Inconsistencies in Harry Potter Movie Worldbuilding
Feel free to add to this post. :)
Books: Every spell has a specifically designed form and function. For example, Rictusempra is a Tickling Spell. Movies: Many spells - including Rictusempra, Expelliarmus, and the majority of spells cast at the Department of Mysteries in Order of the Phoenix - are indiscernible in effect beyond ‘FLASH-BANG-SOMEONE FLIES BACK TWENTY FEET.’
Movies: In the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry performs underage magic in the from of Lumos. He is later expelled for performing… underage magic.
Books: Non-verbal spells are difficult and take a long time to learn. Movies: Everyone seems to do them often and with little difficulty.
Books: Wandless magic is almost never shown at all, unless cast by accident or by a very powerful wizard. Movies: Hermione (and possible other characters) is shown doing wandless magic.
Books: Expecto Patronum produces an animal shaped avatar, which can charge down Dementors and the like. Movies: Sometimes they’re just a big burst of light. Sometimes they take animal form. Sometimes they do something indistinct and leave trails behind.
Books: Avada Kedavra kills instantly and leaves an untouched corpse behind. Movies: Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort both appear to… explode. Despite the fact that previous victims of the same spell, in previous movies, did not explode.
Books: Unlike the younger generation during vacation time, many wizards are portrayed as completely oblivious of Muggle clothing. Robes are the norm for school and work. Movies: Children and adults, Pureblood and Muggleborn alike, wear Victorian-style or modern Muggle clothing.
Books: Apparition is simple teleportation from Point A to Point B. Movies: There is a lot of unexplained SFX involved. Shwoop. Fwoop. Doop.
Books: Voldemort flies without a broom, to the shock and horror of the Order. Movies: Apparently all the Death Eaters can fly, and do so while trailing copious… black smoke?
Books: Hermione states approximately nine thousand times that Apparition inside Hogwarts is impossible. Movies: Except for Snape, apparently.
Books: Animagi change in and out of their animal forms with all of their clothes. Consistently. Movies: In Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, McGonagall, Sirius, and Peter change into human form with clothes on. Then Peter changes into Wormtail and leaves his clothes behind. After which Sirius changes into Padfoot and his clothes transform with him. Then in Order of the Phoenix Sirius changes into human form sans clothes again. -_-’
Books: Sirius knows that Lupin has no control over his transformation, and instantly tells the kids to run. Movies: Sirius very pointlessly urges Lupin to resist the change.
Books: A normal wolf with a few minor differences. Movies: Two-legged chihuahua of death.
Books: They wear hoods, glide across the ground, and cannot fly. Movies: They sometimes have hoods. Sometimes not. Sometimes they fly. Sometimes they do not.
Books: A Pensieve shows an individual’s memories and the surrounding setting. Movies: Snape’s memories in Deathly Hallows Part 2 somehow include events he was not present for.
Books: It’s a person’s head popping out of the fire. That’s it. A fire, and their head. Movies: They did it twice, and both closer resembled Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle than a fire-call.