Good, but needs improvement... Also spoilers below...

Rating: Null/10 (18 November 2001)

I'm 22 and started reading the books last year at 21. The first three books I finished each in one day respectively. The fourth took me two days, as I do go to college and do have to do work at times. Now I'm a fast reader by nature, but these really kept me enthralled. I remembered almost every detail afterwards they were so good.
I went to see this on Saturday with my Mom and little sister. My mom not having read the books probably liked it the most for it's cute appeal. Obviously, they had to leave certain parts out and condense others, or this would have been an 8-hour movie as one said. While I enjoy long movies and miniseries, I can understand how kids would get fidgety. But they should have made better decisions on what to keep and what to cut.
Peeves was a disappointing miss. The whole dragon adventure with the whole smuggling bit would have been great to see. I was rather looking forward to it. Since when did Hermione fix Harry's glasses? Last I knew he had them with the tape through the four books. What was up with Madame Hooch's eyes? I thought she was supposed to be normal looking.
The characters definitely weren't developed enough like another person commented. I love Alan Rickman, but he was definitely subdued. He even seemed to smile at Harry in an almost gentle way at times. NO!!! He hates Harry, remember?
I can understand condensing the train ride, but to keep the whole dragon theme, they didn't need the part about Harry letting Hedwig out around the grounds for the panoramic views. That wasted a bit of time.
Again, there definitely needed to be more of a connection between all the characters to get us to understand and feel for them more. We also missed out on friendships with Neville, Seamus, and Lee. There also was not enough of Draco and his gang. They do play a fair size part in the stories. They never even played up on the whole fear of Voldemort. People freak when Harry says his name. In the film, even Hermione was using it casually.
Someone also complained that the children actors talked with too many pauses. I think that will go away with time. They are new to acting, and need to be tweaked. I can definitely say though, the Quidditch match was really cool. It was also cool that they had the paintings move in the background, even when they weren't being brought to people's attentions. As I said before, it was good, but it needs work.