Great ambience, but not a perfect film

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2001)

The film captures very well the required ambience, it does not appear phony as so many genre rivals do. The set pieces are marvellous. Robbie Coltrane makes a perfect Haggrit and generally the casting is fine, except perhaps Ian Hart as Quirrel; I also would have chosen someone younger than Maggie Smith for the McGonagall part, say Haydn Gwynne.
However, the film is too long. It tries to juggle too many balls, keep too many plot elements and characters from the book [which I read _after_ seeing the film] - and there just is not enough room for it, not even in a two-and-a-half hour long movie. As a result, some characters (notably Draco Malfoy) remain underdeveloped and some elements (e.g. Quidditch) which add weight to the whole school experience as the book brings it across are reduced to the bare minimum for the purposes of the story and consequently increase the predictability of the plot.
Bigger sacrifices should have been made to focus on depth rather than breadth. For example, one might have scrapped the school cup altogether.