There’s a bit of debate going on in my Wife’s office about which was the better movie, Transformers or the latest Harry Potter. Personally, I think it’s a toss-up since they are, in essence, the exact same movie dressed up in different clothes.
This could involve some spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the movies, so the faint of heart should turn back now.
Ok? Here’s the list of massive plot alignments.
- In both films, you’ve got a group of heroes (Autobots / Order of the Phoenix) and a group of villains (Decepticons / Death Eaters).
- Both the heroes and the villains are operating in secret, and have to avoid notice by the authorities (Section Seven / The Ministry of Magic).
- Each group wants control of a mysterious object that the government is hiding (The Allspark / Harry’s prophecy).
- In each movie, the heroes get to the target first, there’s a fight and the object is destroyed to keep it from falling into the hands of the villains.
- During the final fight, a hero is killed (Jazz / Sirius Black) and the two most powerful protagonists face off in a duel (Optimus / Dumbledore vs. Megatron / Voldemort).
- The outcome of the duel is decided by the presence of the young man who has been the main focus of the whole movie (Sam Witwicky / Harry Potter).
Apart from that, the only differences are in the details. One movie had wizards, the other had robots. One movie had a MacGuffin that was a glowing sphere, the other had a metal cube. Tomato, Tomahto.