Not a fan...and I've seen better

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2007)

On par with not a few made-for-TV Disney movies I've sat through with my under-10 year old kids. After reading the first, long-winded volume of this series I was not compelled to continue on at all. The movie was really close to the book...closer than a lot of film adaptations are. I guess that explains why I probably won't see the next few movies: nothing in the first one makes me like the characters or care what happens to them next year...not even one iota of curiosity.
The story is unoriginal, the subject matter tired, the genre completely played out. Of course, there's been very little in the fantasy genre or the children's genre that has been of note for years now...and this is no exception.
If you have kids, and they are fans, sit through it with them. But unless someone makes you, I wouldn't bother. You wouldn't be missing anything. And when those folks (and there will be) shriek like banshees when you've told them you've not seen (or maybe even read) any of the Harry Potter stream-of-the-usual, just shrug and walk away knowing you probably spent several hours of your life doing something more memorable.