Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone review – The movie

Below is my review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone the movie, this compliments nicely my Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone book review. Read both to complete the set! 😛

Going by a tip from Marissa on how to approach this series, she told me to first read the book and THEN watch the movie. So that is the order in which I went . . . and I’m glad I did.

I’ll try to keep this review short. To be direct and to the point, the movie did NOT live up to my expectations after reading the book. In some ways, it may be better to see the movie first . . . But if you do that then you will be thinking of the movie’s interpretation of things rather than the books, which puts a limit on imagination.

My imagination limit for the book was huge because I had had nearly zero experience with Harry Potter in any form beforehand, and that fresh perspective let my imagination really take things to a much grander scale and degree than was seen in the film. As always, film can rarely ever achieve what the mind can imagine.

The first thing that struck me about the movie was the age of the actors. THEY ARE SO TINY! Now since I don’t live in a cave, I HAVE seen them all before and older, so here I was very surprised at just how young they are. This immediately made matters worse because the kids were never seen as that young in my mind’s eye while reading (and it doesn’t mention an age I believe).

The second thing was how far off the movie’s casting was as far as the Dursley’s were concerned. About the only part that seemed wholly accurate to me was the opening with Dumbledore and Hagrid.

The biggest con of all though was how much stuff was left out of the book. Many little details here and there (like Harry not reading the back of the Dumbledore card in the beginning while on the train), as well as a big few scenes. One major one that comes to mind that’s missing from the film is the end trial with the potions.

There was also so many little details that were just much cooler and better in my head. For example I couldn’t stand how the kids just “float” up when flying on their brooms. In my mind they kicked off with force as if it was Neo in the Matrix Reloaded! Those little things got to me.

Also the Dursley’s were much, much better in my mind, and the film overall is a bit to cheesy in certains ways. Uncle Vernon for example was much more threatening looking and sounding, and Dudley was MUCH fatter than he ever could be on film.

So what about the pros? I thought the movie overall did a pretty good job. If you hadn’t read the book you wouldn’t even notice the things that bothered me. I think all the kids were perfectly cast especially the main protagonists. I thought Hagrid was done perfectly, and pretty much all the faculty was spot on. The sets were also nice and the effects are okay, though I”m sure they were much better at the time (it all looks pretty dated now).

However probably the worst part of the movie to me was Professor Quirrel, who is so lame and stupid in the film that it almost ruins the whole thing IMO. He was WAAAAY better in my head.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone isn’t a bad movie, but it leans a bit too young and isn’t what I’d consider a great movie. It’s decent though.

I also must point out that the DVD has quite a lot of extra stuff to do. Though not necessarily enough content IMO. I would’ve loved to see more behind-the-scenes videos. And they should’ve had an in-depth making of featurette, which isn’t on the DVD. Most of the DVD are little games, but they are pretty fun and there is quite a bit there. It’s also very challenging, I actually had to look online to complete the potion-mixing game! I thought it was cool that they included deleted scenes as well, but those scenes are a bit difficult to get to if you don’t know where or how to find them, and that means that some people won’t ever see them because they won’t take the time to jump through the hoops it takes to complete the games and unlock the scenes. But it’s a pretty fun set overall, I just wish it had more to it.

– Josh, the Elder