Movie Feedback and Comments

Hi, I was just at your website and wanted to comment on your review of the movie. Despite my intense loyalty to anything Harry Potter, I was relieved to see that someone else saw the flaws in the Warner Brothers production of Sorcerer's Stone. I seem to be the only one of my family and friends who walked out of the theatre feeling somewhat disappointed. Not that I didn't enjoy it - 3 hours of Harry Potter, seeing them come to life with sounds and images, was an opportunity I couldn't fail to appreciate. But, unlike all my friends, I wasn't blinded by that. There are so many scenes missing that even if I hadn't read the book, I would have felt like I missed a lot of important things. I understand that Chris Columbo had to cut a lot out, but one would think he could have made better use of those 153 minutes. And considering that the majority of people who saw the movie already sat through a 300-page book and liked it enough to come and see the movie, I don't think any of them would object to spending 4 hours in a theatre if it gave them a chance to see a more complete interpretation of the book they read.

I didn't go in expecting a whole lot, and I was pretty nervous when I heard who the director was (I'm still wondering just whose idea it was to give the part to the guy who did Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone, although I can't really blame him, either; he had a lot to live up to), but I still knew that, as you said, the Quidditch scene is one of many which alone would be worth the price of admission. But now everyone thinks I'm crazy when I say the movie didn't live up to the book. I can forsee thousands of Muggles around the world who are unfamiliar with the original version but saw the movie with their kids or friends, opting to just see the movies as they come out instead of opening up a book. And because of just how much this movie, and probably the rest, differs from the book, I think it's safe to say that we'll end up with 2 types of Harry Potterphiles: those that read the books, and those whose knowledge is limited to the information displayed in the movies.

Anyway, I appreciated how perceptive you were - I knew there was something wrong, but it wasn't until you made the analogy (of it being like selected scenes being cut and pasted together like a home movie of a vacation) that I could really pinpoint that as the problem. Now maybe I can convince the people who saw the movie first that the book is much more worth the time than the movie was.