An interminable BORE once the initial scenes with Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffths are over!

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2004)

Probably the greatest waste of talent and money since the Burton/Taylor "Cleopatra" of the 1960s. After the initial scenes with Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffiths, the thing is just one interminable stretch of ennui, inter-spersed with special effects which are initially quite good but which, fatally, do nothing to bring the pasty-faced and innocuous "lead" character child actors to life, about whose fates and undertakings one becomes progressively LESS interested as the whole things drags itself from one phony set scene to the next until, after two and a half hours, (which seems like months!), the whole thing fades out like a candle finally guttering in its holder. Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane etc. etc. must have sent their agents a Christmas bonus for having secured parts for them in this turkey which demanded of them less engagement than a Roger Moore 007 epic and, even better (!), set them up for numerous sequels until the kids gripped by the books finally add a few years and move onto movies for kids, (and adults!), which, unlike this junk, really DO entertain and amuse, e.g. "Shrek", "Toy Story", "Antz" etc. etc.