'Cine'cism

Break out your Time Turners everyone, and let me take you back to a time before Harry Potter. Dumbledore says about three turns should do. 

It’s the year 2000,: HBO miraculously does not have 12-hour gaps in their programming, and Entertainment Weekly does not have equally large gaps in their coverage prior to the release of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

The closest thing to a fantasy blockbuster is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Richard Harris, the soon-to-be-first Albus Dumbledore, is starring in the Best Picture winner “Gladiator.” Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon, the soon-to-be-second Albus Dumbledore, are working on Robert Altman’s last masterpiece, “Gosford Park.”

In fact, all the British actors the Harry Potter movies would later wipe the country clean of were currently working on interesting, award-winning projects. Even John Cleese and Robbie Coltrane had memorable roles in some of the Bond movies, whereas Hagrid’s only claim to fame is, “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

And yet here we are 10 years later, and the end is in sight, but not soon enough. The last, very good but very dense seventh book has been broken up into two parts, the second of which will be released in 3-D (it would appear even the magic of “Harry Potter” could still use a little more digital magic).

If the anticipation (or lack thereof) between each installment has grown through the years, imagine what it will be like following a cliffhanger with a 9-month wait.

And by the time the franchise is over, what will have come of it? With David Yates still helming the final two films, I doubt the quality will much improve to the point of Oscar bait.

The three lead actors have become stars, but their careers are likely over. Emma Watson has made very clear she’s done with acting. Daniel Radcliffe will have to wait even longer than Henry Winkler did to not be synonymous with his character. And even though Martin Scorsese said Rupert Grint should play a gangster to avoid being typecast, I don’t see his potential stretching much farther than a few British indies.

As for the rest of the cast, they will go back to what they were doing in the year 2000, or at least hopefully they will. Maggie Smith has been nominated for six Oscars and won twice. She needs another great role in her dignified old age. Alan Rickman is doing quite well as one of Tim Burton’s character actors. Helena Bonham Carter is the front-runner in this year’s Best Supporting Actress race for “The King’s Speech” and not for portraying Bellatrix Lestrange.

And audiences deserve to see Ralph Fiennes with a nose. 

I will say this: Harry Potter, either in the films or the books, has opened up a whole generation of kids to reading. J.K. Rowling’s and Warner Bros.’s efforts in populating the films into the highest grossing worldwide film series ever and the books into the most widespread collection of literature just in front of “The Lord of the Rings” and just behind the Bible, have done wonders for popular culture as we know it. 

Then again, if Harry Potter did not exist, the fantasy, teen romance novel would never have existed either. Robert Pattinson would never have been cast as Cedric Diggory, and that whole generation of kids reading would never have picked up the “Twilight” books. 

And the final installment of that franchise would’ve never been split up into two movies either.