Hi friends! Yesterday proved to be a busy day for me! I filmed and edited 8 videos for this week and participated in a podcast style video discussion. It is the first in a monthly series we are doing leading up to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in November. Each month my friends Abby, Jeremy and Richard will join me to talk about one of the Harry Potter films.
As this is the first month we naturally are talking about the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone for UK). This is similar to what Jeremy, Abby and I did for our Star Wars series but this time we are joined by Richard who is a blogging friend of mine. He has been doing a detailed chapter by chapter review of the Harry Potter books on his blog so I had to include him. It was so neat to finally talk to him after reading his blog/tweets for years.
It was my first time leading a discussion with 4 people so I was a little nervous about that. Plus, I am no Harry Potter expert but I think it turned out pretty well. I am looking forward to the next videos where hopefully I will continue to improve and so grateful to Abby, Jeremy and Richard for making time out of their Saturdays to do this with me. It really was a lot of fun.
Anyway, as far as the movie itself it’s charming in many ways but in all honesty it didn’t hold up as well as I remembered. I understand Chris Columbus was trying to stay as true to the book but this movie should not be 2.5 hours long. Especially in the quidditch sections I found myself getting pretty bored.
Also Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were in their first movie with this film…and it shows. I hate to say it. They are passable I guess as child actors but you can tell they aren’t like a Jacob Tremblay in Room. It looks a little amateurish.
All that said, the introduction to Hogwarts and the magic world is very charming and fun. The British greats in the adult cast are all wonderful especially Alan Rickman as Snape. The sets and settings feel immersive and fun and the music by John Williams as expected is perfect.
So it’s not a bad film just a little more boring than I remembered.
Overall Grade- B-
What do you think of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and what do you think of our discussion? Thanks!
I am a huge fan of the books but never enjoyed the movies when they were first being released. I was thinking of having a marathon of the movies to give them another shot soon… we’ll see. 😉
I know many fans of the books are very tough on the movies but I think they are solid. Even this one which was a little bit boring to a marginal fan is still entertaining. I would highly recommend watching them right along with our podcasts! 😉
I think the HP movies are just ok. They get all the technical aspects right, and all of the adults are -perfectly- cast and acted. It’s John Williams’s best score in nearly a decade, and the movie have a lush beauty. However, I was never a fan of any of the acting of any of the child characters, and the writing squeezed out all of the charm that the books were so full of. The movies are just pale copies at that point, telling the exact same story in a much less interesting way. In that regard, the second movie was even worse, though it did adapt the least interesting of the Harry Potter books. In 2001 there were two big fantasy film adaptations, one of which was near-perfect in the way it adapted the source material, and this one which was more faithful, but far less interesting.
The Prisoner of Azkaban was the only Great Harry Potter film. I love Cuaron’s work.
Oh and P.S. Tremblay in Room is AMAZING. Such a great film- I wish more people heard about it! Great reference!
Yeah the more I thought about his performance the more impressed I was. It was very good!
It was no trouble at all, Rachel, and it was great finally having a proper conversation with you as well! I should probably remember enough of Chamber of Secrets by the time the next discussion rolls around, but I’ll schedule my re-watches of the subsequent films to coincide with the later videos to make sure I’m fresh.
Dont let it interrupt your blogging. It really was so much fun