Chris Columbus Lives Down to his Reputation

Rating: Null/10 (27 November 2001)

When Chris Columbus was announced as the director of the Harry Potter movie adaptations, my heart sank. It was bad enough when Steven Spielberg--another horribly superficial director--was going to do them, but Chris Columbus?!
Somehow, Columbus and Steve Kloves, the writer, have managed to totally miss what made the Harry Potter books so appealing. Very little of their charm and none of their wit survived the transition to the big screen.
It must have taken a Herculean effort by Columbus and Kloves to drain this wonderfully imaginative book of every ounce of what made it magical.
There is no sense at all of what makes Harry so special. Part of the fault for this major shortcoming rests with the kid playing Harry. He is not a novice performer but nevertheless can't act. Cast members such as Fiona Shaw, the great Irish stage actress, was given ONE speech as Harry's aunt. And what about the gloriously expressive Julie Walters? Reduced to little more than a walk on part.
Regardless of the size of their roles in the sequel, they were underused in this first movie. And John Cleese was horrible. I hope he's sitting back in Santa Barbara home and laughing at how much he got paid for phoning in this embarrassing performance.
Was that really Alan Rickman mugging and overacting as Professor Snape or Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails? I love Maggie Smith but she's too old for Professor McGonagall.
As the writer, Kloves must also shoulder some of the responsibility. But Columbus is the real culprit here. Like Spielberg, Penny Marshall and Ron Howard, Chris Columbus does not trust his audience.
He feels he must telegraph every emotion and manipulate us with innumerable reaction shots and, even worse, John Williams' horribly overblown music. Can Williams please do us a favor and stop writing film scores and concentrate on the Boston Pops? He doesn't know the meaning of the word "subtle."
The constant cutting away to reaction shots--of awe and wonder-- were beyond irritating. And surely Hagrid has enough personality without Kloves having to give him his own special catchphrase ("I shouldn't have said that") to repeat and repeat and repeat ad infinitum?
As a fan of the books, for me this film was disastrous. It is upsetting to think something that means a lot to so many people was summarily handed over to someone with the depth of a piece of tissue paper.
By trying to please everyone, Columbus, Kloves, the producers and Warner Bros. have really ended up pleasing no-one--except perhaps J.K. Rowling's bank manager.
Harry Potter fans would have been better served by a multi-part, high class TV adaptation than this mess.