Decent but could use some actual drama

Rating: Null/10 (28 September 2002)

The following review may seem harsh. It is not the intention. Overall I think it's a decent movie, but all I really want to do is point out the one thing that really bothered me. So while I ramble about it a bit, don't think that I am really trying to slam the movie, it's just this one aspect of the film really bothers me. Otherwise it's a decent movie. Note: SPOILERS.
Okay, here goes. Harry Potter was pretty good. There were defenately some good things. Some clever bits like the wizards trading card where the wizard disappeared(can't expect him to hang around all day). I was also VERY pleased that they pulled a switch at the end and made the bad guy a good guy. In fact, I was hoping that that would be the case, but because of the film being a bit predictable, I wasn't sure if it would go the WYSIWYG route and make the bad guy the bad guy with no surprises deemed necessary. So things like that worked quite well and I was happy with.

My main complaint was it seemed a bit too sugar coated for me- everything was a bit too easy. Potter seemed to have a few moments of tough times and then breeze through them, turning them to his advantage. Which can be okay- a hero making a bad situation good can be quite clever, and is the subject of much of the world's heroic characters, like Hercules of Greece, the American Coyote, Germany's Till Eulenspiegel, et al.
Everything had to turn out perfect and he never seemed to fail at anything, and the few times he did seem to fail- which would have been nice for character development and to teach kids that life can still be good even when you fail a few times- he ended up winning anyway.

Potter has to win his first competition. I saw no reason why he couldn't have lost but been satisfied with the fact that he *was* the youngest player in his position ever, and he did quite well in that situation(and the fact that he was sabotoged might have made him feel a little better about losing). This would have worked in the vein of "Hey, can't win 'em all." But instead the movie isn't truly happy unless he succeeds in this game as in everything.
Similarly, there was a ceremony at the end where his particular dorm or whatever lost a year-long competition for best students. Boo hoo. So you lost a meaningless contest. I would have ended it with the heroes accepting that stuff happens, life goes on. After all, they foiled the machinations of one of the world's most powerful and feared sorcerers; defeated a troll, which is even a menace to potent wizards; among these triumphs, was a silly little contest that important?
But instead we get this feelgood happy ending where a last-minute update makes them win. Personally, I would have liked it more if the movie ended with a minor failure that is overshadowed by their earlier successes.
I know it's a kid's movie, but that doesn't mean it can't be intellectual. I direct you to Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain" books, a children's series that actually had the hero fail again and again and yet still accept at the end that he was a good person, and even gave up immortality to stay behind and help people rebuild- here kids learn that failure happens, get over it, and also learn the idea of sacrifice for the greater good. Yes, the hero Taran wants to be a mighty warrior, hoping to be discovered a prince. He never does, but accepts that his fate is not to be such(at the end of four books!). And finally he is offered eternal happiness in paradise and turns it down to instead help his war-torn nation rebuild. As a children's series, I find this much more intriguing(not to mention clever, intelligent, and moral) for both adults and children than having a hero who succeeds at everything he tries. I got to the point where I never worried about the hero because it was obvious he could never lose at anything.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a BAD movie per se, it was fun and I am glad I saw it, but it really could have done with a little more 'risk' and 'humanity' in the hero. I suppose *** out of *****, which may be rounding up a bit, but it WAS fun.