Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Harry Potter series has been around for as long as I can remember. I was a year old when the first book was published and only 5 when the first movie came out. Growing up in a conservative Christian household my parents had reasonable trepidation about the series and what it was teaching young children. But after my dad read the series they decided to allowed me to read them, and to be honest, from the first chapter, I was totally hooked. Before you ask no, I had no desire to be a wizard or try out witchcraft, which seemed to be the biggest fear of parents. The books in no way encouraged that, and besides, according to the lore of the books you have to be born a wizard to do magic, it isn’t something you could learn anyways. But the books captured my imagination and introduced me to a world that was magical and embraced the whimsical in a way that was accessible to someone who didn’t grow up with high fantasy. The books were accessible to readers of all ages and the story was engaging, intricate, and is to this day has something special about it that is hard to describe.
That doesn’t mean that this series doesn’t have issues, it does. And I believe those issues are highlighted in the movies. What is brilliant about Harry Potter is the world around Harry, the characters and descriptions that make the story come to life, and while some of those are captured in the movies, there are some things that are left out that make the story fall flat and show the plot holes in the main storyline.
Now that I have that all off my chest we can begin. Over the next 8 weeks, I will be re-watching and reviewing the Harry Potter movies. This won’t be a compare and contrast with the book, though I am sure it will happen a little. We are going to look at the movies as their own entity and judge them based on their own merits not based on the brilliance of the books or the political turmoil surrounding the author. This is the only time I will ever say this, but if you haven’t read the books, just go ahead and watch the movies and then go read the books. It is the only way to really enjoy both. But please do read the books, they are worth it… and then see the play… but I am getting ahead of myself.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(In which Harry learns he is a wizard and then goes to the most dangerous school on earth)
Establishing the world that would eventually become the base of an 8 movie series is no small task and veteran director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Christmas with the Kranks) believed he was the man for the job. He convinced WB to let him direct this movie. Columbus did some fantastic things with this movie and established a really clear tone and idea for the story which was changed later on, but we will get to that. There are so many huge names attached to the Harry Potter project both from the brilliant adult cast, Allen Rickman, Maggie Smith Robbie Coltrane etc. and the now famous, but back then unknown and adorable children, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint etc, not to mention composer John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park). This franchise was set up for success.
There is an amazing amount of acting talent in this movie, some of England’s finest appear on screen, both in leading roles and small bit parts. This is fun to watch, it is a proverbial who’s who of stage and screen actors. The only issue that arises from this is that it does highlight the inexperience of the children in the cast. They are not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they are stiff and awkward and definitely overact at times. However, it is easy to forgive their inexperience because they are actual children. So often movie studios cast older kids to play younger roles. You have adults in their mid-20s playing 16 years olds and everyone can tell. But this time they cast actual 11-year-old kids and this added to the charm. Yes, there are some weak acing moments, however, watching Harry and the gang grow into adults and deal with hard situations is an integral part of the story, and seeing the actors grow up lends authenticity to the story. Also, the kids do grow into wonderful accomplished actors, you just have to get through these early movies.
There is a slight pacing problem with this movie, there are some really dull moments in-between the high intensity. This comes from trying to fit a book about a whole year into a two hr movie. There was too much content to fit in and they had to pick out the most important plot points. So at times, it feels a bit jolty. Also, the passage of time is not clear throughout the school year. The moments of normal life and school are glossed over out of necessity. However, the reason they are in the books, to begin with, is that they help fill out the year and give the other kids at Hogwarts personality and that helps it feel more like a real school. Also, there is a ton of exposition in this movie. There was much to establish, and while they did their best to present it in an interesting way, it definitely slowed the pace of the story way down.
We should take a moment and applaud the technical elements in this movie. This movie was made in 2001. CGI was still clunky and did not blend into the real world at all. It is used, but it is a bit awkward in this film. So the creative team did everything they could to do the “magic” practically (using real things with little to no visual effects). The creative team did everything they could with wires, the use of hydraulics, and gravity, and those effects are by far the most magical. They add so much validity and weight to the world. They also took the time to do a lot of the makeup practically, all of those goblins at the bank must have spent forever in the makeup chair but boy did it make that scene so much more believable. I am a firm believer that just because we can use computers, doesn’t mean we should and this movie is a great example of that. The creativity and ingenuity are beyond what we see in most movies where CGI is heavily relied on.
A consistent complaint I have about the Harry Potter movies is how little Harry knows throughout the story. In the books we could see other scenes that Harry doesn’t see and we as the reader know a little more than Harry, but in the books, we only know what he knows and it can be rather frustrating. There is a balance when it comes to context, you want the audience to know enough to understand what is going on, but not enough to ruin the mystery. This movie leans towards leaving the audience in the dark and that can be a bit frustrating.
As a note this movie is PG and there are some slightly creepy moments ie: the cloaked gliding figure of a soul that is drinking unicorn blood is creepy and not for small children. The last few movies are PG-13, so I would not recommend letting children start the series. These movies and books are for teenagers who can handle the creepy bad guy and dark magic. Ultimately if you enjoy high fantasy, magic, and the epic struggle between good and evil then you will enjoy these stories. But keep in mind that the bad guys do dark magic and cross the moral line because they are evil. However, there are consequences, and their actions are never glorified, but the darkness is shown. I should note that reading about it and seeing it on screen are two different things. As a young teen, after I read the books, I watched this movie and decided that it was too much for my tastes, it was darker than I had imagined the books and I didn’t watch anymore. As a young adult, I tried these movies again and I was not at all creeped out because I had matured enough to handle it. So if the dark magic in this movie creeps you or your kids out, I would hold off on watching the others. There is no shame in knowing your limits. Getting through this series is supposed to be fun, not something you push yourself through.
All that being said it was a joy to re-watch this movie. Pacing problems aside, this movie is just downright magical, and I could listen to John Williams’ scoring all day. There is a reason Harry Potter is still popular 20 years after its initial release! Who doesn’t want to believe that teamwork, bravery, and love can defeat even the darkest evil. Also, cute kids, crazy magical animals, and the ability to fly, what more could you want in a fantasy movie?
Content Overview
Language: They do say “Bloody” which is an English swear word.
Sexual Content: None
Violence: Kids fall off the roof, get blasted off of giant chess pieces and harry eventually passes out. Overall no children get horribly injured but they do get knocked around a lot and get little scrapes. Quirell is burned when he touches Harry and turns to dust. a unicorn is killed and we see its dead body. A troll is knocked out.
Objectionable content: Harry’s family is emotionally abusive and borderline physically abusive. The is dark magic as I talked about earlier.
