Excellent creation, poor direction/production

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2005)

The Harry Potter films are relatively easy to visualise now thanks to previous films and the books already having told the story.
I personally felt that the casting was good, the effects superlative, and the overall story is excellent. It is well worth seeing.
On the negative side I felt that much of the producing work was very poor. Much of the timing doesn't feel right and several things were missing or not done correctly. It was clear that the creators were trying to tell the story in the book but had missed much of the feeling and buildup that had been carefully written into the book, and clearly missed the importance and significance of many things. I'm trying to not put in any spoilers, but I could cite examples quite easily.
Daniel Radcliffe's acting begs a lot more training in certain areas, although his performance as the film progresses seems to improve and nearer the end it finally seems to show some passion.
The direction in general is reasonable, although I actually cringed in a few spots at how poorly thought out some camera directions and movements were done.
In the more climactic scenes the need to throw the camera around too much whilst zoomed in and not give enough of a general view was slightly annoying. They also changed several aspects of the biggest scene of the film (probably to shorten the scene) that really killed the danger and buildup aspect.
Overall I would say that the film is well worth seeing. The special effects department has done a superlative job, the story itself is excellent, the acting from several actors is fantastic. (Although Dumbledore does not seem to be the character from the books at all - he strikes me as extremely badly cast). Alan Rickman's much-needed touch of comic relief whilst maintaining the integrity of his character brought a few chuckles in the cinema. Although Snape is intended as more nasty the laugh is not at crazy antics but rather at the situation and his dismay over what happens.