Good, But There Are Better Stories

Rating: 9/10 (2 September 2015)

Harry Potter has no doubt, played a role in Pop Culture especially for books and movies. I find it very hard to believe as I'm sure most of you also find it hard to believe that this first movie came out almost 14-years ago. Where has all the time gone? I guess we're done with Harry Potter books since 2007, and Harry Potter movies since 2011. Harry Potter doesn't seem so much a part of Pop Culture anymore. I'd say the movies in Pop Culture now, are Jurassic World, Hunger Games, and Frozen. People remember Harry Potter, but I don't see that much Harry Potter franchise or people talking about it so much anymore. You will occasionally find the Harry Potter films on TV, like ABC Family where they occasionally have Harry Potter marathons.
I think the story about how Harry Potter was written is interesting. Let's think about it, the lady who wrote Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was poor and living off of welfare. The story she wrote was even rejected numerous times before finally being published. It obviously had been a huge success after hitting the bookshelves and with each new copy. There'd even be countdowns at bookstores right as the new books were coming out, back in the days before we had iPhones and when bookstores were more common. J.K. Rowling has become like the second richest lady in England, only behind the Queen Of England. I'd say that shows a story of success, and not giving up.
Despite all this, while Harry Potter is a good story I'd say it's overrated and there are better stories. I definitely don't think that J.K. Rowling should be the second richest lady in England just for writing a kids book, but Harry Potter has obviously appealed to kids and adults, my aunt has read them. I have to say, there are better written fictional stories where the writer hasn't been as well known or made nearly as much money. I've grown up liking DragonBall Z. I even hear people talking more about DragonBall Z, and wearing DragonBall Z clothes than Harry Potter. I worked at Amazon, and I would often times see DragonBall Z franchise there more so than Harry Potter. That's a good, more action packed story of Good Versus Evil than Harry Potter. It also is a story with lots of varieties of character like Human/Saiyan compared to Muggle/Wizzard. I'd have a lot more fun having a DragonBall Z marathon than Harry Potter marathon.
Japan has come up with other good stories. Like, I used to watch Power Rangers as a kid not knowing the show was using footage from a Japanese show, Zyuranger. It would have been hard to see Zyuranger back then in America. But, years later I have the DVDs, and I can't help but think about how much better Zyuranger is than Power Rangers. Japan also had another TV show come out in 1988 that is probably more remembered in Brazil called Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya, a good TV show. A lot of video game characters originated in Japan, like Zelda and Mario. In terms of writing Super Hero stories, no country beats Japan. No country also beats Japan in making video games.
I also used to read the 39 Clues books which were my favorite books for awhile, and I'd say better than Harry Potter. I wonder if they'll make a movie out of them. But, one movie I feel is WAY UNDERRATED is a movie called Earth To Echo. That is such a happy adventurous movie, while it's not my favorite movie I'd consider it THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE. My favorite movie is called Junior High Spy. The main character in that movie, Ricky Lazio is a cooler character than Harry Potter. His sidekick Jack is a much funnier character than Ron. Ricky's love interest, Kylie is less stuck up, and more pleasant than Hermione.
So, what I'm saying is while Harry Potter is a clever and good story it doesn't beat other stories mentioned above where the writers didn't become billionaires. So, Harry Potter is definitely overrated, and I'm saying it because of the movies. I feel like the movies do a great job in portraying Hogwarts, and bringing the Harry Potter characters to life. But, these movies while interesting are long dark 2+ hour movies where I feel like can be slow at times and have lots of Go Pee moments. A lot of the Harry Potter movies don't entertain me that much. They're not like DragonBall Z, where I could flip through scenes in the DVDs, and then want to keep watching. It's still entertaining.
So, while this review might be more of Harry Potter as a whole I'll briefly talk about the movie. I like this movie, as it takes us back to the introduction of Harry Potter/Hogwarts. It brings us back to the excitement of the introduction, and when the characters were younger and had higher voices. Also, when they had the House Cup which seems forgotten in the later books/movies. I also feel like the climax in this movie is like the most exciting climax, well the climax in the 4th is pretty exciting. The chess scene, and finding the right key were exciting scenes. This movie is truly a great fun way to introduce us to the first year at Hogwarts and the Harry Potter excitement.
I'd probably now give the movie a 7 or 8, but since I put a 9 on this movie many years ago, I'll leave it at 9.