Issue 3: Harry Potter is the greatest movie ever made
Yes, I meant it when I wrote Harry Potter is the greatest movie of all time. I know this because I am a staunch “movie-watcher”. I have watched movies during every phase of my life; starting from the days of old Nollywood to the dramatic Jackie Chan era straight into the black Hollywood and the early K-drama days till now.
When I was in my adolescent years, my father would come home from his frequent Lagos visits with American and Chinese “action movies” which had theatrical fighting scenes in them. We all had to suffer through them just like in a typical Nigerian home where the whole family had to watch whatever daddy chooses.
As a teenager, I had to watch whatever movies my sisters bought. They were mostly the “100 movies on a single DVD” types and you must be extremely lucky if 80% of all the movies play. It was always a game of luck. I enjoyed sneaking back to the living room with my sister, after my dad had gone to bed, to watch movies for a few hours during the wee hours of the night.
Then I started buying movies with my money. They were mostly animations (Disney was my favourite) and K-drama. I waited until everyone was asleep to watch the movies almost every night. The reason for the night watch was that it’s technically a crime for a child to be caught watching a movie in the afternoon in most African homes while we were growing. To make the case worse, my mother had (still has) a shop right outside our compound so that’s unquestionably our station post as children. We were the unpaid store attendants who never got time off.
My love for movies was so potent that I had to go to my university campus with a small television to continue my ministry. My favourite movie genre in order are rom-coms, sci-fi/fantasy and horror thrillers.
While in the University, I watched Harry Potter properly for the first time. The first time I watched Harry Potter, I was about 12 years old and I’d gone to visit a much older cousin who was schooling in the University of Ibadan, Ibadan (which later became my alma mata. My visit to her house outside campus was the major determining factor). She was watching the part that I later understood to be “Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets” but it was slightly ominous for me back then.
As a university student, I was chanced to watch the entire series and I have been hooked since then. I cannot count how many times I watched it on my “big-brained” TV before I downloaded the movies on my laptop. I have watched many movies before and after, but it remains my favourite series till the time of writing.
It has a spot in my heart, along with the “The Lord of the rings” series and “X-men” series. Maybe this had to do with the fact that they fall within my favourite movie categories. I mean, what’s not to love about them?
And if I say it’s the best movie ever made, you had better believed it is.
