Another Review (SPOILERS)

[Aleks]

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Hope that's enough space! I've just seen the film (well, okay it 
finished two hours ago, but I needed time to come down off my high!) 
and now I can't wait 'til Friday to go see it again. Becuase I have 
so much to say, and I'm not sure it would be coherent if I tried to 
work through the film chronologically I'm dividing this review into 
three sections:


1) THE GOOD

The children playing the Trio were all great, especially Ron. I'm not 
a huge Ron fan in canon but every time he shared a glance with Harry 
it made me grin. Dan IS incredibly good as Harry (and despite was 
others have said I couldn't detect any signs of his voice breaking).

Other people (mainly Cassie, I think) have mentioned scenes which 
appealled to their inner H/Hm or R/Hm shipper, despite having a 
preference for neither there were several points which made me smile 
and note the possibilities. Judging by the ratio I'd guess that 
either CC's a H/Hm shipper or else JKR is intending to follow that 
line at some point and told him to put it in.

Also adored Draco - fans of fanon Draco (ie/ not Keith Fraser :D )
should love him too. Very cute, but manages appropriately evil grins 
when necessary - such as when stealing Neville's Remembrall. I wanted 
to hug him when I saw the disappointed look on his face as Gryffindor 
ended up winning the House Cup.

Quidditch - bloody brilliant :)  Although you could tell that it had 
been CGI'd if you looked, it was very easy to disregard that. As 
someone else commented it is VERY fast, even moreso than I had 
expected. The Slytherins were great - pulled every dirty trick in the 
book, just as you'd expect, and got away with it.

Some people on the main list complained on seeing the stills that 
Quirrell was wearing his turban in the scene at the Leaky Cauldron - 
I held my breath to see if he shook Harry's hand but he managed to 
avoid it without it being obvious (unless you're obsessed, of 
course). Don't understand why they did it but it got a clue in early 
on.

Alan Rickman - the man's amazing. Even though many of Snape's scenes 
were cruelly cut he still managed to bring an air of menace every 
time he appeared. I especially liked him threatening Quirrell in the 
corridor. Hoping for more in the next film <g>

Chocolate frogs - oh my god! They were real! Okay, so as Ron 
said, "It's only a spell," but Harry's first one managed to escape 
out of the train window.

Invisibility Cloak - loved the look of it, interested to see that you 
could see through it from the inside - I had wondered about that from 
the books.

Filch and Mrs.Norris - Filch looked like a refugee from a Dickens 
novel but it suited him perfectly, Mrs. Norris is clearly no ordinary 
cat as she had red eyes. Whether you like him or not, the actor 
playing him was perfect and he got one of the best lines, IMHO; when 
talking about the detention and the old punishments he says, "I miss 
the screaming" LOL

Finally, kudos to CC for making me back Gryffindor during both the 
Quidditch match and the awarding of the House Cup. My inner Slytherin 
cringed in disgust but I couldn't help myself.


2) THE BAD

Despite everything Dan still had BLUE eyes in the version I saw. Does 
anyone know what WB is doing about this? Are we still all seeing an 
early version? Don't these movie people realise how important it is 
that Harry should have his mother's eyes?

On the subject on his parents, I didn't like James in the Mirror of 
Erised scenes. He looked too old, unless we've got our dates very 
muddled up shouldn't he have been in his mid-20's when he got killed? 
The man in the mirror looked to me to be in his 40's. Possibly he is 
supposed to show what James would have looked like if he had lived - 
any other ideas?

Still on the Mirror of Erised, was anyone else disappointed that they 
cut the part where Dumbledore tells Harry that he sees himself 
holding (a) pair(s) of socks? I felt that the omission made D seem 
less friendly and less likeable.

Sorting Ceremony - even if they had to cut show most of the students 
being Sorted they could at least have done those they did show in 
alphabetical order with the crowd getting smaller each time the 
camera looked back to indicate that the others were bring Sorted too. 
Nobody else (or not that I've noticed) has mentioned that the Hat was 
supposed to cover the students' eyes not just sit on their head - 
surely the budget wasn't that tight that they couldn't have made it a 
little bigger?

Quidditch - yes, I know that above I said I loved it BUT a couple of 
minor niggles. Firstly, I'm sure I remember the scene where Harry 
catches the snitch in his mouth being in COS, am I remembering wrong? 
I'm convinced that it happened in a Gryffindor/ Slytherin game when 
Draco was Slytherin seeker. Unfortunately I've lent all my books out 
so can't check. Secondly, I missed Lee Jordan's commentating - where 
were all his jokes? (And didn't he look too young? I'm sure he 
shouldn't be 13 at this point).

Some of the little clues that make reading the books so much fun were 
omitted, okay, time constraints I know, but how much time would it 
have taken for Hagrid to say he'd 'borrowed Sirius Black's bike and 
had to return it'? or for Uncle Vernon to say 'you're coming to the 
zoo because Mrs. Figg has broken her leg'?

Also, where Harry and Dumbledore's chat at the end is cut we don't 
find out why Snape tried to stop Quirrell from cursing Harry and 
therefore that James had saved Snape's life - surely this is 
important for the 3rd film?

Finally for this part - the new scene between Harry and Quirrell/ 
Voldemort. It didn't make much sense, why change it to this, IMHO, 
much scarier fight when a straight playing of the text would make 
more sense and save having several things different to canon. For 
example/ if the PS wasn't destroyed in the struggle, why destroy it 
at all? Why did Dumbledore need to come back at all? It wasn't as if 
he were needed here to save Harry's life.


3) THE VARIOUS

Talking about pronounciations - I had both Draco and Hagrid right but 
FlaMEL? I had been pronouncing it as if it rhymed with flannel.

I caught the name "..KING" on the trophy, along with McGonagall. The 
rest will be something to look out for next time. (Along with Neville 
at King's Cross).

I'm guessing they changed the snake to coming from Burma because of 
the limitations of London Zoo - perhaps they don't have any snakes 
from Brazil, or perhaps the Burmese one just looked better?

The new scene that supposedly shows Lily's murder - in case it 
matters to you Steve, the Potter's house was a semi-detached, it made 
me wonder if they had wizards or Muggles living next-door, just think 
of what they could hear through the partition wall! Also, I don't 
know if this was only me, but I thought I saw a flash of white light 
befoe and seperate from the green flash from Avada Kedavra.


Okay, well I think that's everything covered :D

Aleks