A wonderful adaption of a wonderful book

Rating: 10/10 (26 November 2001)

This adaption of J.K. Rowlings wonderful book Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was easily one of the best book-to-movie adaptions I have ever seen. Chris Columbus masterfully was able to retain the feel and emotion of the book, as well as evoke the power and majesty the book wrought, while remaining fresh and exciting, not just a stale by-the-numbers account of what the book said.
The thing that always amazed me about the Harry Potter series was its ability to enchant young and old alike. It is a masterful work in that the plots and characters, while complex and compelling for the adult, remain reachable and invigorating for the child. On the reverse, while this is clearly a book written with children in mind, an adult does not come away feeling like one has read a "kids book". The same holds true for the movie. It is certainly much richer and imaginative than most of the tripe calling itself childrens movies today, but adults do not feel cheated.
I won't speak about specific scenes or character developments, although I guarantee those who read the book will see favorite scenes deleted - its still a 2 1/2 hour movie, but goodness, they couldn't fit EVERYTHING in there!
A wonderful movie I encourage everyone to see before the biggest movie of all time - the Lord of the Rings - comes out.