HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE Review

I’ve seen HARRY POTTER & THE SORCEROR’S STONE and was almost completely enchanted with it. Almost. The final notes of the film, perhaps the last 10 minutes or so completely turned me off though. In fact, I would go so far as to say they infuriated me. However, will I see this movie again? Multiple times. Will I buy the DVD the second it comes out? Most assuredly. Am I now going to read the first book of Harry Potter’s adventures? You betcha.

I’m going to save my problems with the ending till the very end of this review, and I’ll notify you accordingly. But for now let’s discuss the job Chris Columbus, Steven Kloves and the team behind HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCEROR’S STONE did.

First, I went into this film with a great deal of curiosity, hopes and confidence that I was going to love the film. Sure, I haven’t read the books, but that’s because every time I’ve read a modern novel prior to the seeing of the film version, the novel makes the film version look painfully inadequate. As a quick example, there was JURASSIC PARK, where the book was leagues better than Spielberg’s tamed down version.

Besides, I go into so many movies with so much baggage, that I had decided to take off the shackles of the literary page and come to this movie with nothing but the film to preoccupy me.

Upon arrival to the parking lot of the theater, I saw the Soviet Bread Line snaking around the building. Families, flocks of families. Each child holding the parents’ hands while doing the pee pee dance of anticipation. I hobbled my way from the curb to the theater sitting with nothing between me and the screen. I was set to be enchanted.

Massawyrm was there eating a pack of cigarettes like an onion. I sat beside him and settled in. After about 45 minutes of idle chatter with various lovely folks, the lights darkened and I saw the full moon. Oh… The SCOOBY DOO trailer, which plays to perfection with this audience. The kids got giddy and cheered it. They want to see SCOOBY DOO bad… sigh.

Next the trailer for THE MAJESTIC played, much to the delight of parents and the dismay of children. The little girl sitting behind me said, "Daddy when are they going to show Harry Potter?" Her father said, "Soon." The child said, "Now Daddy?" this went on throughout THE MAJESTIC trailer, till John Williams’ score caught the little girl’s attention.

Now I need to be clear about something, I’m reviewing this as a movie, not as an adaptation. I chose not to read the book, because ultimately to enjoy the movie, I shouldn’t have to. This film series needs to be able to be accessible to not only the readers, but those that didn’t. And for the great part of this film, it does that to perfection for me.

Watching Richard Harris’ long bearded Dubledore striding down a regular suburban street with his little lighter looking thing taking the flame from the Gaslight lamps alongside the street to darken the neighborhood… To Maggie Smith’s McGonagall pulling a Simone Simon… To Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid flying in astride a most excellent motorbike, well I was instantly hooked.

Watching the Dursley family’s treatment of Harry Potter set up a wonderful sense of foreboding and danger. The Dursley’s are not being mean out of spite, but being mean in anticipation of what this boy can do. They treat him like a gun, something that isn’t to be toyed with. Locking him the space beneath the stairs. Spoiling their son and treating Harry like a freak, a dangerous one.

Frankly, if I’d been the Dursley’s I would have pulled a Ma & Pa Kent on this kid… but heck… People do as they do.

These first scenes with Daniel Radcliffe set up a very strong sense of what is to come. From his snake talk to well… You’ll see, but it all serves as the tostados… the lite salad… the cheese stuffed mushrooms that precede the feast. A taste of magic, very light touch, but enough to tell you that it is possible in this world.

As it comes time for Harry to join his fellow young wizards and witches at Hogwarts… As he goes shopping for school supplies… as he goes to his bank… Again we are descending faster into the world that I couldn’t wait to get into. It felt perfectly paced. Natural. As each new element comes into play, I was thrilled. Dang they were nailing this.

That Alley thing where they shop was just filled with so much detail, I wanted to slow down and shop myself. You see, I was a real Magician’s Apprentice as a boy at the Texas Renaissance Festival. His stage name was Merlin, but backstage he was Bill Palmer. I was his assistant from ages 7 through 12. At age 9 he presented me with a wand. It was very old. It was his first, when he started off on his magic career as a boy in the fifties. It had tarnished brass fittings… and hard ebony polished wood. As his apprentice I readied his magic acts and even substituted from time to time for his assistant. I exchanged patter on stage with him and I helped collect tips after his performances, of which I got 30%, quite a haul back then. At that point in my life, I wanted nothing more than to be a magician, to be a wizard. To dazzle and thrill an audience with tricks that made one believe in the possibility of the impossible.

