Welcome to Hogwarts-part 1...

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2005)

Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (I prefer to use the original British title) is a wonderful experience: good script, great visuals, extraordinary actors... However, there's a "but", which is the following: it's excessively faithful to the source novel, leaving out only one or two side characters. The movie, which tells how a seemingly normal boy, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), discovers he is actually a wizard and starts attending a school named Hogwarts, encountering many dangers throughout his first year, isn't boring for a second during its 146 minutes, but the pace is occasionally slowed down because, like in other "part 1 of 3" movies (actually, they're supposed to be 7), the director spends a lot of time introducing and explaining things, so he won't have to do it in the sequel(s). In this case, Chris Columbus, best known for Home Alone includes as much as possible also to make sure the target audience (kids) will enjoy it, adult viewers being more used to differences between book and film (and thus perhaps likely to find the running time a bit excessive).
Nonetheless,the movie is great, Columbus using all the tools at his disposal to bring J. K. Rowling's enchanted universe to the screen. And the magic is in every single frame: from potions to talking hats to Quidditch games, it's pretty clear nothing ordinary can possibly happen, and all of it looks real, thanks to brilliantly accomplished special effects and CGI. But the movie's strength doesn't lie only in the visual aspect: there's also an impressive ensemble cast, consisting of some of Britain's finest actors. All of them are impressive, but it si of course the adult section of the cast that pulls off a superior job, having more experience and knowing how to add substance to an array of fascinating characters (standouts include Robbie Coltrane as a gigantic caretaker, Alan Rickman as a sinister teacher and of course Richard Harris, who plays Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore with unmatched charm and warmth).
Aside from a few "slow" bits, this is a good start for what will certainly be one of the defining franchises of the 21st century.
To paraphrase Dumbledore: let the feast begin...