who he really likes. You immediately set up the notion that suddenly these characters are a bit more sexualised if you like, they’re aware of the opposite sex. Their hormones are kicking off and I thought it was a really charming, lovely idea.
DY: Scrimgeour isn’t in this particular film, no. We struggled to keep him in. It’s great scene in the book where he goes to see the Prime Minister. We loved that and it was in and it was out and it was in and it was out again.
We have brought Quidditch back, because I love Quidditch. I wanted to get Quidditch in the last film but we were so overstuffed with things that it was really hard. There’s a moment where you’re making a film where you want to go, “We want to do this, this, this and this,” and fiscal reality and schedule reality kicks in and so we were determined to get Quidditch back this time. And it’s a really fun Quidditch sequence. Kind-of comedy Quidditch!
DY: [laughs] Dan’s not particularly pleased with Quidditch [being back] because he has to sit on this broom for five hours a day! If you’ve ever sat on one of these brooms, and I’ve never, it just looks incredibly uncomfortable. They’re not the most seat-friendly contraptions.
Continue on to page 2 as Yates talks about character development, franchise energy and how to bring things to an end.
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DY: All of them in a sense. Hermione is suddenly discovering that her feelings for Ron are developing rapidly and she can’t quite express them coherently and she struggles with those feelings because Ron isn’t the most ideal partner in many ways. He’s not particularly bright! But she just has a real soft-spot for him. It’s a wonderful place to put that character to realise that she’s growing up and she’s becoming much more sexually aware. Because she’s so cerebral, expressing that emotional side is a real struggle. There’s a real tension in that character that we’re developing which I think is really tender and funny and true.
Ron as a character is really developing enormously. He becomes the Quidditch goalkeeper and he’s sort-of slightly arrogant, there’s a sort-of middle-aged quality that develops in the character which is incredibly frustrating and irritating but very charming at the same time. He, too, is suddenly realising that he has this deep-seated attraction to Hermione and he’s a little slower at recognising it than Hermione is.
With Dan, what’s interesting about his development with Harry is that you’re seeing someone who’s learning to play by grown-up’s rules. He’s learning to manipulate and manoeuvre and flatter and do things which, in a way, you could argue are quite cynical. He’s been charged by Dumbledore to get information from Slughorn and he’s employing all these quite interesting tactics which we’ve never seen him do before. In a way he’s not been an innocent but he hasn’t quite operated at this level before. Harry does a few things in this story, and Dan’s doing a few things, which show you a very strategic side of this character that we’ve never seen before, which is quite interesting.
There’s a good line in the book and in the film which is that, “if the monster was there it was hidden deep within,” and this notion that Harry’s learning these skills and developing these abilities at an interpersonal level, a human level, the way you deal with people which could be used for good or bad, it’s interesting to see that in Harry who’s always just been Harry.
DY: There are a few connections that we’ve got. I think Deathly Hallows is such a stonking book, actually, it’s incredibly great fun. The big thing is Dumbledore’s wand and we’ve kind-of altered our story really to make sure we don’t tread on the toes of what comes in Deathly Hallows. The whole Hermione and Ron relationship, we had a kiss planned for this movie which we’ve sort of saved because we think it’s better to maintain that sexual tension. There are a lot of things we’ve given a nod to so we make sure we don’t tread on the toes of Deathly Hallows.
On the Great Hall set.
DY: Very much. I think it starts with Jo Rowling on the book side because for someone who is so successful and so famous she’s actually incredibly down to earth and self-effacing. She’s just a normal human being. And David Heyman who started this whole thing by optioning the books, he’s got a great spirit and he’s just a lovely man with very positive values. For a Hollywood picture you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone here at the studio at the upper levels who doesn’t want to bring anything but a good vibe to work. There is a very positive atmosphere around which I’ve encouraged since I started because it’s always been my experience making any film that you get so much more out of people by empowering and inspiring rather than shouting or cajoling so I encourage all of that and I think it’s a wonderful thing.
I like happy sets. Happy sets are good, and I think people feel comfortable on them. When fear arrives in any context it’s just boring and it closes people down. If people feel inadequate or if they feel bullied… It might work for some people but I think, as a rule, it just takes any joy out of the creative process. We have a very happy, positive set and people feel they can take risks and try things. It’s a much nicer place to come to work as a result.
DY: I hope so. Even though we’ve got this big machine I think that ultimately what I’m interested in, and I think what the audience are interested in, is the delicacy. You get all the bells and whistles, that’s a given, but it’s the little, nuanced character moments. I love these characters. We’re filming a scene today with Emma and Rupert and the nuance of that relationship is this kind-of stopping and starting, stopping and starting thing. It’s the delicacy of that relationship that you’re interested in and you want the personal stuff. I think it’s more valuable than the biggest CGI set piece ever.
DY: It’s really tricky and we’ve struggled with it a lot. I think ultimately it will feel like part of a bigger journey. I think that’s inevitable. I think audiences are invested in the series now, so rather than fight it I think my job is to make sure that it’s as tremendous a ride as possible but that the audience’s commitment to this journey will continue beyond this and that you feel that there are things that aren’t quite resolved. That’s an acceptable experience for the audience now, they can acknowledge and accept and embrace that notion that we’re part way through. We’re still trying to make the journey as complete as possible in many ways but I like the idea that this is an involving story and I like the idea that you can sit in a movie theatre for two and a half hours and still come out and go, “Wow, I want to go back and see what comes next.”
I think it will be satisfying and fulfilling. I feel confident that it will be an enjoyable two-and-a-half hours. But I think there’s more to come and I think rather than fight that it’s better to embrace it and I think audiences have done over the course of the movies to date.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out now.
As RT is brought into Leavesden Studios, past a pair of workmen poring over blueprints for a large, conical tower with a tall spire roof, the sense that we’re entering a slightly different world than the one we’re used to is immediately evident. Through a pair of unassuming white doors on the side of a nondescript warehouse to the north-west of London we’re lead into the heart of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and, indeed, the whole Harry Potter universe.
