Not as good as the book & with some serious problems

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2001)

O dear - disappointing. Best features of the film are Hagrid and Hermione: both outstanding. Not too good: Harry is 'flat' (lacking excitement and energy); the cupboard under the stairs looks far too nice (and so it loses the 'escape from reality to fantasy world' point); Hogwarts dining hall is so obviously Gloucester cathedral nave; most of the the humour has been lost; the owls lose their gorgeous imaginative character; the voices seemed dubbed in places; some scenes lacked any obvious point (e.g. the invisibility cloak in the library); the academic year was curtailed. Good, but not great.