"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is a blood-curdling adventure film that is remarkably true to the book, drenched with atmosphere and loaded with the horrific and magnificent. There were numerous potential problems, but none materialised: The movie directed by Chris Columbus is a charming classic that pays honour to a story that was a difficult task. The J.K. Rowling novel was powerful and vivid, and there was a risk that the movie would make everything too adorable and cuddly. There isn't. It tells a rip-roaring narrative of supernatural adventure where colourful and eccentric characters alternate with terrifying things like a three-headed dog, a pit of tendrils known as the Devil's Snare, and a two-faced immortal. It's like "Indiana Jones" for younger viewers.
Harry is raised by his aunt and uncle as an impoverished relative after being abandoned as a foundling on a suburban doorstep. He is subsequently called by a deluge of letters to enrol in Hogwarts School, an Oxbridge for wizards. The first time we see Hogwarts, the special effects in the film are put in motion. Computers can make everything appear realistic, but for "Harry Potter," where everything, including the sets and locales, should look a little made-up, too much realism wouldn't be the best decision. The school, rising from a moonlit lake on foreboding Gothic battlements, has a similar level of realism to Xanadu in "Citizen Kane," and its hallways, cellars, and great hall perpetuate the theme even if they sometimes incorporate actual structures.
The three young children who make up the movie's core are animated and bright-eyed. Harry Potter is portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, who wears round spectacles and, like all the youthful characters, resembles my image of him but is slightly older. It is initially very uncertain whether Harry will be the protagonist of his own life in this novel because he previously played David Copperfield on the BBC.
You either already know the narrative or don't want to. It's encouraging to know that the adult cast, which includes a who's who of British performers, practically lives up to their roles. These actors are aware that the wide British acting style popularised in holiday pantomimes would have been disastrous for this material and have turned their volume down just enough. Watch Alan Rickman slurring his words till they appear to be about to explode yet still remaining in character. Professor Minerva McGonagall, still in her prime as Miss Jean Brodie, is responsible for placing new students like Harry in one of the school's four houses. Dumbledore's headmaster Richard Harris has a beard.
Exuberant use of computers is made to give the scenarios of defying gravity a realistic appearance. The critical Quidditch match in the movie will be a mystery to book readers. The game is largely how I imagined it to be in the film, which made me think of Stephen King's claim that authors use a type of telepathy to implant concepts and pictures in their readers' minds. (certain producers may not have read the books, which explains why certain films don't look like the books.) While the Quidditch move is a masterful sequence, there are other set pieces that are almost as magical. a dangerous, life-size version of chess. a space full of fluttering keys. The previously stated pit of tendrils and a dark.
I felt fairly confident that I was witnessing a classic during "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," one that will endure for a very long time and win over many generations of fans. Good things require time to develop. It takes care to build a story and painstakingly develop its characters rather than hammering the audience with cheap thrills. It's a world with its own magical laws, exactly as in "The Wizard of Oz," "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "Star Wars," and "E.T." as well as several outstanding Quidditch players.
