Mystical, Magical and Magnificent.

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2001)

A near perfect film.
With a run-time of 2 hours and 32 minutes this is an incredible piece of filmmaking.
Though it is sometimes slow it is never ponderous but instead glorious. It moves magnificently across the screen like an unstoppable force.
It is never easy to make a film where children act the lead roles but Director Christopher Columbus achieves it with elegance and style.

The characters of Hermione, Ron and, of course, Harry, were all brilliantly cast, as was the entire rest of the film -- especially Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape. Wonderful faces and true characters just from the look of the actors.
No amount of screen time or set element is too small; the attention to detail is superb and the overall feel' of the film evokes the magic and sense of awe and wonder that it should.
It is magnificently photographed. The scenes at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, in the U.K. could not have been a better location -- it is truly wondrous.
The score by the master of film music, John Williams, is haunting and plaintive when it should be and stirring, robust and inspiring when the scene calls for it.
The special effects are genius: worked into the story and adding to it but never detracting from it. This is after all a story about magic!
The lighting was inspired: the perfect interplay of light and shadow leaving just the right touch to the imagination; and in one scene when a character says It all became blackness' the screen flashes to white.

This is a film as much for adults as it is for children: there are some scary parts and some ironic humour and some clever word play.

All in all Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is going to be one of the classics of filmmaking; I can't wait for the sequel.