The first time I saw this film, I was on a school field trip with my 4th - 6th grade class; which was the perfect age for Harry Potter knowing that we were and still are the same age as the main actors of the film. We were excited and literally jumping up and down on the bus on our way to the movie theater. The fact that our principal let us skip the WHOLE day of school for us to go see a movie, that some certain schools would probably do everything possible to shut down the franchise, was a huge honor and I still remember it as one of the greatest movie theater experiences to this day. How great was the movie you might ask? Here's my review:
The movie open's up with Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris) and a cat who transfigures into Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) awaiting on the street of Private Dr. for a man named Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) who is supposedly bringing a boy. He arrives within seconds on a flying motorcycle carrying a baby in his gigantic arms. No problems at all, trusts Dumbledore to Hagrid. They drop him off on a doorstep of a residence owned by, according to McGonagall: "The worst muggles imaginable".
Dumbledore then says his departing words in such a sensitive tone: "So long... Harry Potter", right before the opening title appears.
Then we dive into our main hero, Harry Potter who is now grown up to be at age ten-going-on-eleven. He lives in misery as he is pretty much to what you call a slave to the "worst muggles imaginable", The Dursleys who are of his Aunt, Uncle and cousin. We get a good establishment of each character, especially Harry as his life seems to be at its saddest the way we see the Dursleys treat him, until he unintentionally gets his revenge by "making a few things happen" without knowing how at the zoo. That's not all, we also see The Dursleys extremely pissed tearing up letters that come day after day addressed to young Harry Potter. Like Harry, the audience doesn't know why. One crazy antic after another, the Dursleys end up trying to hide out in a place where they can avoid all of Harry's mail coming their way. Talk about extreme measures. That is until a character barges into their hideout, is it a burgler or a mass murderer? No it's Hagrid from the beginning of the film, introducing himself in a nice fashion by handing Harry that letter that couldn't manage to get away from him. The letter says that, Harry's been accepted into the school of Hogwarts of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Is Hagrid playing a joke on Harry? No, because after more is explained, we end up discovering that our main hero is not only kind, generous and is able to put of with his family's shit for life, but that also he is a wizard.
That's just the first 30 minutes of the movie by the way people, there's still 2 more hours to be dove into. So the rest of the movie shows Harry goes shopping for school supplies located in a place that muggles don't know about called Diagon Alley. He then boards a train (located also in a place unknown to muggles) that escorts students to Hogwarts. That's where Harry befriends our other two main characters of the film, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). Characters develop easily well as they then exit the train and then travel in canoe-like boats to where we finally get our first glimpse of Hogwarts. With the visuals and John Williams score as spectacular as the first look at Diagon Alley; I could already tell using my ten-going-on-eleven year old brain that the movie would get better from there.
That's when the movie really starts getting good and establishes each new location perfectly without over explaining or showing too many shots that you would find in the trailer to the film. That's when Harry then begins his adventures at Hogwarts by getting sorted into one of the four houses, taking classes that involve potions, wands, and flying broomsticks, and later discovering the second half of the title to the movie: The Sorcerer's Stone. That's the part where I'll stop explaining things here and just tell you from here on about why I think this movie is fantastic and why you should definitely see it if you haven't yet.
If you're looking for a great film made for both kids and adults that has great actors, great direction, amazing visuals, and music done by the best film composer ever; then this film is for you. It literally keeps you entertained from beginning to end to where it doesn't feel like a two hour and thirty minute film. Besides it being perfectly cast and the sets looking a lot like how I imagined them in the book, I was the most impressed with Chris Columbus' direction in this film. Yeah, the same guy who made comedies like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire made Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as well. I was a little hesitant at first when I heard he was the one that was directing the film, that is until I saw the trailer which eventually within seconds became my most anticipated film of the year. When the film was getting made, I first thought (judging from his previous films) there was a chance he'd put too much humor in the film and not make it dark and demented like it was in the books. Thankfully, none of that happened and had the look of the film live up to the book quite well. That was what impressed me the most.
Among it being the first film of the seven books (eight movies), it definitely makes a great first start of the series. Even if there was a lot taken out of the book like most people complain about, I can't complain at all knowing it still makes for a great movie for what is written into the film. Also I know that a lot of people also complained about Daniel Radcliffe having blue eyes because according to the book Harry Potter had green eyes, but that doesn't mean it should ruin the film for you. Radcliffe was still the perfect Harry Potter. He still looked a lot like him and he did a great job acting out the character (especially for age 11). Same goes to Rupert and Emma as well. Honestly though, I think the best actor in this film though is Richard Harris who played Dumbledore. He was PERFECT when it came to character and looks. He totally steals the show in the end when listing the housecup winner (my favorite scene in this film). Honorable mentions for best cast role go to Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Snape (Alan Rickman). I wish I could say all the actors in this film, but aside from Radcliffe, Grint and Watson, those three lit up the screen to where I seriously don't know if I would've enjoyed the film as much if it weren't for them.
The last thing I've gotta mention is how well adapted the screenplay really is, and how literally every movie (except the 5th one) was written by only one guy. Yes, from the writer of Wonder Boys and The Fabulous Baker Boys... Steve Kloves. I was super impressed how much work he put into writing the films. I'm sure it's not easy when it comes to adapting one of the biggest selling book series of all time, so I must express my thoughts on how well he did with the screenplay. In my opinion, I think this is the best adapted among all the films so he definitely did no wrong here, nor did the rest of the people who worked on this film. So what do I think of this film overall? Probably the BEST way to start off a series of films. The writing, direction, acting, visuals, John Williams' score, all perfect. If you haven't seen the film yet, please do ASAP because this is one not to miss out on.
****
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