Good effects but unless you wear Harry Potter pj's, you'll be sleeping.

Rating: 5/10 (18 November 2001)

Like most mega-hyped movies (phantom menace anyone), Harry Potter lacks much of what 'great' movies have. Not to be unneccessarily criticial but this movie will recieve many popular reviews that are just caught up in the wave after Sept. 11 to reaffirm people's confidence in just how nice it is to live today. Even Ebert has reduced himself to giving this film four stars. Lets see.
Harry in the movie is weak and without personality. It almost seems that they casted Harry Potter to be a child who's only talent it to gaze with a smile of wonderment at the fantastic visual effects around him. You'll see it over, and over, and over again. Harry takes the switch from cinderella living under the staircase to wizard celebrity without a hitch of change or realization. Just that "WOW" look on his face. Suddenly however he's compleatly not affected by an obviously harmfull enviroment.
He does show a little feeling by selecting the rejected wizard family as his friends, however not too much time for this because its on to the FX baby. Moving stairs, trolls and whatever else they can come up with. What happens is there is a defenite trend of not acting, but a director pushing kids through the motions of making a movie in between the glamourous and flashy things we saw in the trailer. Makes you wonder if thats what the movie was really made for. Great movie? Seems Chris Columbus and the movie industry has performed a little 'magic act' themselves.