Over-Rated, clap clap clapclap clap

Rating: Null/10 (18 November 2001)

Clearly the movie was trying to be as faithful to the books as possible, but sacrificed a lot of character development for whiz-bang special effects. There was no built-up empathy with Potter, and not enough developed with the tight bond he forms with Ron and Hermione. It would have served the movie better to have shot Hermione not seated with or really associated with Ron and Harry until after the bathroom scene. The movie in no way portrays this as a real turning point as it was in the books. Likewise, Malfoy is underdeveloped as Potter's rival - in the movie he just smirks a lot. Finally, so many critical side characters were left out. Fred and George hardly appear which is a horrible loss given the great comic relief they could have provided. Peeves is absent altogether.
Harry Potter was played with diffidence by a clearly out-of-his-league Daniel Radcliffe. Neither Grint nor Watson helped out the cause, acting wise - both overacting in a very community theatre manner. Therein lies the real problem, the movie is driven by kids, but they seem to have cast them based on resemblance to the book characters, not acting ability.
The positives are most of the adult roles, especially Alan Rickman as Severus Snape and Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, who pretty much owns the film.

The effects are pretty nice, including a good Quidditch match. However, the movie could have cut both the Hagrid and Norbert story arc and the whole trip to the Forbidden Forest, taken the extra budget and had the other critical Quidditch match - making for a far stronger movie, plot wise.
Fun to watch, but hardly amazing. 6/10