It’s been ten years running. It’s gone through six cinematographers, four directors, four composers, two writers, and only one major cast change. It has made more than six billion dollars worldwide and after this weekend will likely make a half-billion more.

Harry Potter has become the juggernaut that rolled over the world in the first full decade of the third millennium. With the eighth and final film headed into theaters this Friday, AMC Theatres has given the week over to presenting all eight films at different locations around the country, beginning Monday night with the first two entries in the series, then the next two Tuesday evening, the following two Wednesday, culminating with the grand finale at midnight on Thursday (Friday is gonna be a rough day at work). So, with my lanyard pass and commemorative booklet (little more than a one-paragraph summary of each film), I am committing myself full-broomstick to a week of late nights with Harry Potter.

I should preface my experience with these films by saying I consider myself a Harry Potter fan. I don’t dress up. I don’t love the movies unconditionally. I don’t follow the actors nor do I obsess over minutiae (“But it was in the book!”). I also don’t approach the films as art. I don’t get disgruntled over the blatant use of deus ex machina or the less-than-stellar CGI. Nor do I gripe about the fact that 10-year-olds aren’t full-fledged Shakespearean actors. But I do love a good movie and with all their qualitative peaks and valleys, the Harry Potter movies are just that.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
It’s been a long time since I actually sat down to watch some of these films. This is usually the only one I watch. And by “watch” I mean I have it playing in the background during Christmastime while I do something else… like decorate. Seeing it with an audience for the first time since it premiered is a bit like having a reunion with someone you spend a great deal of time with and yet have never met. Everyone in the audience knows the movie backwards and forwards (“It’s leviooooosa. Not levio-saaaa”) and laughs in appreciative delight at the performances. Considering the dark road down which it eventually travels, it’s easy to forget the joy these youngsters once had in playing up their characters. Before the whiny detour she took in the middle of the series, I forgot how wonderfully charming was Emma Watson as bookworm Hermione Granger. Her introduction is absolutely priceless as she strolls into Harry and Ron’s train compartment and swipes the scene right out from under star Daniel Radcliffe and sidekick Rupert Grint. In this movie she is matched only by Alan Rickman’s deliciously nasty Severus Snape for maximum use of screentime. It’s a little rough getting started but once aboard the Hogwart’s express the movie picks up steam and never slows down.

Best bit: “I’m Hermione Granger. And…. you are?”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The one thing my wife and I always remember about our first viewing of this film in 2002 is the three-year-old boy who sat next to her. We knew it was going to be a long film and we were attending an evening performance so we wondered how long until this little boy went to sleep. He never did. For the entire runtime he never took his eyes off the screen. Considering the attention span of kids even then it says something about a movie when it can command that kind of attention from a child. Whoever he was, I let it be known to my wife that that little boy is a teenager now, much like the characters he admires. He truly was raised on Harry Potter.

As for the film, it’s definitely one of the weaker of the series but still has its own charm. It’s more or less a companion piece to the first film as they are identical in design. Kenneth Branagh begins a long tradition of fantastic Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers that never wavered, and watching him and Alan Rickman square off against each other in the dueling club is sheer bliss. Not to be forgotten, Jason Isaacs is exquisitely evil as the golden-haired Lucius Malfoy.

Alas, it is the last time we get to see Richard Harris in the role of Albus Dumbledore. Perhaps it was meant to be. Considering the tone of the series as it progresses, I cannot see his Dumbledore fitting in with the rest of the films. Neither can I see Michael Gambon in these two films. Either way, I’m glad he set the tone for such a wonderfully enigmatic character.

Best bit: Harry and Ron’s escape from the spiders in the Dark Forest still creeps me out.

Tune in tomorrow as the marathon continues.