too fast and no depth

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2006)

Admittdly, with my 41 years of age I am not the target group of watchers which is supposed to be addressed by this film. I am, nevertheless, fascinated by J.K.Rowlings novels, her incredible imagination and as a fanatic movie fan I also enjoyed the movies. I have to say, for me this is not the best movie of the series yet. It is certainly very hard to put on over-600-pages book into 2h 40 minutes film(I wouldn't have minded to stick around for 20 minutes longer) and that for certain things it had to be decided to leave them out for the greater good, but when I saw the movie for the first time I thought "What is this....?", especially the first half hour. I think is is very much o.k. for the film to get more "adult" as Harry and his friends do so too and I think it is very much o.k. for action scenes to be fast. Thats what they are there for. but all in all the pace of the movie is far to fast. the first 30 minutes are like "O.K., we have to mention that and that and that.....o.k....done...next....!!! For someone who hasn't read the book it is very hard to follow at all. Except a few scenes it is all made as though everyone is in a constant hurry. Professor McGonogall and Professor Snape seem like puppets with only a few lines. The worst in Prof. Dumbledore. Richard Harris was the perfect Dumbledore. Her was quite, mystifying and a total authority figure. Michael Gambon is constantly acting like a total fidget. The scene where he asks Harry is he really didn't put his name in the goblet, is disaster. I can only imagine how Richard Harris would have managed. There are hardly scenes in which you have a feeling of real characters and depth, which should be the case in a coming-of-age story, which the books are as well besides being a fantasy and adventure story. For me so far, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the best one. I think it is really enchanting and magical and whatever the outcome of the last book, I do hope that Alfonso Cuaron does at least that one again