Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter Reviews

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THE MOVIE
So, this special month, I decided to do something a little different and more in-depth than usual. I will start each review by reviewing it as a film first, and then comparing it to the actual book. Thanks to good old Stephen Fry, I have a collection of well-narrated 'Harry Potter' stories on audiobook, so I'll be doing it that way. No way could I read all 7 books in a month's time. I've gone through the series before, and yeah... I'm a bit of a slow-mo reader, personally.

But moving right along, we begin with 'The Philosopher's Stone', the story that started what may very well be the best known and beloved book series since 'The Lord of the Rings'. Here, we meet Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), an orphan who is made to live with his Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths), Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw), and cousin Dudley Dursley (Harry Melling). There, he is raised as a sort of peasant boy, as the Dursley family has a grudge against Harry's real parents for being, shall we say, "unnatural". This lasts until his eleventh birthday, where after a series of mysterious letters that the Dursleys kept from Harry, he finally meets a giant named Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) who takes matters into his own hands, and comes to take Harry away to Wizarding School at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Evetually, Harry also learns of the real cause for his parents death, and why the Dursleys have been such assholes to him this whole time. As opposed to the car crash they were said to be in, it turns out a dark wizard by the name of Voldemort actually murdered them. He also tried to get Harry in the process, but the curse had somehow reflected off Harry, leaving his famous lightning bolt scar.

It's very much an introduction to a wonderful, magical new world of imagination that we haven't really seen before. The rest of the story involves Harry and his new friends Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) solving a mystery about a robbery from Gringots Wizarding Bank involving something very important called the Philosopher's Stone. Their biggest suspect for the robbery is their Potions teacher, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), but he was one of the wizards meant to protect the stone, and eventually it all becomes a sort of lesson on not judging a book by its cover.

When you look back on the movie now, it's kinda like watching the 'Star Wars' prequels, only in that the CG is quite painfully dated by today's standards. It's often hard to look at, namely during scenes like the fight with the troll in the dungeon, or even the Quidditch match. But, to be fair, CG hadn't set the bar with Gollum quite yet. I don't think it's enough of a problem to really take you out of the movie, as the story, magical ideas and characters are still fun and imaginative. The rough CG is really just a fault of the time that's passed and how well it's all been developing since 2001.

It still remains a fun movie for what it is, and it was of course mainly directed at a younger audience. I always enjoyed that there are several lessons to take away from this story as well. Don't judge a book by its cover, it can take great courage to stand up to your friends, you may have to make important sacrifices in life for the greater good, nobody likes a know-it-all, and of course, never trust a guy with a face growing out the back of his head.

4/5

COMPARING THE BOOK
With the film's running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes (give or take), and the fact that it's probably the thinnest book of the series, it's not hard to imagine that they didn't tamper with things too much. Most of the movie was about bringing the world to the big screen, and bringing it all to life, and they did it all incredibly well.

The seemingly most glaring thing that didn't make it into the film was the lack of Peeves the Poltergeist, who actually WAS cast with Rik Mayal. It's something that has had fans in a bit of an uproar since. Here's his side of the story.

Another one that stands out to a lot of people is the lack of the potion challenge after the kids go through the trap door. Every other challenge from the book made it to the big screen, and they all consisted of either huge set pieces or great amounts of pricey CG. It kinda boggles the mind that a room full of cups couldn't be managed, even if the scene was just a minute long.

It's a bit curious to watch the deleted scenes of the film and seeing how much the altered from things they took from the book. One example being, when the kids find out who Nicolas Flamel is in the book, it's on a chocolate frogs box, and it's also like that in the deleted scene. However, the movie altered it a bit to just have them figure out who he was from the book Hermione took out for "light reading". Another example being Harry being a bit of a smart ass to Snape in his class by pointing out that Hermione knew the answers to his questions, and saying he should call on her since she obviously knows. It was a short deleted scene from the movie that would have added to the sense of humor Rowling wrote so well.

Otherwise, the changes are subtle enough one can deem them unnecessary to worry about. Like when they first run into Fluffy in the book, Neville is actually with them. He just doesn't do much else but act afraid though, so cutting him away from that particular scene is pretty forgivable. He still does what's important for his character development, and that's what's important.

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