Great for people who have been reading the book

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2002)

The books about Potter are absolutely great. So, this movie begins with an extreme advantage: a great plot is already written. The disadvantage is that these books are very popular and thereby everyone would compare the movie with the book. To make everyone happy is an almost impossible task and I would say this movie didn´t achieve in that, but.....they get really close. Many plots, characters and little things out of the book are there. The only thing is, that they couldn´t work out all the characters at a deep level. Thereby, you sometimes miss things on the screen you did read. On top of that, I really missed "Peeves"; the bully poltergeist. But, John Cleese as "Sir. Nearly Headless Nick" was very funny. For me, one of the best parts was the Quidditch game. They really made it look great. Also, the surroundings are great: you really see Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Privet Drive and Gringots. Especially Gringots, the bank which is run by Goblins looks brilliant. For people who have been reading the first book, watching this movie is a wonderful experience; you see everything come to life. And, at the end of the day, they did really stay close to the book, not changing much. For people who didn´t read it, I think, the movie isn´t really good. I strongly advise to those people to first read the book and watch the movie after that. For me, watching it was a pretty intense experience: I really loved all the books and have much sympathy witch Harry and his friends (and enemies). The actors performances aren´t outstanding, but not bad also. The special effects were sometimes pretty good, sometimes at a medium quality, but also sometimes just not good enough. I mean, don´t expect a quality like Lord of the Rings (LOTR). Last, comparing the Potter movie to LOTR, I dare to say that LOTR wins every imaginable contest with the Potter movie. But, LOTR is something so special, so perfect and brilliant, that every movie loses it to Frodo and his friends. So, in sum, Potter isn´t by far in the same league as LOTR, but it still is a pretty great movie to watch. I´m already waiting for The Chamber of Secrets....