Sorry, but it's awful :(

Rating: 2/10 (17 November 2001)

I'm a huge fan of the books, and I was hoping to like the movie. But from the first with Dumbledore turning out the lights it was sooo dismal and depressing. Where was the humour and warmth? The acting was stilted. There were non-sequiturs galore, if I was watching this without having read the book, I would have been foxed good and proper.
I had a problem with most of the interpretation too - there was no "public school" atmosphere to the place. The wizards and witches spoke in an awed way about their world, rather than with the matter-of-factness that is so funny in the book. Dumbledore was too serious, Snape barely said anything, Potter was unexpressive, the bloody baron was rather too happy etc. I liked Snape, when he was around, Herminone, Ron, and McGonagall.
The length was a problem too. Who'd have thought a Harry Potter movie would be so boring that you couldn't stand it for 2 1/2 hours though?
Maybe a problem was that they were trying to keep it too close to the book and the studio took the shears to it when it turned out to be too long?
Anyhoot, sorry, but it was bloody awful :(