Glamour without a whole soul

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2001)

There are so many book to movie adaptations that have failed to meet the grand expectations of their predecessors we could go on counting forever. Nearly. Harry Potter is quite unique in how well it follows the father plot to the T. Therein lies its greatest fault; Harry Potter the movie is a testament as to why most science-fiction and fantasy books will never see the silver screen: they have way too much stuff going on for a cohesive time slot, even at 2 1/2 hours.
Even with all of the effects, the casual viewer and the book-thumper sense that something is missing. There is a whole lot going on, but there isn't much feeling behind it. Whereas other films (Six-string Samurai and Buckaroo Bonzai) have managed to carry their obsurd worlds quite nicely, Harry's is hackneyed and stilted, leaning heavily on the reader to fill in the blanks like a ridiculously long mad lib.
This film is so difficult to rate as a result of the above. Yes, I really enjoyed the books, but no, the film is a clock-watcher at times.
Overall, 7/10