Too faithful to be imaginative

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2001)

I have to own up that I am no fan of Harry Potter series. I read The Sorcerer's Stone partly because my girlfriend who completes all four HP's recommends them highly and partly out of curiosity. I finished it in two or three days and find it not so good as people said. We can see similar stock characters and typical stories in classics such as Charles Dickens' works and other novels intended for kids: a bereaved child in a hostile environment is recognized as the center of some important events and a respect figure. But this is for kids, and I have no objection for that. This Sunday I took my girlfriend to see the movie she had expected so long, only found it worse than the original book. Many viewers mention that the film omits too many quotes and episodes on the book, however this is not what I object to. When dealing with a literary work, a film director has to decide what to put in the flick and what to leave out; a movie can not include all characters or plots, or audience will be bored, and Warner Bros. will be broke. My opinion is just the opposite to these diehard fans: the director should cut off more irrelevant plots to make this film more tightly organized, like what he did when making Home Alone. Columbus is too concerned about satisfying book fans that he fails to edit the story into a more organic whole; the result is that he deletes the beginning as well as the resolution of many episodes to shorten runtime. But by doing this, he is being unfair to non-readers of HP. I think many moviegoers without prior knowledge of the story will be bewildered by some important scenes. Furthermore, the director doesn't make Harry Potter and other characters more vivid. If the actor doesn't have the extraordinary smile and innocent look, many viewers might lose interest on him. The earlier mirror episode provides an excellent chance to dig deeper inside Harry Potter's psychology and desire, which will make us identify and sympathize more with the boy, but the director doesn't hold on to the chance and let it slip away. We can see many great British actors in this film, all wasted in the flat narrative style. Columbus might cast them out of their appearance, and makeup might be the best thing in this blockbuster. You don't frown when characters show up--they look just the way they are supposed to look. This is an attempt to translate words into images, and that's the only thing Columbus does.