The saying “the books are always better than the movies” is mostly true in my opinion with a few exceptions.
Books will always have more details then the movies so the main question is does the movie make up for the loss of detail in some other way. The main reason I like the Harry Potter films more than the books is the ambiance it creates which the books just didn’t for me.
To be fair, I watched the first three movies before reading the books and then decided to read them before watching any more. Whenever I was reading then, I always thought of the scene in the movie. They left more of a mark in my mind then the books. A while later, it feels as if I hadn’t even read the books and just watched the movies.
The details in the books didn’t make that big of a difference to my level of enjoyment of the movies. I believe that the things that were cut were more character development pieces.
Overall, the Harry Potter films left more of an impression on me than the books.