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When Warner Brothers took out an exclusive lease on the studios ahead of the production of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone at the turn of the millennium, that universe began to make its mark inside. Sets were built, costumes and creatures created, props stored. As we visit the studios in January 2008, 80 days into the production of this sixth and (kind of) penultimate film in the franchise, everywhere we turn past the perimeter gates there’s a familiar Harry Potter sight to take in.
Leavesden Studios, the base for Harry Potter film production.
On a trip to one stage, away from the main complex, we pass giant serpent heads from Chamber of Secrets, chess pieces from Philosopher’s Stone and part of the bridge from Prisoner of Azkaban. At one of the many prop stores dotted around the complex there’s a London phone box from Order of the Phoenix and in the creature shop there are models galore used in the production of Goblet of Fire.
But the main focus of the studio right now is on Half-Blood Prince and RT has arrived about halfway through principal photography. Familiar sets – the Hogwarts Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room – are fully constructed as they have been semi-permanently since the first film (in fact, the Great Hall set has lived on its own stage since 2000) and plenty of finished sets are in place for this movie. The interior of the Hogwarts Express train has just been used for a scene between Harry and Draco Malfoy, they’ve shot Christmas on the Burrow set – the home to Ron’s family, the Weasleys – and they’re getting ready to shoot some flashback scenes in an immaculately presented Potions classroom involving their new adult character, Professor Slughorn, who’s being brought to life by Jim Broadbent.
Daniel Radcliffe and Michael Gambon share the screen alone for much of the film.
Half-Blood Prince really belongs to Dumbledore and Harry though, as the old wizard prepares his young protégé for his final steps on the quest to kill Voldemort. Despite the grandeur of the sets they’ve created — including a giant green-screen warehouse full of crystalline rock that will form the backbone of the film’s cave sequence — it’s a smaller scale than Harry Potter is used to, as actors Daniel Radcliffe and Michael Gambon spend much of the film alone with one another.
“The brilliant thing about [the cave scenes] was that we did them at the at the end of a three to four month period where Michael and I had been working together almost exclusively,” Radcliffe tells RT. “For about the first two or three months of this film we were almost the only two actors in. The relationship between me and Michael had really built up over that time and got to the point where after three or four months we were absolutely ready to do the cave stuff.”
Considering much of the action takes place at Hogwarts, where hundreds of students go about their business in the background, the change of scale was more akin to a play than a blockbusting movie. “There was that kind of dynamic where you get to know someone very, very well in a short space of time,” Radcliffe continues. “Your relationship becomes based on certain things. I think mine and Michael’s relationship is very much based on our senses of humour. I think I now understand the way he works more and I think we’ve become much closer through it.”
Continue on to Page 2 as RT moves to the Great Hall set to watch filming and we meet Potter newcomer Jessie Cave.
But, for now, the action is centred on the Great Hall set. As RT returns to the cavernous creation and takes a seat at the foot of one of the dining tables that runs the length of the set, we’re presented with a rather unappealing looking breakfast. Racks of stale toast line the centre of each of the four tables occasionally complemented by a box of Cheeri-Owls cereal, some House Elf Special marmalade or a litre of orange juice stored in a hog’s head-shaped jug.
Every foodstuff we see is real, we’re told, because the actors and extras will have to eat it. When they’re shooting a turkey dinner from the top of the set, with everyone in their seat, the kitchens are on overtime – not only does the food need to be real but Health and Safety says it has to be replaced every few hours if it’s being eaten. On our table, though, this food has seen better days. We’re not in the shot so it’s not necessary to replace it and, rather appropriately, we spot a plate of fried tomatoes which are going ever-so-slightly rotten.
Ron (Rupert Grint) prepares for Quidditch – a scene filmed when RT visits.
The scene being shot today is set right before a key game of Quidditch between Gryffindor and Slytherin, two of the Hogwarts houses. “It’s the point where Ron comes in [to the Great Hall] and he’s absolutely terrified; a nervous wreck,” Radcliffe tells us. Ron has joined the Quidditch team this year and he’s having difficulty with the pressure. “To restore his confidence Harry pours – or appears to pour – Felix Felicis [luck potion] into Ron’s orange juice.”
Harry (Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson), Luna (Evanna Lynch) and Ginny (Bonnie Wright) all feature in the scene, as do an army of young Gryffindor extras, all dressed in house colours ready to support their team.
In between every shot, the film’s director, David Yates, is engaging with his young cast. Laughing with them, taking them through the scene and encouraging them to have their say. It’s a simple moment, but with every take it gets tighter and more interesting as he and his actors find the right tone. The end of the scene is changed in one of these discussions – ignoring Hermione’s complaints that slipping a luck potion into Ron’s drink before a big match is wrong, Harry and Ron high-five and leave the scene, no doubt providing the right momentum to take the shot straight into the match. 18 months later we see the result of this improvisation — it’s made its way into the final cut of the movie.
This scene also introduces us to the newest member of the young cast – Jessie Cave as Ron’s love interest Lavender Brown. Up until now she’s been somewhat sycophantically stalking Ron, and in this scene she bounds up to him and does nothing to settle his nerves by overenthusiastically saying, “You’re going to be brilliant today… I just know it!” Boisterous, girly and with big, frizzy hair, Cave nails the part and her physical resemblance to a slightly dorkier version of Hermione is perfect – the relationship between the two close friends has never been more strained than by the introduction of Lavender.
In another angle on the scene, Lavender Brown (newcomer Jessie Cave) wishes Ron luck.
“Ron is basically set off because he hears that Hermione and Krum kissed at the Yule Ball [in the fourth movie], and they probably did,” explains Emma Watson. “So he’s going off with Lavender Brown, which no-one can really understand because she’s seriously annoying and very, very girly. Hermione is upset because there’s always been something between her and Ron and I think she’s beginning to acknowledge the fact that she has feelings for him, which she’s never done before.”
Newcomer Jessie Cave agrees. “I think it’s brilliant that the character of Lavender was created to instil jealousy in Hermione and to act almost as a catalyst for the two of them to eventually get together,” she says. “It’s quite fun to play a loud character like Lavender, because I guess everyone has a loud character inside of them waiting to jump out!”
