Good fun, decent direction, will definitely see again

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2001)

I've read the books, so it's hard not to compare the movie to them. However, I will say that I thought it did an excellent job at capturing the mood and the look of the books. The casting was dead-on, and the performances, even by actors with only one or two scenes, were outstanding.

I did find a few unsettling bits... The character development needed to be worked on a bit more. Columbus followed a bit too closely with the book, and didn't visualize enough of the character's inner feelings in the beginning. Also, the editing at the beginning was jerky and odd. too many hops, and for someone unfamiliar with the books, they'd be confusing.

But starting with the Quidditch match, the movie hit its stride and started being awesome. The match was what the Phantom Menace pod race should have been. I knew the outcome, but it was dazzling to watch and I wasn't really sure if Gryffindor would win. The next best scene was the chess match at the end, where Ron Weasley shines - excellent emotion from such a young actor.
Daniel Radcliffe was excellent as Harry, with his scenes getting better towards the end. His turning point from an okay performance to a great performance was the Mirror scene where he sees his parents.

Alan Rickman as Snape was perfectly sinister. His words hissed out his mouth and worked their way under your skin. However, more could have been done with Prof. McGonagall - the scene where she scolds Harry and Ron was too short and we don't even find out what she teaches - we just see her morph from a cat. I was disappointed there. More Flitwick would have been nice, as well.
Oliver Wood was a nice addition, as was Percy Weasley. Draco showed the best acting of the young characters, in my opinion, but it's always easier and more fun to be bad. However, he did inject a bit of human-ness into his character.
Loved Voldemort at the end, and the winking Harry in the mirror was an excellent touch - I hope in the next movies they let Harry be a little more like his mirror reflection.
However, even at 2.5 hours, I felt it was too short! I wanted more! More might have been accomplished with better ending - less quick scenes. The longer scenes worked out much better. Here's hoping the DVD shows the whole 4-hour original rough cut.
I give it 3.5 stars out of 4. The jumpy editing and jerky character development at the beginning are almost made up for by the strong ending hour, but not quite.