Year 1 at Hogwarts

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2014)

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" or sometimes also "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is the first film from one of the most successful movie franchises in cinema history. The books were written by Joanne K. Rowling and adapted by Steve Kloves (not a name to many), who also directed "The Fabulous Baker Boys" earlier in his career. It is about a small boy with hidden powers, who is not particularly liked by his uncle, aunt and cousin. They took care of him after his parents died when he was a baby. So he gets picked up by an unusually looking, rather gruff magician and taken to Hogwarts. Hogwarts is not a normal school. While the bonding with fellow students, the fraternities and sports activities are there as well, everything is just a little bit more magical and different.
One thing I really liked about the film was the playful comedy. A lot of it involved Ron Weasley. It is very subtle often, but it is pretty great. Let me use one example. When Potter finds a collection card in one of his sweets, he says he has Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster from Hogwarts. Now I expected something like Weasley saying oh my God he only appears once in a 1,000 times, but he said something like he has him six times already too. And when Dumbledore's card comes alive and quickly vanishes, Weasley says that Albus cannot hang around there all day as he is busy. I found that pretty funny and there is a whole bunch of cute scenes like that, also Weasley's interactions with Hermione for example.
Other than that the film really succeeds with his love to detail and all the fantastic ideas in the script, such as the hat picking the group they belong to, the hidden station idea, the scar, the troll (like a fire alarm in a real school), Fluffy, the mirror, the chess game and many more. To me, the first movie was much more about experiencing the wonderful world of Hogwarts than really enjoying the adventure action about the stone. Another highlight are all the very unique characters from the teaching staff. I won't go into further detail here. You know who I mean. There's some minor criticisms, like the ending with the extra points was a bit cheesy, feel-good forced (also with Smith's character looking so uncomfortable, they have to be neutral I thought), the connection between Snape's wound and Fluffy was a bit genius, don't know if kids would make it really so quickly, but they have bright minds so maybe or also Ron's whole self-sacrificing approach during the chess game. I can't really see a little boy act like that. These are only minor flaws though from an otherwise excellent film. This is one to watch for the whole family and I can't say I am surprised this was the most successful box office movie in the United States from 2001, even ahead of the first Lord-of-the-Rings movie. The three child actors here had little (Radcliffe) to none (Watson, Grint) acting-experience in movies when they were were cast here. A decision that changed their lives.
The movie scored 3 Oscar nominations for the art direction, costumes and the soundtrack and it is surely deserving. Especially the visual side is incredibly strong and over 13 years later, most films can only dream of coming close to that. All the creatures look so fantastic it is a joy to watch. That one forest creature that saves Harry reminded me during one shot especially of the later film "Pan's Labyrinth". Just a random notion. There is some animal included like a majestic and, at the same time, cute cuddly owl and a droll huge dog. The cast includes quite a few known actors: Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, John Hurt and many more shall follow in the next films. This movie may be director Chris Columbus' best work so far and that's not taken for granted as he directed 2 "Home Alone"-films, Mrs. Doubtfire and also another Harry Potter movie during his long career. I believe this is my favorite Potter film together with the "Prisoner of Azkaban". Too close to call. We are just introduced to such a wonderfully creative world here. Highly recommended.