Good adaptation, next movies will be better though...

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2002)

Spoilers
The first of the Harry Potter books was the hardest to swallow but after this one, they just get enormously better. I think the movie was great except for a few little things. At times the dialogue is sort of unbelievable and flat. Most of the children did a good job but Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to hog the entire screen. The rest of the children get only a few minutes worth of screen time. Draco Malfoy was robbed. In fact, everyone in the Slytherin house was cheated of screen time, especially the girls. I'm not even going to start on the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff people. And does it make sense that Seamus Finnigan makes mistakes more often than Neville Longbottom is the movie? How many time did that kid blow up his face and Neville only once had trouble while flying his broomstick? And what about the adults? Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid had a good role but Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrel weren't given enough time to speak. McGonagall put up the best performance she could with what she had to work with. More should have been done with Quirrel because he's only in one book so let's make his character count. And Snape, who had a more prominent role in the books, gets to behave just as the rest of the Slytherins in the movie (Slytherin is basically just a house of nasty little pricks with wicked mommies and daddies). Good points: Quidditch is great fun to watch. Argus Filch was hilarious. The scene at the end with Harry fighting Quirrel and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was really funny. I can't wait for Chamber of Secrets because I know it is going to be a lot better. I am anticipating the Valentine's Day celebration with Professor Lockhart, if that'll even be in there, and Lucius Malfoy. Slytherins all the way!