Continue on to Page 3 as we explore the human side of Half-Blood Prince and the return of Quidditch.
It’s likely testament to J.K. Rowling‘s writing that all of this hormonal, relationship-centred human story can come through in the penultimate book in a series about an epic battle between good and evil. The feeling on set is that Half-Blood Prince is very much the first half of the series’ two-part finale and that perhaps it’s the teen wizards’ last chance at innocence before they face their ultimate test in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The film opens untraditionally away from Privet Drive – the Dursley family doesn’t feature at all – as Harry eats at a cafe at Surbiton railway station and flirts with the waitress serving him. It’s a small character moment, but it’s crucial; if we as an audience don’t believe Harry has some depth to his character we just won’t feel the sacrifices he makes in the next film.
Harry gets close with Ginny in one of the film’s more human moments.
Between relationship troubles and the sense of exhilaration Harry feels as he learns what he’s to do in the final battle, this is a more human story. Even Quidditch makes a long overdue reappearance, though the producers will be delivering a new look for the uniforms and the game itself this time around. It’s been a long time, four years in fact, since a match has been played in a Potter film and perhaps that’s as much to do with a certain actor as it is the time constraints of big-budget movies…
“Dan’s not particularly pleased with Quidditch being back because he has to sit on his broom for five hours a day,” laughs Yates. “If you’ve ever sat on one of those brooms, and I’ve never, it just looks incredibly uncomfortable. They’re not the most seat-friendly contraptions!”
And there’s no small amount of comic relief in Ron’s fumbled romances with Lavender, either, both in the film on the set. Early on in the shoot they filmed the scene that immediately follows the Quidditch match – Ron kisses Lavender. “I didn’t actually see that one being done,” says Radcliffe with a real sense of disappointment in his voice, “just ’cause I thought it’d be pretty funny!”
Ron celebrates his Quidditch victory moments before his kiss with Lavender.
Of course, Rupert Grint begs to differ. “He was on his own for his kiss,” he protests, “I had a room full of people cheering and I was standing on this little plinth so that made it even worse!”
“Rupert has brilliant comic timing,” says Watson, “It comes very naturally to him. So I’ve been in fits of laughter to the point where we’ve lost huge amounts of takes because I’ve been corpsing!”
Continue on to Page 4 as things get serious and we uncover the steps Harry is taking to defeat Voldemort and Draco’s dark secret.
While these moments will undoubtedly lend the film a lighter tone, though, there’s no question that there’s also plenty of peril in the anticipation of the final battle. We’re brought, in this film, to the orphanage of the young Tom Riddle in one of Harry’s many tutorials with Professor Dumbledore in which he shares with Harry the memories of those who were there when Voldemort was gaining strength the first time around. “His need in this film is basically to kill Voldemort,” says Radcliffe, “and he realises that the way in which he’ll do this is to become Dumbledore’s favourite foot soldier. That’s the role you see him gradually moving toward in this film. He’s preparing for the seventh film.”
After the events of Order of the Phoenix, in which Harry learnt that Voldemort was exploiting a connection the pair shared to cause Harry immense anger, it’s understandable that he’d be keen to take the final step that’ll set him on his way to destroying this ultimate evil. What he’s learnt up to now and what he’ll learn especially as he gazes into the memories of Voldemort’s ascension is that there are plenty of similarities between him and this Dark Lord. Indeed, he recognises a similar sense of jubilation in the ten year-old Riddle at being introduced to the wizarding world as he felt when Hagrid delivered the same speech Dumbledore gives to Riddle to the similarly orphaned Potter in Philosopher’s Stone.
Young Tom Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin) in the Orphange.
In fact, perhaps what troubles Harry is that Voldemort had less reason to turn to evil – Riddle’s room, we see, is no bigger than a cell, but that’s certainly plenty of space in comparison to the cupboard under the stairs that was Harry’s home for eleven years, and while they’re both orphans, even Riddle didn’t have to deal with the Dursleys as guardians. As important as it is for Harry to understand their similarities, he also has to get to grips with their differences, and while they’re vast they’re also much harder to spot.
“What’s interesting about [Dan’s] development with Harry is that you’re seeing someone who’s learning to play by grown-up’s rules,” Yates tells us. “There’s a good line in the book and in the film which is, ‘If the monster was there it was hidden deep within,’ and this notion that Harry’s learning these skills and developing these abilities at an interpersonal level, a human level; it’s interesting to see that in Harry who’s always just been Harry.”
Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) faces his toughest challenge yet.
Another of the film’s young cast is given a chance to shine in this film more than any of the others. Draco Malfoy’s father Lucius may be in Azkaban prison after the events at the Ministry of Magic at the end of Order of the Phoenix, but his son has been tasked, by Lord Voldemort, to perform a very important mission. “He has many different challengers to face in this one,” Draco star Tom Felton tells RT, “David and I have spent many an hour talking about his journey through the film and where he is mentally each scene. There’s hopefully another side of Draco that you’ve not seen where he’s not just a slimy git; he’s a poor child who’s been forced into this terrible deed, which isn’t great.”
It’d be difficult to reveal the exact nature of Draco’s mission without spoiling the story, but suffice to say that the young Slytherin doesn’t perform brilliantly under the pressure. With the Dark Lord breathing on his neck, and the ever increasing sense of dread as he comes to the realisation that he can’t bring himself to complete the task, it’s a softer side of the character we’ve not yet seen. “He was always quite a two-dimensional character inasmuch as he didn’t like Harry,” continues Felton, “whereas in this one he doesn’t even have time for Harry anymore; he’s completely consumed by his thoughts on what’s going on around him.”
Continue onto Page 5 as we learn about the film’s adult newcomer, Jim Broadbent, who plays networking Professor Slughorn.
Felton at least has a connection to one of this film’s other new cast members should he need a mentor to help him through. Jim Broadbent has been brought on board as Professor Slughorn, Hogwarts’ new Potions teacher. “Quite coincidentally, the first film I ever did – The Borrowers – he was my dad in that,” says Felton. “It was a bit of a blast from the past, really, and I was very flattered and pleased to hear that he remembered me.”
