Good but missing some of the charm of the book. grade: B

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2002)

here's my two cents.
I've read all the books. This movie was very faithful in its depiction, but in shortening it for film (and it was already long at 2hr20min) they cut out some of the charm that made the books so endearing: development of supporting characters, little diversionary snippets of storyline, etc. For example, even a character like Neville Longbottom was fully developed in the book -- in the movie he was a mere shadow of his book self. Same applies to Malfoy and his croonies (who are barely mentioned), many of the professors, and some of the Weasley family, to name a few. I liked that Rowling worked so hard to make *everyone* and *everything* have a life of its own!
As far as the movie goes, though, the casting was dead on, pacing was good, special effects were great, and acting was good to real good.