Childish rubbish

Rating: 4/10 (23 November 2005)

Any spoiler is pretty limited, but I'm keeping safe! I hadn't bothered watching Harry Potter films or reading the books until I had nothing better to do on Saturday night (the Real Madrid v Barcelona football match had just finished...3-0 Barcelona, who were absolutely brilliant) and some friends got me to go and see this one.
You'll probably have guessed that I had certain preconceptions about the whole Harry Potter thing. I really like good fantasy - I'm a massive fan of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, but I'm afraid that I really can't understand how this can be thought of as being a remotely great film or anything remotely resembling a masterpiece.
My understanding of Harry Potter to date has been that each story has relied upon Harry being a reluctant hero who receives a call to action in the mould that Joseph Campbell outlined in Hero with a Thousand Faces. Nothing wrong with that...it was the plot device that gave us Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars film (which is, I think, a masterpiece). However, in this film (and I would presume the source novel) the device's use is just too contrived and weakly executed - particularly when Harry is already an established hero to his legion of fans.
The film itself seems also to struggle to fit the whole novel into its runtime. Even as someone who hasn't read the novel, it appears that sections may be missing, or too condensed. A thriller sub-plot that is only really touched upon throughout, transpires to be the crux of the film. And that is the real shame of this movie - a reasonably adult plot that children could appreciate is sacrificed in favour of easy options throughout.
Then there's the way that the film hangs together. It jumps around as if aimed at children whose supply of Ritalin has run out and produces unexplained statements as if from nowhere at a number of junctures. It has the cluttered "I'm going to save this fiasco by making it purely a kids film" feel of Star Wars Episode I.
The only way I can really sum it up, however, is to say that it is a ham-fisted combination of The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Worst Witch that seems like it was both plotted and scripted by Enid Blyton, working on a bad day...whilst hungover.
The only masterpieces that I saw on Saturday night were the two goals that Ronaldinho scored for Barcelona.