This opening did that to a ‘T’.

In addition to setting up this world, they were setting up Harry himself. Here’s a boy that has known nothing, but strife from the ones that were taking care of him, but as he ventures out into the world with this giant that claims to have known him as a baby… well he discovers that he’s famous. Not only was he famous, but it seemed that folks were genuinely afraid and in awe of him.

What are they afraid of? Why do they know of him? Why do they know about his scar, when Harry does not? What’s so special about Harry? At the beginning of the film Dumbledore says that soon every boy and girl in the world would know his name, why?

I was very curious to find out myself. Harry was a bit like Bambi staring at Godzilla’s foot the first time. All wide-eyed and curious. At the bank he discovers a part of his legacy… then at the Wand Shop, it was John Hurt’s Mr Ollivander and the choosing of a wand for Harry, where we begin to see a bit of what was in Harry. A wave of a wand causing chaos, destroying things, finally creating a wind and a glowing light around him…. For the first time Harry begins to get a sense of things, as do we.

The rest of the film reminds me quite a bit of my old Hardy Boys books and YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, but with magic thrown into the mix. I love this world. Each character seems to have more to them than meets the eyes. Harry’s companions of Ron and Hermione were an absolute delight. Ron reminds me of a friend I had in Elementary school and Junior High named Rylan Bosher. Hermione reminds me of a girl from that same time period named Keilah Collier. Rylan was a great kid, we had many adventures. Keilah… well she had that perfect bit of attitude, youthful purity and charm. Of the three young actors, it is Emma Watson that I am absolutely delighted with. Her character feels so real and honest. The girl that wants to be one of the boys, who wants to succeed and will work hard for it, but is pigeonholed by others as being a know-it-all and rude… When she is just trying to help and assist. Both the girl and the character were my faves.

Of the teachers… Well my favorite, no surprise, was Alan Rickman. As is consistently the case, Alan has an amazing ironic delivery that suits his Professor Snape quite well. Absolutely perfect.

Richard Harris was wonderful, especially in the ‘mirror’ scene, but he was given the worst single moment and duty in the film by the end of it all. But otherwise…. Very good. As was Ian Hart’s Professor Quirrell. I’ve liked Ian Hart ever since his performance as John Lennon in BACKBEAT all those years ago. Here he shines yet again.

But the real star of this movie is Hogwarts itself. Hogwarts is a wonder. From the ancient paintings that move and seem to have an enchanted life all their own, to the floating candles (what happens to the dripping wax?) The way the feast first arrives. That wonderful sorting hat. Everything, as each and every new detail was exposed I ate it like a candied treat. Absolutely delicious.

This world is so detailed and rich and playful that I could just dive right in.

The drama and suspense of the moments that needed them were delivered to perfection. Quidditch was a blast. Wizard’s Chess rules. Hermione’s frustration at Ron’s comments, her desire to help ‘solve the mystery’ of what was going on in Hogwart’s. There was so much going on constantly, it was thrilling. The demerits and merit points… all very proper and British.

I also love the effects. It is heavy on the CG, but ya know, that’s the world right now. There was so much magic going on that it just became part of this world that things would do what they would do. That it didn’t look 100% real… well, it is magic… It isn’t supposed to look real, this was another belief of Harryhausen’s. You’re supposed to gawk at the effects on screen and wish you lived in a world where that which you were seeing was the way the world was. Film isn’t about reality, but about creating new realities. In that respect, Chris Columbus and crew have succeeded beyond where most dreamed possible.

Now Quint has just sent in his review, and he seems to think I have a problem with the last 30 minutes of the film. OH NO! No, my problem lies with the last 8 minutes or so. To explain this, I have to deal with spoiler material.

Ok, So go away and read this after you’ve seen the film.

