| Product: |
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (DVD) |
| Date: |
27/12/01 (66 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great adult cast
Disadvantages: Poor child actors, Original plot ruined
"Ooh great" we thought - they're turning the most famous books of recent years into films! Whoopy-doo Harry Potter at the cinema! As my whole family, including myself, are huge fans of the extremely well written books we were really excited at the prospect of the first Potter film, however our joy soon turned into slight upset when last week we saw the film adaptation of the first of the four books, The Philosopher's Stone.
On the whole, reviews of Chris Columbus' new film had been average, if slightly better than, and the majority of people we knew who'd seen it had praised the long awaited film. With a star-studded cast and brilliant plot (well the plot in the book was brilliant) I thought it would be hard to go wrong... but somehow the latest movie from Warner Brothers studio which cost a reported $125 million managed to foul up.
The start was ok, not great, not bad. For those of you who haven't read the book the story begins 11 years ago when the evil Wizard Voldemort (he who must not be named) kills the parents of the baby Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), but is unable to kill Harry himself and just leaves him with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. The kind wizard Albus Dumbledore (who is also the headmaster of Hogwart's Academy, the leading school in Britain for young witches and wizards, and is played by Richard Harris) leave Harry on the doorstep of his only living relatives, the Dursleys. The Dursley family are all muggles (non-magical) and do not take kindly to Harry’s presence in their lives. On his 11th birthday the friendly giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) who is the groundsman at Hogwart’s comes to rescue Harry from their evil clutches and whisks him away to the school. Before meeting Hagrid Harry had no knowledge of his past and magical powers so as you can imagine it really is a whole new world to him. The story then follows Harry finding his feet in the world of magic and startin
g his new school. He quickly establishes firm friendships with fellow classmates Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). Together they tackle many trials and tribulations including the wonders of Quidditch (a sport played by witches and wizards on broomsticks; completely cool and difficult to explain – probably the only real reason to go and see the film!), potions lessons, loose gremliney-things and midnight escapades! That is before, of course, they begin their mission to discover exactly what is hidden in the school dungeon and who is trying to steal it! Although the original plot is prevalent far too many bits have been cut out. In the book Harry came across as an absolute hero, but in the film he was a bit of a dopey twit really!
On the acting front the adult cast was star studded and fully lived up to expectations. John Cleese kept me chuckling with his amusing portrayal of the school Ghost Nearly Headless Nick (although I wish he’d had more lines!) and the amazing Robbie Coltrane deserves an Oscar for playing Hagrid exceptionally well. The child actors on the other hand were appalling, I’m sorry but they were! I get the feeling they were chosen for their looks not their acting skills. They put too much emphasis on the wrong words and in the wrong places and it was like just another cheezy kid freshly fallen out of the drama school mould and into the world of over-acting. So unnatural darling! Dame Maggie Smith, Zoe Wanamaker and Alan Rickman also star in this all English cast.
I think that people who haven't read the book and saw the film straight off would find the plot lacking and rather jumpy - due to the huge sections that were prevalent in the book but unseen in the film e.g. where were all the other quidditch matches? - people who have read the books however may be interested to see if the images their mind had conjured up whilst reading the books were similar to J.K.Rowling's (who overs
aw all of the scenes to ensure they suited her ideas). I think that interest is as far as it goes though unfortunately. I was never on the edge of my seat bouncing for joy (as I was with the book) and I really think that finally finding out what a quaffle looks like isn't really enough to make the film worth seeing!
That aside the most anticipated movie of the year has taken record sales on the backbone of its creator's writing success.
If you are still interested about the two and a half hour film then you can find out more at: -
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.co.uk/home.html
Who knows maybe the second movie, due out November 2002 may redeem itself...
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