Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Review

I have decided to take on the laborious task of reviewing the book and movie of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I say laborious because it will be impossible to undertake this without any bias. I grew up with the Harry Potter novels, and in my mind, nothing could ever compare.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J K Rowling, was first published in 1997. I didn’t read it until about 2000. Although I would like to review it afresh from this (approximately 25^th) time of reading it, it is impossible to forget the first time I consumed the book. It changed my life. No book I had read up until that point made me stay awake into the wee hours of the morning trying to finish it. How can I possibly explain what the book meant to me as an 11 year old girl? A young boy is transported from his horrible reality into a magical world where he is special and adored; that is the essence of The Philosopher’s Stone. My life wasn’t anywhere near as awful as Harry’s, but I was heading into puberty, a scary world in its own right. I could relate to him; who wouldn’t love to be carried away to a beautiful school where you are taught how to use your inherent magical abilities and fight off the bad guys like a true hero (at 11 years of age I was still clinging on to the hope that there was some magic blood in me, somewhere).

Somehow, the book means the same thing to me now as it did then. It is the perfect form of escape, and although it has been ten years since I first read it, I still relate to the story and the characters. I think, perhaps, that it has become a part of me, an imagined memory that I hold onto hoping it was true.

Perhaps this is why the movie annoyed me so much. It was released in November 2001, and I was 12. I don’t remember going to the cinemas to see it, although I must have. Either way, the first time I saw it, I was angry. Upon watching the movie again recently, I was surprised to find how little my anger had abated. As a movie in its own right, I’m sure it’s okay. But as I mentioned before, it is very hard to analyse it without the bias of being a fan of the novel.

In attempting to separate myself from the book in order to write this review, I can comment on how well Daniel Radcliffe portrays Harry Potter. He was quite young when the movie was made, but his ability to get into Harry’s mind shows on screen; this is the best thing about the movie. There are so many things to dislike about the movie that I thought I’d stick to the good stuff. The problem with a book to movie rendition is that it is hard to get inside the characters head; there are no soliloquys in The Philosopher’s Stone. Yet somehow, Radcliffe is able to portray Potter’s turmoil, his confusion, his disturbance without ever having to recite a monologue. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson (Ron and Hermione) also play Potter’s support roles quite well; they set up the characters well for the movies to come.

I promised to write a comparison of the two, although I’m not sure why I agreed to do such a thing. Is it ever possible for a movie to live up to a book? Possibly, especially when you have the illusion of time to aid you (I’m thinking of the time elapsed between the novels and the movies of The Lord of the Rings). The movie of The Philosopher’s Stone was released only 4 years after the book, obviously to cash in on the popularity of the novel. I often wonder if the movie had been produced in fifty or a hundred years’ time, maybe it would be better? Maybe more care would have been taken in reproducing the book to a higher quality? Too bad, we’re stuck with the terrible 2001 version. It is has its good parts, as I’ve said, mainly Radcliffe’s ability to channel Potter and make him a reality. However, other than the basic events, the movie was nothing like I had imagined in my head. Everything about Hogwarts was wrong (compared to the Hogwarts in my head, at least) and events happened in the wrong order or were skipped entirely. These are my biggest aggravations with the movie, and somehow, I don’t think time will heal this wound.