Magical Time To Be Had By All - Won't be Dissappointed!!

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2001)

I read the books but I knew that scenes would be changed and cut for dramatic purposes. So I went with an open mind.
Several of my friends remarked that the beginning was too rushed and not much was explained. That they never got a sense of how desperate living with the Dursleys was to Harry. How Harry got bullied by Dudley and his gang and how Harry used his powers to get out of those tight situations.

But being 153 minutes long, if those and other passages from the book were included, the film would be 3+ hours!
I found the movie wonderfully captured the magical aspects of the book. The adult actors, though were not fleshed out, were enjoyable. I also suspect that even though actors Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and John Cleese (who was seen for a total of 30 seconds!) were not on screen for that long, their characters will have time in the next 6 movies to develop.
Remember, there are still 6 movies that are still due. We'll be getting to know these characters more and more over the course of these films. Would be pretty interesting to see the child actors grow to young adults on screen!
Daniel Radcliff played a wonderfully serious and subdued Harry, exactly as I envisioned Harry to be. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were excellent as well. Hard to believe they never acted professionally before this.

All in all, I was happily satisfied and would definitely tell everyone to see it and see it again myself 2 or 3 times! Looking forward to Harry and the Chamber of Secrets next year!