Artistic License?

Rating: Null/10 (20 July 2004)

Being an avid fan of the Harry Potter series, I was delighted to hear that Columbus was being replaced. I wanted a darker, mature Harry Potter. So I went to see the movie as soon as possible.
What I got was disappointing.
Much of the plot important to future books was sacrificed for special effects. For example, how did Sirius know that Pettigrew was in Hogwarts? How did Lupin know how to work the Map? How did Lupin even work into all this? Why was Sirius accused of murdering the Potters? How was Pettigrew responsible?
If any of these questions were answered, then it was said too fast to hear. The entire scene in the Shack was blurred and hazy. The only thing really going for this movie was the mind-blowing special effects, which seemed to fool all the weak-minded viewers into believing that the movie was good. Maybe that was Alfonso's purpose.
Someone called it artistic license. I call it bad directing.