Broadbent isn’t on set while we visit, but we’re shown a couple of Slughorn’s costumes, including a pair of light purple PJs carved from the fabric of a big armchair. In the film we learn that the professor is in hiding for fear of attacks from Death Eaters and when Dumbledore and Harry call on him before the start of term so that the headmaster can offer him the job, he’s disguising himself as the armchair.
Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) is a new addition to Hogwarts in Half-Blood Prince.
We also learn that Dumbledore has brought Harry along to play to another of Slughorn’s passions; he’s a chronic networker, always looking to ingratiate himself with students he thinks are or will be important in later life. As the legendary ‘chosen one,’ Harry would quite simply become the prize of his network of friends.
“I think Harry ultimately likes Slughorn,” says Radcliffe. “He thinks he’s a very good person and that his heart is in the right place, but he’s just very opportunistic and totally self-obsessed. I think Harry, in a strange way, finds that endearing and in an even stranger way perhaps actually likes the fact that Slughorn is fascinated by the aura of fame and glory that he sees surrounding Harry.”
One thing is certain: the film’s young cast definitely like Broadbent. “He’s such a brilliant actor and he’s so immersed in the character, which is always a treat to see,” enthuses Radcliffe.
Slughorn has come to Hogwarts to teach Potions and build his network of powerful friends.
“He’s a really nice guy and really funny,” agrees Grint, “and he’s just what I imagined Slughorn to be.”
There seems to be a sense that this is the first part of a two-part finale – or three-part if you count the split for Deathly Hallows as two films – and it seems that the biggest concern should be in making sure this film’s finale keeps its audience interested going into the next. “It’s really tricky and we’ve struggled with it a lot,” says Yates. “I think ultimately it will feel like part of a bigger journey. We’re still trying to make the journey as complete as possible in many ways but I like the idea that this is an involving story and I like the idea that you can sit in a movie theatre for two and a half hours and still come out and go, ‘Wow, I want to go back and see what comes next.'”
Continue on to the final page as the cast reflect on the looming end to the franchise and how they’ll feel when they call a wrap on Deathly Hallows.
So is the mood on set subdued by the feeling that the films are winding down? For many of the young cast this experience has lasted nearly half their lives – when the final film is released in 2011 it’ll have been more than ten years since Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were announced as Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Surprisingly, feelings are mixed. Some, like Grint, are certainly sensing the end in sight and already thinking about their plans for the future. “It does feel like it’s coming to an end now,” he says, “I’ve got to start thinking about what to do after this.”
But others, including Felton, are just happy to enjoy the moment. “We don’t talk about that,” he laughs, “It’s almost like school but twice as important as far as leaving it all behind. It’s not nice to think that it’s going to be all over soon. It gets me a bit upset and a bit teary.”
Harry prepares for his final journey in Deathly Hallows.
All of them are agreed on one thing though: they’ll miss it when it’s gone. “I’ve always had the routine of us getting together every year to do one of these,” continues Grint. “It’ll be quite sad because it’s been a massive part of my life.”
Of course, even as we anticipate Half-Blood Prince, when we visit the set we’re already keen to learn the secrets of the two-part Deathly Hallows adaptation. The films will mark Yates as the Potter series’ most prolific director, having helmed four of the eight. “It’ll be lovely to finish off the series,” says Yates. “We started doing things in the fifth film that we’ve carried through to the sixth film so there’s a continuation and there’s a sense of wanting to continue that momentum really.”
For the cast there’s no harm in thinking about how much they’ll enjoy filming the moments they’ve read in the seventh book. Radcliffe was quick to make with the spoilers as he told us what he was looking forward to. “I think it has got to be the walk into the forest to find Voldemort and, also, the King’s Cross chapter. I’m looking forward to doing all of that.
Yates (right, in the cream shirt) directs Michael Gambon on set.
“It’s weird because those scenes always seem to be the ones you shoot about two weeks into filming. Which is great because you get them over with and you’re not worrying about them, but it’s the difference between getting a book and going straight to the back and going, ‘OK, fine,’ and getting a book, reading it through, and being moved by it.”
“It didn’t end how I expected it to end,” says Grint. “But I was really pleased with the ending and I thought it ended really well. It’s going to be cool to shoot; I’m looking foward to it.”
Back on the Great Hall set, though, any sense that the films are coming to an end, that they’re making the penultimate chapter in what has already become the world’s most successful film franchise, and that they’ve got an explosive finale ahead of them is pushed to the back of their minds as they concentrate on getting this particular moment right. As the end of the working day approaches and Grint starts giggling at Cave’s antics immediately after sipping his juice, Radcliffe suggests perhaps he’d spiked it with laughing tonic by mistake and it’s clear that if there’s a weight on their shoulders they’re having far too much fun to show it.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens around the world tomorrow.
RenderMan, a piece of software created by those masters at Pixar, revolutionised computer-generated special effects when it was originally released 20 years ago this year. Designed to take the information in a CG file and “render” it into an image, the software made the creation of visual effects an art limited only by imagination.
“At [the time of RenderMan’s release] CG was nowhere in the special effects business,” Pixar’s co-founder and president Ed Catmull told The Hollywood Reporter, who published a feature on the software’s anniversary today. The feature, which explains the history of the software in more detail, includes a timeline explaining the product’s milestones.
From infancy in 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes – the first use of the name “RenderMan” didn’t happen until the product matured in 1988 – right up to this year’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, WALL-E and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, RenderMan has been an essential part of the summer season for its entire lifespan.
To further celebrate 20 years of RenderMan, RT scoured Pixar’s own list of movies that have employed RenderMan to pick 20 visual classics – in chronological order – that wouldn’t exist today were it not for the software’s creation…
Terminator 2: Judgment Day‘s breathtaking visual effects are testament to director James Cameron‘s passionate support for new technology. His flirtation with CG began with The Abyss, which also employed RenderMan, in 1989, but when he brought the liquid-metal T-1000 to cinema screens he showed the real potential of computer-generated visual effects. Much as the T-1000 is the successor to Arnie’s T-800, so Terminator 2 sent out an early message about the future of visual effects.
