Faithful adaptation of the book missing the 'Wow' factor

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2002)

Whilst I'd obviously heard of Harry Potter I only read the books a couple of weeks before the film and read them all in a week - not a good idea as you spot the 'formulaic' aspects.
Unlike most films, the director knew before release he would have a smash box office film due to the immense fan base the character had from the books. However because of this he also had to make sure he stuck to the book and I have to say he did, almost like glue. And that, for me, was my main problem as there was no real "Wow" factor. Whilst I was struck by the amazingly well constructed sets and the visualisations of the various locations in the book, I always knew what was going to happen next and because the main themes of the book were so closely followed, as was much of the dialogue, I never experienced the frisson of excitement you can get when you think "what's going to happen next?".
This isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, I did very much. The characters were faithful to the book as were the locations but as I said, that was the main problem - no Wow!. I'm not really blaming the director for this, in my opinion he would have found it extremely hard to introduce any changes and in making a film that the book fans loved he achieved his aim.
So whilst I would say that the film is technically excellent the lack of deviation in the story was both its strength and its weakness.
[ I also thought that changing the title for US audiences from Philosopher to Sorcerer because 'they wouldn't know what a philosopher was' was an insult to that audience.]