Premise - Harry Potter is the story of the titular
boy whom has been staying with his nasty aunt and uncle for the past ten
years. When he receives his invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
& Wizardry he learns that his parents were wizards killed by the evil
Lord Voldemort and that he too is a wizard. Off he goes to Hogwarts and
the adventure begins.
A mere three weeks ago you couldn't have dragged me
kicking and screaming to see this film. I dismissed the books as silly
& childish and certainly had no intentions of running down to the
multiplex and sitting for two and a half hours watching the film
adaptation surrounded by restless kids.
Oh, how wrong I was. It
started when I was on holiday the other week. Bored out of my head I
reached for my nephews’ copy of the book, ten hours later I was online
ordering the other three books and downloading the trailer for the film.
The film is 2.5 hours long, don't be alarmed however it just fly's
by. Chris Columbus has done an excellent job of bring the world of wizards
to life. I was worried by his previous films, I considered him somewhat of
a hack. Mrs Doubtfire and Bicentennial Man is not a good track record. He
has pulled it off with aplomb however. Stand out scenes include the
Quidittch match and the final showdown. The quidittch match is almost as
good as the podrace scene in Episode One for sheer speed and
breathlessness.
A very impressive cast has been gathered to fill
the adult roles and all are exactly as I imagined them. Robbie Coltrane,
John Hurt, Richard Harris, John Cleese, Richard Griffiths, Maggie Smith
and Julie Walters are just a selection of the very talented adult cast on
show. It's the kids however that steal the show. Emma Watson and Rupert
Grint are fantastic as Hemoine and Ron. They play off each other
excellently; some off the films best moments involve these two. The
revelation however is Daniel Radcliffe, he is Harry Potter, it's that
simple. Whilst reading the books I had an idea in my head how he should
act and Radcliffe pulls it off perfectly.
For all that is good
though, they're is a few things that niggled me. The film doesn't stick as
close to the book as it should for my liking. Many important subplots have
been watered down to a few lines of dialogue or omitted altogether.
I digress though, if you've not read the book you won't notice so don't
let that put you off.
Also, some of the SFX is a little fake. Like
the Mummy Returns an overemphasis on CGI is the order of the day.
It could, nay should have been a 5, but I was disappointed that so
much was left out of the book. I know if they kept everything in the film
would have been about 5 hours long, but it irritates me all the same.
I wonder, the first book is 250 pages and the film is 2.5 hours
long. The books get longer as they go on and book 4 is 470 pages! How long
will that film need to be?
If you've not read the book, you will
love it. If you have read the book you will love it, only not as much as
the book.