Releasing in 1993, Steven Spielberg‘s Jurassic Park was relatively late to the party, but it’s remembered, rightly so, as the first film which demonstrated that CGI could be relied on to make believable big-screen imagery. Jurassic Park‘s CG set-pieces – including a showcase sequence involving a herd of Gallimimus being attacked by a T-Rex – quite literally brought dinosaurs to life.
Despite winning Oscars for its animation department’s early short films, it wasn’t until the success of Toy Story that Pixar’s priorities shifted. Until then, the animation department’s short films were being created specifically for the purposes of demoing the RenderMan product to help push software sales. As the world’s first fully computer-generated feature film, Toy Story had a powerful effect on animation as a medium.
The highest grossing feature film of all time may be largely dismissed these days as a schmaltzy love story, but it made a huge – titanic, some might say – impact upon its release in 1997. From the realistic recreation of the ship itself to scores of computer-generated victims bouncing all over the capsizing superliner, Titanic‘s innovations set a new standard for what CG could do. With two places on our list, we’re very excited to see what James Cameron does with Avatar.
Nothing quite compares to The Matrix when it comes to pure visual spectacle. Yes, it’s true that the film’s influencers are many and its originality is arguable at best, but it came from leftfield in 1999 to deliver to a mass audience visual flair that hadn’t been seen in Hollywood before, and it pioneered “bullet-time,” probably the first CG visual effect to be parodied endlessly.
While The Matrix was all about showing off, Gladiator‘s use of CG was far more subtle, designed to heighten and make more expansive Ridley Scott‘s vision of Ancient Rome but not to take centre-stage. In fact, it’s so subtle most don’t remember it as a film aided by CGI, but its recreation of the Coliseum is breathtaking.
The film itself may be a bit of a disappointment, but Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within attempted to craft a lifelike stage through full CG animation. It curiously serves as both a fascinating experiment in the limitations of the technology and a moving big-screen treat at the same time. Its characters aren’t quite as believable as actors, but it’s still an insanely beautiful film.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring may have been one of the most anticipated films of 2001, but who knew that its release would set a new standard for visual moviemaking? So powerful was its visual design that it even made Warner Brothers’ big-budget adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was released around the same time, seemed veritably last-millennium by comparison.
Probably still Pixar’s most visually impressive feature, Finding Nemo‘s masterful recreation of the Great Barrier Reef remains one of the finest CG environments ever created. On top, the company’s brilliant grasp of character design and animation meant it wasn’t long into the movie before you forgot the technology and fell in love with the story.
Few could have foreseen the success of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl before its released. Based on a theme park ride and looking like the pages of a Disney catalogue even before it was merchandised to death, the film proved a hit with audiences the world over and spawned two massive – but much less interesting – sequels.
We’ve done our best not to include franchise repetition within our list – hence no Reloaded or At World’s End – but The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, with its haul of 11 Academy Awards, deserves a place nonetheless, for managing to take what had been established earlier in the series and successfully ramp it up for a masterful finale.
Roland Emmerich can usually be relied on to serve up eye candy before he can be expected to deliver a believable story, so the less said about The Day After Tomorrow‘s speedy global warming plot the better. Let’s, instead, remember the simply iconic visuals, including this epic shot of a frozen New York City, which redefined the disaster movie.
After a couple of middle-of-the-road Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban took the visual jump the series required to turn it from family favourite into cinematic classic. Alfonso Cuaron rebuilt Hogwarts in the Scottish mountains, crafted a fantasy feel to the environments and made J.K. Rowling’s world come to life for the first time following Chris Columbus‘ by-the-numbers adaptations of Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, like the other two prequels, may not be your average Star Wars fan’s idea of a great time, but from General Grievous’ lightsaber clash with Obi-Wan to Anakin and Obi-Wan’s epic duel, it’s full of expansive visual images. George Lucas claimed that a screening of early footage from Jurassic Park was what inspired him to set the ball rolling on his much-mooted prequel trilogy. The technology had finally caught up with his imagination, he said. Perhaps his sense of storytelling had fallen off the tracks by that point…
Christopher Nolan really did give birth to a new breed of superhero when Batman Begins first released. As The Dark Knight rides high atop the worldwide box office chart we remember how Begins first introduced us to a Gotham City grounded in the 21st Century to play home to a gruff but realistic Caped Crusader.
If it weren’t for Tom Cruise‘s public breakdown, which seemed to coincide with the film’s release, War of the Worlds might be more favourably remembered. Sure, Steven Spielberg‘s film might err a little too heavily on the side of fantasy – particularly with its schmaltzy ending – but the ride is well worth the effort and our early glimpses of the film’s iconic tripods against other-worldly stormy skies is simply incredible.
An odd shift in visual style from the subdued tones of The Lord of the Rings, King Kong was Peter Jackson‘s dream project and he pushed his visual artists to the edge to deliver a Skull Island that blended the latest in visual effects technology with a fantastical old-Hollywood feel. The film may not entirely come together in the end result, but it did serve up mammoth set-pieces that simply hadn’t been attempted before.
Danny Boyle‘s sci-fi movie owes huge debts to Alien and 2001, but Sunshine still looked like gallery of photos from the Hubble Telescope and presented a vision of our star that seemed to be hand delivered for a High Definition world.
Robert Zemeckis had tried, with The Polar Express, to take his own steps into Final Fantasy‘s world of realistic CG animation, but with Beowulf he more readily accepts the limitations of that approach and instead utilises the technology to deliver a real rollercoaster ride. Best experienced in 3D, in the IMAX, Beowulf‘s action set pieces push CG animation to its limit.
Furthering Pixar’s drive to put story first, the CG world of WALL-E seems almost like a value-add to a heartfelt human (or robot) drama that leads the film. Nevertheless, its vision of a post-apocalypic Earth and the little robot whose job it is to clean it up is simply masterful. That they can pack so much emotion into a small, rusty cube is testament to Pixar’s position as an industry leader in its field. Did we miss any better examples from Pixar’s list? Are there movies here that don’t deserve their place? Have your say below! The teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been released and we’ve decided, here at RT, to take a closer look at the minute and a half of new footage. Read our breakdown of the things to look out for when the sixth film in the Boy Wizard franchise comes out.
