Pretty Good, a bad adaptation, and something else about a Mexican.

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2002)

The movie is very good and I enjoyed it very much, but I have to say that it is too loyal to the book. A movie is a work of art in its own way, and so is a book, but when one is based in the other, you must put some creativity to make sure it will be good. Changing Aunt Petunia's and Dudley's hair colour is not enough and I found that annoying rather than original.
However, I have to say that several things, being loyal, are perfect. The set decoration deserved an Oscar nomination at least. The way they presented Hogwarts was just as I had imagined it. Professor McGonagall was just, JUST as I have imagined her, and so does Hagrid and Hermione, and her attitude was perfect: Show-off, superior when talking to Ron, respectable, severe and very intelligent.
About the script I complain, for that stuff about it being too loyal, but I hope it'll get better when Rowling write the scripts by herself because she know the world of Harry Potter and only she, like Mario Puzo did with The Godfather, can really say how this things can be transformed from literal to visual. With the Sorcerer's Stone there's the problem that makes the hard to adapt the novel into a film: EVERYTHING that happens has to do something important, if not to the ending of that story, with the ending of the third book, that has a lot to do with the story of the fourth which is vital to the entire Saga.
What I'm trying to say is that in the film, little lines you just passed by, including that moment when Harry talks to the snake, or Hagrid names some Sirius Black, have a lot to do with the second book, or with the third.
My favourite, and the favourite of us all around here, is the second novel, The Chamber of Secrets and I believe is the most literal, although I've only read it once and I believe that they will change some stuff or wont, because they have Rowling writing the dialogues.
Just the same, because of visual effects and typical childish things, typical of Chris Columbus, I give it an 18 out of 20. That's how we evaluate things around here.
And another thing. I've seen Y Tu Mamá Tambien, or Your Mother Also or And Your Mother Too or however it's called in English, of. I just can't help to understand the creator of that movie, good but pretty much like two hours of hard, HARD core porn, is going to direct the Prisoner of Azkaban. I know he is good at feeling but Good God, isn't that too much? (I like the idea of watching a Harry Potter of his own.)