Finally someone who's ho-hum about Potter

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2001)

Ho Hum. "Star Wars with Magic"
This review Spoiler Free. Accept no substitutes.
I'm one of the six people on the planet who didn't read "Stone" 84 times before the movie was released. Nor did I highly anticipate it. So, I'm just talking about another movie here and I'm not comparing it to the book.
Ho Hum.
"HP" is in fact, nothing especially new and when it gets to the final scenes, it was so much like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back that I was, as the Brits might say, "rather astonished!"
The show has so much exposition and set up I wondered when we might get to the story. Some of the little journeys taken on the way were interesting in an OK sort of way. Harry getting even with his step-brother. Harry search for platform 9 3/4. The Hundred Acre Wood version of a boarding school. How very charming. (All-in-all, very well acted too. The Brits know how to do that!) I did wonder about the Christmas celebration - afterall, "witchcraft" is/was a very much anti-Christian thing to do! Oh, bother.
But, it just never seemed to really "take off." Now, I suppose that there won't be a seven year old who doesn't want his own cloak of invisibility for Christmas and I might be a little hard on this film in that respect - but, geesh, it's bloody Star Wars. In the last scene, the bad guy says "join me" and HP says "Never!" Puhleeze! And a dolip of whipped cream on top in the epilogue to explain the ever so conveinent powers Harry "discovers" in the nick of time. The Hardy Boys meet Luke Skywalker meets "Willow."

Good performances from Richard Harris and Alan Rickman, both of whom are somewhat wasted in the film. Very nice SPFX all about, courtesy Lucasfilm.
I know, I know! Now, I'll go read the book.