Too dark. Too dreary. Too choppy. Too artsyfartsy.

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2004)

Alfonso Cuaron did exactly what I feared he would do to the Harry Pottery story. He created a dark, dreary world with mediocre special effects, a choppy story, and art-house cinematography that almost ruined the movie for me. Harry Potter is not about gratuitous and grainy close-ups of the actors saying their lines. It's not about rearranging the story to fit an artistic vision. It's a children's film franchise that, in the hands of Cuaron, came dangerously close to becoming a big budget mess.
First, Cuaron paced the movie too quickly. Having read the books, I knew what was happening. But for people who have not read the books and the young kids who go to see this movie, they will be utterly confused. In addition, I often felt that the actors were looking to Cuaron behind the camera during scenes when they should have been concentrating on their performances instead. But then, when the Heroic Trio and the visiting faculty and enemies are emphasized at the expense of franchise regulars (with the exception of Snape), it is not surprising that the adult actors seem wooden at best.
Secondly, Cuaron had a tendency to combine several scenes into one in the interests of time. This necessitated rearranging key points of the story and resulted in a failure to explain several key elements of the story.
Third the emotional content of the movie was off. Cuaron added sappy scenes into the film that did not exist in the book, which dealt with Harry's sentimental feelings about his parents. This film was virtually devoid of humor (save for the over-used "where did she come from" trope in reference to Hermione's course schedule) and some ridiculous scenes involving characters in the paintings. The film merely references the growing tension between Ron, Harry, and Hermione that was in the book, having left most of it on the editing room floor.
The movie was fun. It was well-acted. The dementors were scary. And what little quidditch that was in the film was exciting. But Cuaron should stick to his borderline softcore porn indie flicks and leave children's films to somebody else.