Once Ron, Harry and Hermione begin on the path of ‘saving the Sorcerer’s Stone’ I was thrilled. It reminded me in a way of the trials that Indiana Jones had to go through in ‘THE LAST CRUSADE’ only this was really great and that was really mediocre. The encounter with Fluffy… great. The plant peril… great. The key room, perfect. That chess game. This might very well be my most favorite part of the film. The chess game was so incredibly tense. Dead on perfect work here.

How they dealt with isolating Harry from the rest… again, PERFECT. It felt completely natural and unforced.

Then when Harry had to deal with Voldemort and the ‘traitor’ with the mirror. Again. Perfect. I loved how this played out. The traitor bit felt a bit forced, but not too much. All the way through Harry winning I was pleased as punch.

It wasn’t till Harry woke up in the hospital bed and talked to Dumbledore that I really truly began to hate what the film was doing.

First off, I hate that Dumbledore knows what happened in the room with the mirror… I hate that he talks about Harry being marked with ‘LOVE’ and I hate that he knows and treats rather plainly what Harry did to Voldemort.

I hate that Harry is all smiling at the end. He just killed someone, he killed them.

I wanted Dumbledore to come into that scene wanting to know what happened in the final room. I wanted Harry to not really know what he did or how it worked. And I wanted Dumbledore to be impressed and a bit afraid of this boy with so much power, yet so very little training.

Harry Potter isn’t just the boy who lived, he’s the boy who killed too. Harry Potter is a gun, he’s a Bruce Banner there at the end. At no point is he intimidated by that. At no point does he have a problem with what he did. He killed someone, sure it was in self-defense, but that does something to a child.

It should not be brushed off lightly.

Also at the awards banquet at the end of the film, there was the rather absurd bit of craziness about awarding the House Cup.

Let’s face it, at the end of this story Harry Potter has a personal treasure of gold, 2 best friends, a super broomstick, the adoration of the teachers, 1 on screen Quidditch win, a defeated troll, a cloak of invisibility and the vanquishing of his arch-enemy. It is ok if his Gryffindor team were to not win.

Having all those points awarded to them at the end, after the point totals are announced played awful to me. What about the fact that they went back out at night again? Wouldn’t that equal the 160 point bonus they got and give them a total an extra 10 for them and another 10 from their Gryffindor flat mate for standing up to them?

In the end, we get a ham-handed explanation how Harry beat Voldemort and this win? Too much. No finesse. It felt spoon fed.

By resolving every question asked out of this movie, I was left with nothing to really ponder other than how cool everything looked.

Magic is about Mystery, Uncertainty and the Unknown. By quantifying everything. By marking Harry with the power of love in his skin, well one that sounds just stupid as all hell, almost as stupid as midi-chlorians, you take away the power of what could be.

Now it doesn’t ruin the film for me, but it is a sour note that I don’t care for. It felt orchestrated and forced. It is like… Imagine if at the end of CASABLANCA if Rick not only killed the bad guy, he got the girl, the nazis all died and in a roll of the dice with Sydney Greenstreet he won his bar back and learned that Ingrid Bergman was pregnant with his child and there was a wedding and the sun set behind the Café American.

Too much sugar. Too syrupy. Give Harry something to come back to do next year at Hogwarts. Make Harry a bit of a Pandora’s Box…. A Bruce Banner as a boy. With great power comes great responsibility.

OVERALL, I’d say the movie was just about perfect. I think it is an excellent introduction to a larger world of possible adventures, but I do have problems with aspects of it at the end. I can understand wrapping everything up if you were writing a novel that you didn’t know was going to be a gigantic hit series… but personally we know this is going to be a series of films… Ya don’t have to tie it up so tightly.

Finally, a film must be able to stand without the books. For the vast majority of this movie it accomplished that in spades. I knew from moment to moment what was going on, why things were happening, how they were moving forward. It wasn’t be stuffed down my throat… until the end, when it felt like all the patience that had been exerted in the telling of this exquisite story just ran out.

It ended like a Berman produced episode of STAR TREK. All nice and tidy, no magic or mystery left to talk about. But you do walk away talking about how cool and perfect so much of it is.

Now I wonder where I can find a copy of the book? Hehehe…