Hollywood's greatest shame.

Rating: 1/10 (23 July 2005)

At first I liked the Harry Potter series, it was imaginative, it was original, it was funny, and it had promise. Then the second one came out, "oh WOW this is heaven, it can't get better than this", then the third came out, "I was wrong about the second, because this is awesome". Then in between finishing the third and the release of the fourth I read the Lord of the Rings. And shortly after, the movies for both came out. I realized the huge difference, I was psyched out when I heard they were making a Harry Potter movie, but there they go and ruin it. Did you know Spielberg was originally supposed to direct, until Miss Rowling insisted it HAD to be an all British cast, in walks in Chris Columbus, a guy who directed Robin Williams in becoming a woman in "Mrs. Doubtfire", and a guy who's obviously willing to give in to any demand thrown at him by the author as long as he makes money. Well Mr. Columbus seemed to direct Ron into acting like a woman as well. You throw in a B list of child actors and a list of acclaimed adult actors who are far past their prime and who only opted to make these films because their grandchildren begged them to, and you have the first Harry Potter movie. There has never been a more horrific performance than that of Rupert Grint, who now dominates the worst performances of all time, kicking Jake Lloyd from The Phantom Menace out of the way. Daniel Radcliffe doesn't really possess much talent either, I highly doubt he has any future after this film, as far as acting goes anyways. As for Emma Watson, who thinks she's the best in the world, and if you think I'm talking about her performance as Hermione, you're dead wrong, have you listened to her in interviews? The room can barely fit the three of them; her, the interviewer, and her ego. Her performance is also astonishingly bad. I forgot to mention the horrible special effects, I have seen better on TV watching "Power Rangers". I mentioned the Lord of the Rings earlier to make reference to the obvious ripoffs of Miss Rowling. Firstly there are the dementors, cloaked ghostlike figures whose faces you never see (cough, RINGWRAITHS!). The whomping willow seems to ring a bell (ENTZ). The Giant Spider named Aragog (SHELOB). The trolls also seem to resemble something I've seen before... OH YEAH, the trolls in Lord of the Rings! Hopefully Warner Bros. choice of hiring different directors for the rest of the films will pay off. But this is the perfect example of a book that could have made an Oscar worthy classical movie, but fell short because instead of making it what it was intended to be they chose to skimp on the effects to make more money on little kids who think it's great because they're too young to watch real special effects in Star Wars or LotR. It really makes me sad, because in the months prior to the first movie I was marveling at the promise of it all. Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, they got John Williams to do the score, and like that, it was ruined. Although it does seem that my opinion differs from the rest of the world as Miss Rowling is just raking it in and so are the filmmakers, making even more money by skimping on the special effects that will no doubt succeed in dazzling children who aren't yet potty trained. Here's one buck the woman won't get her hands on.