Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Review

starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane
director: Chris Columbus

I remember the first time I went to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I think I was 12 years old and I had no idea what Harry Potter was about. I knew that this was the book that everyone in my class was going crazy over, so I was feeling good to finally SEE what all the fuss was about. I immediately got hooked. The Harry Potter franchise, in general, has made my life so much better, I am grateful for such a wonderful story to be upcoming and new during my generation.

John Williams did a fantastic job of composing a beautiful tune that we all know as 'the Harry Potter theme' in Hedwig's Theme. Like all epic movie series, it had a song at the very beginning. I liked how the story was just told, and not explained like some of the future HP movies. I finally knew who Dumbledore and Hagrid were, and the story of Harry Potter. The movie, however, seemed to be going a bit fast with the music and such, but the pace slowed down after a little while.

I thought Richard Griffiths' facial expressions towards Harry were hilarious, especially during the scene where Aunt Petunia was finally revealing the story of Lily and James Potter to Harry. Uncle Vernon looked so evil and disgusted at the same time, it's so funny. Fiona Shaw did a great job at showing some deep emotion while she was talking about her sister whom she was so jealous of.

The whole Diagon Alley portion of the film was magical in every sense of the word. It made you feel wonder, excitement, and amazement all at the same time. Gringotts, Harry's vault, Olivander's, and Hedwig all made me feel like 'damn, being in this reality is quite boring.' The wonders that haven't been explored in the wizarding world of Harry Potter were all opening up in this movie and I was thrilled to have my own personal relationship with this series from here on out.

Everything in this entire movie, and the second one, looks so crisp. The wardrobe, settings and props all looked so great together. The effort that was put into this first movie showed a lot. The only things that looked somewhat out of place were the CGI characters like the Sorting Hat, and Fluffy. However the Quidditch and Invisibility Cloak scenes looked great. The unicorn's blood looked like nothing I had ever seen before, like liquid metal all over the ground that you could see your reflection off of.

I enjoyed watching the Trio battle their way through the trials to get to the Sorcerer's Stone. Especially Ron's scene with the huge game of Wizards Chess. Seeing the pieces get blown up and shredded was awesome. This trial showed how their friendship and wizarding skills could get them through anything, which was basically the theme throughout the entire series. Although, I thought the split second where Harry was actually considering giving Voldemort the Sorcerer's Stone was out of character.

I thought the endings in this movie were really touching. Gryffindor winning the house cup, the scrapbook that Hagrid gave Harry, and the scene where Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express and was off back to London were all very fine ways of ending a wonderful family film. Credit to the amazing author: J.K. Rowling for creating such beautiful stories.

This movie, like all of the other ones, are simply classics. Not once was I bored or uninterested with the movie. I think to truly love this movie and series, you have to come into it with an open mind because I know it is sort of hard to enjoy something when it has been over-hyped, but the hype was 100% spot on with Harry Potter.