Least magic, Most fun and content

Rating: 9/10 (14 June 2004)

Great movie, or should say, the first real movie of the series. Of Course darker but also has the most fun and laughter for balance. Some very personal details I loved; in the first movies you could not see something like ***SPOILER*** the students having fun with special candies or Hermione behaving like a young woman: "does my hair really look like this from the backside??"***END OF SPOILER***
The wonder is gone, as is from the book. Magic and special wizardry, creatures of Hogwarts are not the most important part of the story: just as Harry is not amazed by them anymore, nor we are. These are only the background for the most important story - the story that is told in 7 chapters, say, seven books. The first two were the introduction, but now the story really begins.
The only thing I missed was the explanation of the 4 names on the map- the names of people who made it. With one or two explaining sentence we would also have understood the patronus creature in the end.
But except from this I really loved it. It also had lots of little fun in the background just as the book or the original Star Wars trilogy. One more thing: the Hippogriff. Well the F/x could be seen sometimes but the concept was great, as the two different "parts" of it behaved just as they had to (the bird part as a bird, the horse part as a horse). Great!