Kids found it to be uninspiring. It's a 2nd rate movie.

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2001)

WARNING: SPOILER
I enjoy "movies for kids"; however I did not enjoy this Harry Potter film. If I do see the next Harry Potter films, it'll be on video. No, I didn't leave in the middle of the movie but after about 30 minutes I did start looking at my watch. The movie is 2nd rate and that's not just my opinion but the opinion of the kids who watched it.
I quite purposely attended the matinee showing when I knew that the theater would be chock-a-block full with kids. I often attend movies when children make up the majority of the audience; if the movie is good then the kids get caught up in the plot and in the action and cheer when the good guys win and this adds to my overall enjoyment. There was no such ebullience during Harry Potter. In fact there was not one spontaneous cheer when Harry Potter bested Voldemort; not a sound!
I watched the movie in English in Tel Aviv and thought that maybe the kids, who speak Hebrew most of the time, didn't understand the dialogue. This wasn't the case: As I was leaving the cinema I heard an American family of 4, mother + 3 children (between 8 and 14 years old), discussing the movie: "It was OK." "Nothing special." "Let's get some ice cream." Translation: It was boring.
What this movie proved is that American marketing methods are so sophisticated that it is now possible to turn a second-rate movie into a "blockbuster".