Just got back from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” First, the good news: casting was excellent, with all the three young leads and Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid especially fine. The chemistry between the kids was good, which bodes well for future films. The production design also was first-rate, giving you a detailed look at what Hogwarts would be like.
But I came away from the movie quite unsatisfied; the word that occurs to me is “inert.” There’s nothing overtly wrong with this movie, but maybe that’s part of the problem with it. Chris Columbus hits all the marks, giving you the scenes you remember from the book. But you know how a child’s book report is just a flat retelling of a book’s events, without any of the spark that made it so interesting? That’s this film. You move from point A to point B to point C, but without the life behind the words. Imagine what Tim Burton, say, would have done with this material.
Of course, Burton would never have been given this project, because they couldn’t have been assured that he would follow the book slavishly enough for all the tiny cloak-wearing fans out there. “Harry Potter” proves, I think, that following the book is not the most important accomplishment a movie can make.
I absolutely agree. It was flat and true-to-the-books-enough to make HP readers go “Hey, I remember that!” but I don’t think it’s going to attract many new readers, just because the characterizations were so superficial.
Excellent, now I am less worried about LOTR having room at the theater in a couple weeks 🙂
Well… it wasn’t that bad. I’m sure it will be quite popular, but I’ve even read little kids saying “I don’t expect it to be as good as the books, but it will be interesting to see how someone else imagined the world of HP.” Somehow there’s something rather mature about that that you don’t expect from your average kiddie-movie-viewer. Why am I filling up Adam’s comments with this? Sorry.
It’ll have been out for more than a month by the time FOTR is out, so I would imagine it won’t be going as strong…