Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (DVD)

...find out that this is Harry Potter and his parents have been killed so he is now being raised by his Aunt and Uncle and their son Dudley. He is not liked by them as they are scared he will find out the truth and before long Harry gets a surprise.

As Harry turns 11 he finally gets a letter telling him about Hogwarts School and how he has a place there, Hagrid soon finds Harry and gives him the letter personally as Aunt and Uncle have ...
...tells Harry that he is a wizard. Harry and Hagrid set off to London to get him his supplies and soon he is looking for platform 9 ¾ to catch the Hogwarts express to take him away to his new life. It is at the station where Harry meets Ron Weasley and they soon become friends. As they travel to Hogwarts they meet Herminie Granger and she too becomes Harry’s friend.

School and being sorted into their houses the young wizards soon find ... more

Many months ago now I made a point of reading all of the Potter books and thoroughly enjoyed them. I stayed away from the films as I had formed my own images of the characters and settings for the books and did not want to spoil them by watching the films and it all being different. As I finished the books I thought I would wait until all of the film had been made and released before watching them all but alas it did not happen and last night I finally sat down and watched the first instalment.

At the very beginning of the film we see a baby being left on the doorstep of a house in Privet Drive by two very strange looking men. We soon find out that this is Harry Potter and his parents have been killed so he is now being raised by his Aunt and Uncle and their son Dudley. He is not liked by them as they are scared he will find out the truth and before long Harry gets a surprise.

As Harry turns 11 he finally gets a letter telling him about Hogwarts School and how he has a place there, Hagrid soon finds Harry and gives him the letter personally as Aunt and Uncle have stopping him from getting the previous ones and he also tells Harry that he is a wizard. Harry and Hagrid set off to London to get him his supplies and soon he is looking for platform 9 ¾ to catch the Hogwarts express to take him away to his new life. It is at the station where Harry meets Ron Weasley and they soon become friends. As they travel to Hogwarts they meet Herminie Granger and she too becomes Harry’s friend.

School and being sorted into their houses the young wizards soon find life is not all it is cracked up to be and learning about magic is a hard job. There is also the added problem for Harry as he is famous for being the only boy to survive an attack by ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’, this attack is what has given him his lightening scar on his forehead.

Things start to happen at Hogwarts when it is discovered that the Philosophers Stone is being held there and someone is trying to steel it. Just how is this going to effect Harry and his friends and will Harry ever discover what Professor Snape is really doing?

I am going to apologise for the length of the plot summery but there is a lot in this film which sets the scene for the whole Potter series and although it may seem I have given a lot away I really have only scratched the surface of the beginning of the film.

I did find the storyline to be very good if I take the book out of the equation. I thought that it was very easy to follow and hubby who has not read the book also managed to follow it with ease. I liked how the world of magic was shown and how the students had to learn their spells and it did not all come naturally.

I found the role of Harry Potter to be very good. He was played by Daniel Radcliff and I could not get over how young he looked. I have seen trailers for the newer films and he looks so old in these but here he looks so small and very childlike. He did an excellent job of playing the role and I liked how he come across with his complete lack of knowledge of his fame and magic. I think he worked very well with the two other main characters of Hermione and Ron who were played by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. They all had a great chemistry but at the start of the film I did find they were slightly wooden but this improved as the film moved on. I found the character of Hermione was very stuck up and she did not impress me when the film started but I think she did improve during the film and did slightly mellow and not be so prim and proper.

There were a lot of other characters in the film and the main ones which stood out were Hagrid, professor Dumbledore and Snape. These role were played by Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman. I found them to be all very good and I loved how diverse all of them were. They all gave a lot to the film and I am looking forward to seeing them in the next film. Hubby was also quite impressed with the amount of top actors and British ones which were in this film.

The special effects in the film were very good and there was a lot of them. I think they all fitted in very well and did not look out of place. There were a few of the flying scenes which I was able to clearly notice an added backdrop but this was only because I was looking for the quality of them and so to someone who was not looking so closely they probably would not have noticed it so much. The magic effects were good and I think a lot of time and effort must have been put into these. The music in the film was also very good and fitted very well for the places it was used and I found it did help with the emotions and tensions for the storyline.

Watching this after reading the book was not too bad but I did notice how a lot had been missed out from the story. The main parts were still all included but in the book we were given so much more detail about the characters and their background and I found this was missing from the film. I did think it was a good attempt at the book but would have liked a lot more to have been included. I think for those who have not read the book they will still easily be able to follow the story and get to know the characters but just not as well.

The DVD which I have does not have any bonus features but this is no loss for me as I am not a fan of them anyway. The running time of this film is 147 minutes and for me when I saw the length I was a little shocked and expected it to be too long but as I got into it I soon forgot about how long I had been watching for and I did not loose interest or get bored at any point. The certificate is a PG and I do agree with this.

I managed to get this DVD for just £3 in Tesco and they do also have the other 4 years as well for the same great price. After watching this now I am going to recommend it as long as you don’t expect all from the book to be included.

 

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