Almost perfect

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2001)

I had extremely high expectations for this movie, and it met almost all of them. The only thing that slightly marred this otherwise excellent adaption was the absence of the potion challenge in the final sequence, and it dropped my rating from 10 to 9, since I felt it was one of Hermione's defining moments. However, the rest of the movie was spectacular - superb acting (Rickman, Smith, Coltrane - too many to mention, really), good pacing in the direction. But the main thing that struck me, an avid reader of Rowling, is that everything looked RIGHT - never once did I see something in the movie that conflicted with how I imagined the book. For this, Columbus and crew should be greatly commended. I cannot wait until the Chamber of Secrets.