It’s the start of another year at Hogwarts. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) may make only the briefest appearance in the trailer, but we know exactly the film being trailed as the Hogwarts Express opens the film…
…followed by an overhead shot of a stormy Hogwarts castle. It’s on one of these large, conical towers that the film’s powerful finale will be played out.
Meanwhile a gaggle of over-eager extras do their best to avoid looking straight at the camera (and plenty fail, bless ’em) as Professor McGonagall (Dame Maggie Smith) struggles through the throng.
Dumbledore’s intricate memory holder is next to fill the screen, displaying a row of Riddle-related memories ready to be tapped into.
“What you’re looking at are memories,” Dumbledore informs Harry. These, he says, pertain to a young man called Tom Riddle. As we learnt in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle grows to become Lord Voldemort.
This is the most important, Dumbledore’s very first meeting with an orphaned Tom Riddle long ago, before his introduction to magic and before his dark, twisted descent into evil.
“I want you to see it,” says Dumbledore…
…and so Harry stares deep into the Pensieve, a magical device which allows for memories to be stored and viewed by third parties.
So as Harry peers in we’re in fifties London, evidenced by the beautiful car and rather dodgy weather. Dumbledore is making his way through to…
…Wools Orphanage. The book describes the orphanage as being found on a bustling, old-fashioned London street and for those trivia-heads in the audience, the film’s production in fact constructed the impressive exterior at the end of the old-fashioned London street they’d built to house Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The cold, dark orphanage is a maze of imposing and lifeless stairways, halls and rooms that look more like prison cells. The most important of these, which the headmistress Ms. Cole leads Dumbledore to, houses…
…Tom Marvolo Riddle, played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. He’s Ralph Fiennes‘ nephew, which makes him perfect casting for the young Lord Voldemort. “In all the years Tom’s been here he’s never once had a visitor,” explains Ms. Cole, and we’re about to learn how that fact has made its mark.
Tom wants to know if Dumbledore is a doctor. “I’m like you,” he says, “I’m different.”
“Prove it,” demands Riddle. There are shades of Harry’s first encounter with Hagrid here, one of many that cause Harry concern. His path is not so different from Riddle’s. They’re both abandoned and alone, and Harry fears that these similarities will lead him down a similar path.
Riddle’s first challenge of Dumbledore is answered as the older wizard sets alight the boy’s cabinet. In the book this is the storage place for the stolen trophies the young wizard collects which will soon explain his use of the Horcruxes.
Cleary convinced by this display, the boy begins to share his experiences. We cut to Harry running through reeds…
…these are the first of a series of shots clearly culled from the much-mooted new scene being added to the movie, involving an attack by the Death Eaters on The Burrow, the home to the Weasley family and one of Harry’s favourite places.
And we’re introduced to a new character, Fenrir Greyback, a twisted werewolf who’s playing for the Death Eaters, and whose lust for feeding on flesh has carried over even when he’s not transformed. He has his sights set on…
…Ginny Weasley. After an awkward flirtation with Cho Chang in The Order of the Phoenix, we’ll come to learn how important Ginny will become to Harry in the course of this film.
But while love blossoms for one Weasley, Ron has some trouble with poisoning this year. First he scoffs some chocolates meant for Harry and imbued with love potion and then, far more seriously as we see here, he inadvertently drinks a potion meant for an assassination attempt on Dumbledore. Potions play a big part in the film, as Snape takes over Defense Against the Dark Arts and Professor Slughorn – played by Potter newcomer Jim Broadbent – replaces him as Potions master.
The briefest of shots in the trailer is of Dumbledore placing the Gaunt’s ring on his finger. What we come to learn is that this is no ordinary ring. It is, instead, a Horcrux belonging to…
…Lord Voldemort. Fiennes doesn’t appear in this film — instead, Fiennes-Tiffin is one of two younger Tom Riddles to appear — but his character’s presence is stronger than ever, as brief flashes of the twisted Lord in the trailer serve to illustrate.
We’re also given a look at a key scene that takes place in a cave. Notice the crystalline, Superman Returns-like structure of the rock. This cave keeps, in the center, a bowl from which Dumbledore must drink to retrieve one of the seven Horcruxes Voldemort has made. With it (possibly) in hand, the professor and Harry battle away the Inferi (who we don’t see) by conjuring fire.
But the liquid has taken its toll on Dumbledore, forcing him to relive his worst memory ever and endure unimaginable pain in the process.
Back to Riddle. He shares his most important piece of information to the young Dumbledore. “I can speak to snakes too,” he says, “They find me. Whisper things.”
He refers to Parseltongue, the ability to understand and communicate with serpents. In the books this is a trait that can be practiced by good wizards as well as bad, and the film certainly suggests the same – Harry is a Parseltongue, another of his many similarities with Riddle. But it’s a portent of darkness nonetheless, in the books and films, and it’s a confession which stops Dumbledore in his tracks.
Cue John Williams‘ Hedwig’s Theme and the title card. Over this, a line lifted straight from the book. “Did you know, sir? Then?” asks Harry. “Did I know I’d just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time?” replies Dumbledore. “No.” Watch the trailer for yourself right here on RT and view our updated photo gallery here. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrives in cinemas in November. It appears as though David Yates will be the one helming the final Harry Potter film — but his decision comes at a price for fans anticipating another literary adaptation. Lois Lowry, author of the 1993 young-adult favorite The Giver, spilled the Yates/Potter news in her latest blog entry, posted Tuesday. What does Lowry have to do with it, you ask? Well, David Yates is set to direct an adaptation of her book — but he can only be one place at a time, and, well…why don’t we let Lowry tell it? Bad news from The Giver movie front. David Yates, the director currently working on the next Harry Potter film, was supposed to begin The Giver film next. But he has just decided he wants to do the final Harry Potter first, thereby postponing The Giver by several years. Maybe the opening of this film could be held simultaneously with my celebration-of-life service after I succumb to old age? Or the producers will decide to get a different director. Stand by. But without holding your breath. Good as this news is for Yates-loving Potter fans, The Giver is actually one novel we wouldn’t mind seeing turned into a film. We won’t spoil any of the plot details for you here; suffice to say the book is cool enough to have been banned by many an uptight school district. Hurry up, Yates! Source: Lois Lowry They’ve all been well-received by fans and critics, but the Harry Potter films — particularly the later ones — have come under fire for the progressively larger chunks of the books that have been left off the screen. When it comes to the final installment of the series, however, this all might change. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows isn’t the longest of the Potter books — that honor goes to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which weighs in at 870 pages — but as the culmination of the series, it naturally contains a number of crucial plot points. According to IGN Movies (reporting from The Mail on Sunday), Warner Bros. may abandon heavy edits and simply split the book into two movies. From the article: “There’s so much to fit that the view is the last movie should be in two halves. There is a huge battle when Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe, takes on Voldemort that needs to be done really well.” As IGN notes, rumors regarding who might be in line to direct Hallows have been swirling for some time now, with Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro two of the most popular names. Maybe they’ll both be able to take the job. Source: IGN Movies Add “the sexual orientation of a fictional character” to the list of things that are apparently capable of dominating an American news cycle in the 21st century. Newsweek reports that J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, has revealed that Albus Dumbledore — longtime headmaster of Hogwarts, the school attended by Potter and his fellow teen wizards — was gay. From the article: In front of a full house of hardcore Potter fans at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rowling, sitting on the stage on a red velvet and carved wood throne, read from her seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” then took questions. One fan asked whether Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, had ever loved anyone. Rowling smiled. “Dumbledore is gay, actually,” replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort’s predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. “I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.” From a certain point of view, it’s easy to understand the fascination with the Potter characters’ private lives — the books have sold a lot of copies, after all — but that isn’t going to make the inevitable purple-faced rants from apoplectic conservative pundits any less ridiculous. To read more of Rowling’s revelations regarding the post-Potter exploits of her beloved characters (including the romantic futures of Hagrid and Neville Longbottom), click on the link below! Source: Newsweek Daniel Radcliffe is getting ready to film Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but he was more interested in the seventh and final book than the next screenplay. Looking ahead to what awaited him at the end of the series, Radcliffe was excited to film the final scenes, two movies from now. [Spoiler warning: Radcliffe discusses the ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows below.] “In terms of the ending of the book, I was thrilled,” said Radcliff. “I was very, very pleased because I basically get the best of both worlds. I get the scene of my demise and also I get to live on after that, which is any actors’ dream. You get to die and then you get more screen time. It’s fantastic.” Though J.K. Rowling is the ultimate author of Harry Potter, Radcliffe still felt personal about his contributions to the character. “I’m not going to take this into too pretentious a route but there’s a quote from Chekhov when he wrote to the [love of his life] and he was with her when he died. He addresses a letter to her and he says, ‘Hello, the last page of my life.’ Which seemed very appropriate to me reading this book, because he has been such a part of my life now. I’ve been with him through all my teen years, and I was suddenly aware that wow, this is the last time I will take a journey with this character. It was quite a special moment.” Then reality set in. “I was thinking, ‘How are we going to make it into a movie?’ It’s going to be tough, but that’s why someone cleverer than me adapts them. I think if we get it right, which I’m confident we will, it should be amazing.” David Yates has just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but he’s already planning the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Where Order is an intense film about teenage feelings of isolation, Prince will go to the next level of teenage years.
“It’s about the kind of emotional and sexual politics of being a teenager,” said Yates. “It’s a very different swing, the next film. I think it needs to be for the series to keep evolving. In my work, every choice I’ve made, I’ve always gone for something in the neurotically opposite direction. Once I’ve finished something, I’ve stayed keen to stay fresh as a story teller to try something different. The Potter world is so rich. They’re so many things to play with in that world that it’s possible to regear so the next one will be very different I think.”
So you see, even wizards have the same problems we do. “One thing we said when we finished Order of the Phoenix was that we want a very different experience next time around. We’re very proud of this film, the intensity, the emotion and everything. One of the great things Jo Rowling does in the book is that she captures stages of childhood so the next stage of childhood is a bit more sex, drugs and rock and roll.”
That is, without the drugs. Daniel Radcliffe: Very good question; that was the overwhelming response to this book, a lot of people said that they didn’t like Harry because they disliked how angry he was. I talked to Jo Rowling about that and she just said, well, frankly, if people say they don’t understand why Harry is angry in the book then they don’t understand what he’s been through in the past five years; he has a right to be angry. But I think you’re right, for me it was possibly just as interesting to play the more reflective side of the anger and where it comes from; the loneliness, and feeling misunderstood by everyone, rather than the out-and-out shouting that people might have interpreted was what was in the book. RT-UK: How did working with David Yates inform the experience? DR: I think what David managed to do, which is fantastic, is that he took the charm of the films that Chris [Columbus] made and the visual flair of everything that Alfonso [Cuaron] did, and the thoroughly bombastic, British nature of Mike Newell’s fourth film, and he’s added his own sense of grit and realism to it that perhaps wasn’t there before. It’s the film, certainly, that I’m most proud of, and I think we all had a wonderful time working with David. Emma Watson: The thing about David that I feel is that this is the most genuine of all the films. This is the one that has a great sense of realism to it. The word that I connect most with David Yates is truth. He always wanted to find the truth in all the characters, and in every single performance. He had high standards, but I think Dan, Rupert and I really relished that because it stopped us from getting complacent the fifth time around. I think we all really learnt something from him. RT-UK: You get to fight alongside Gary Oldman in this film, Dan, and you seem to have developed a friendship with him. DR: In this film, more than any of the others, Gary and I got to do some really hardcore emotional scenes together and so I loved it. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and I think anyone would be hard-pushed to name another actor whose body of work covers so many different areas. I think he’s incredible and if I was to emulate somebody’s career I would try – and probably fail – to emulate Gary’s because I think he’s just a remarkable actor. We get on really, really well and in spite of the fact we won’t be working together again on Potter, we’re keeping in touch and that’s great, he’s a fantastic guy. RT-UK: Imagine yourself a few years on, a new set of young actors, 11 or 12, are about to start acting in a long series of films; given your experience what advice would you give them? EW: That’s very hard to answer. I think if someone had said to me, you know, this is what it’s going to be like, a) I wouldn’t believe them and b) you just can’t– DR: You just can’t handle it until you’re there, to be honest, it’s very hard. EW: Yeah. DR: Particularly with something like “Potter”, which is so huge and really is a global phenomenon. It’s very hard, even for us now, to see the extent to which it reaches, but I suppose just helping them to make sure that when they’re starting out to tell the people around them to be completely honest with them, so that there’s no room for sycophants to trickle in. I think that’s what makes the difference, growing up in front of media, is that if you have people around who are honest with you and don’t just say what you want to hear then you’ll be well adjusted. EW: I think the first thing my parents did for me was just, as far as possible, and in a way I think it’s quite extreme; I’ve managed to live exactly the same life that I did before I got the role. It’s really kept me sane and it can be so easy given how busy I am doing this to lose touch with the friends I had before. My mum said, “No, always ensure that you stay in touch.” Just making sure you have an identity outside it and in the gaps in between is important. Valuing your friends and the people around you, trying hard to have time for everyone you knew before, is the key. Rupert Grint: Definitely, yeah. I’ve got a really big family and it really helps; when you’ve got sisters it really helps to bring it back down to earth! That’s really helped me. RT-UK: How would you like the Harry Potter saga to end? DR: None of us know how the story’s going to end and I honestly don’t have any specific theories because I know that anything I could sit here and talk about, Jo’s going to come up with something far more interesting and exciting that anything we could hope to imagine. But if you were after theories, then I would say that Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna, is certainly the person to talk to. EW: There’s this theory that Hermione is going to die and I really didn’t have that in my plans for what she would achieve! I really want to see her putting her intellect and her naturally very caring nature to some worthy cause. I want to see her in another country protesting for the rights of house elves! Continuing S.P.E.W. or just generally making the world a better place and hopefully settling down with Ron and having some babies! RG: [laughs] I don’t know about Ron, I think it’s really hard to say. Everyone’s got his or her own little idea and I’m just not sure. If Ron had to die it wouldn’t be so bad because it’s the last one anyway! RT-UK: Wouldn’t you like to see him play Quidditch professionally somewhere? RG: That’d be quite good, yeah! DR: No, trust me, Quidditch is a painful experience; you don’t want to go through that!
DR: Mine is already pre-ordered from Amazon. And I’m hoping I get some free vouchers for mentioning that! RT-UK: Will you skip right to the back to find out what happens to Harry and the gang? DR: I’ll read it all the way through. My grandmother does that and it’s a terrible habit! RG: I’d be very tempted to have a little flick at the back to see if Ron’s still there! EW: It’s really hard; I can say now I’ll read it page-to-page and be really good and everything but it’s hard to say. When it’s late at night, you’ve just got your copy… I’ll do my best, I’ll definitely do my best. RT-UK: Emma, Hermione has a scene trying to explain to the boys why Cho was crying while she was kissing Harry; is that something you’ve found is true of boys in real life, that they just don’t get it? EW: [laughs] I’ll have to be slightly careful in this company! I love that scene, though, I really love that scene – probably most of all – because I think it kind-of reflects a genuine relationship that Rupert, Dan and I have in real life. I think it is funny, I can’t put it totally on the guys but I have to say that sometimes I think, what on Earth is this guy thinking?! I think both sexes at this age are just slightly bemused by what’s going on. I think it is very true to life – I have a lot of brothers and I’m friends with a lot of guys and I do think, how do you not get this? How do you not understand what she must be feeling? It really made me laugh, that scene. It plays brilliantly on the differences between boys and girls. DR: That’s not true at all! I don’t know what she’s talking about! [laughs] I think, in very general terms, I think both sexes have trouble understanding each other, and will probably until the end of time remain a mystery to one another. But I have to say I don’t think it’s all on one side… RT-UK: Kissing Katie Leung (Cho)… Was it awesome? DR: [laughs] We were both a bit nervous because we did know everyone was talking about it, and there was a knowledge that this was a highly-anticipated scene. Everyone has been waiting for this scene in some ways… I don’t know why I said that last bit because that is what highly anticipated means! [laughs] Erm, so we were a bit nervous but I think after the first few takes it was fine… We suddenly realised we were enjoying ourselves! RT-UK: And how many takes were there, Dan? DR: Well, no, OK, hold on a second! [laughs] This is the thing; a while ago I said it took thirty takes. Now, what I meant was that thirty takes was spanning over about six different camera set-ups over a significant period of time. But that has been misconstrued as meaning that I requested I do thirty takes on the kissing scene. Which is a lie! RT-UK: Did you allow Emma and Rupert to come and see you in “Equus”? DR: I didn’t ban anybody from coming to see me! Being on stage and doing “Equus” was fantastic, a great experience, and once you’ve been on stage naked in front of a thousand people you really do feel like you can do anything; there are no more inhibitions. It was an amazing experience for me and it was something I’ll be very, very proud of doing for the rest of my life, I think. RT-UK: How weird is it playing the videogame? DR: Very strange, I think. RT-UK: Have you played yourself in the game? DR: Very good choice of words! Very sensible, too! [laughs] Yeah, I’ve played all the “Potter” games and I have to say I got really competitive with my eight year-old god-brother over the “Quidditch World Cup” game; it was slightly ridiculous! I’ve played them, I’ve enjoyed them, but the stakes aren’t quite so high as when you’re making the film, obviously. RG: It’s really weird; I think all the merchandise is quite strange. And it’s all getting more realistic; especially the game. I’ve even got my voice on that. EW: There’s a classic bit of merchandise for me. I was in Waitrose the other day and I was flicking across the shelves and there was something like “Hermione’s Magic Muffins” with my head on those little sticky things you put on top of cupcakes. That was a new one! Honestly, every time around there’s something new…
RT-UK: Daniel; Harry gets angry in this film, did it make him more challenging to play without alienating the audience and making him unsympathetic?
RT-UK: Where will you all be when Book 7 is released? 
