Harry Potter was an influential product of its time and is still highly regarded for bringing fantasy novels back into the mainstream market with sequels being released consecutively which resulted in a film franchise that lasted seven films and ten years. While they no doubt hold their own problems, these films as well as the original books written by J.K. Rowling, do deserve to be praised for what they were able to achieve, especially because unlike most book to film adaptations, Harry Potter was also a stunning success for the public with its first film in 2001, The Philosopher’s Stone, starting the train ride for this long trip of sequels in a pretty decent way. Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) is an orphaned boy who is forced to live with his abusive aunt and uncle (played by Richard Griffith and Fiona Shaw) after his parents were killed supposedly in a car accident. On his tenth birthday, a giant named Hagrid (played by Robbie Coltrane) tracks Harry down and informs him that he is to attend Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry, as he is in fact a wizard and has inherited this gift from his parents (who were also magical and went to Hogwarts themselves). Upon arriving and being sorted (in every meaning of that word) into the house of Gryffindor, he quickly makes friends with fellow students Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (played by Emma Watson), make enemies with student of the enemy house Slytherin, Draco Malfoy (played by Tom Felton), and gains the attention of everyone in the school as the one who survived an attack against the dark lord Voldemort (voiced by Richard Bremmer). As time goes by and they’ve settled into their typical magic school routines, the three discover that a secret relic known as The Philosopher’s Stone is being guarded within the school and worry that their suspicious potions teacher, Professor Snape (played by Alan Rickman) is planning to use it to bring Voldemort back to life (who they suspect is hiding out in the woods of the school feeding on animals to survive). With no one believing them and with the headmaster, Dumbledore (played by Richard Harris) away at the time when they most need him, the trio decide to venture down into the depths of the school themselves and find this powerful artifact before it falls into the wrong hands. Being a critical and commercial success (even becoming the highest grossing movie of 2001 from earning over $1 billion against against $125 million budget), the film captures a lot of magical fun elements that will excite book fans and please newcomers with its distinct atmosphere and laid-back tone, while also being saddled with a lot of great adult actors, deceptively nice sets, and very memorable music, even if the movie stumbles in regard to its story and characters.

The movie definitely feels like a franchise starter, with a lot more focus on build-up and world building rather than featuring anything groundbreaking from a storytelling perspective. While this does detract from the idea of a narrative or even just a film in general as you should feature more than just subtext about your environment, but on the other hand the film is at its best when it just allows its audience to exist in this world and let them get accustom to how it works. J.K Rowling seems to be quite good at world building in her story’s and that becomes clear here as well, as you really get a solid stance on how this world operates and functions through how the people talk, how they interact with everyday things, how they stand apart from people without magic (or ”muggles” as they are called in this) and how this magical school works. The film has a very good atmosphere, with director Chris Columbus knowing how to create a good identifiable atmosphere that’s intriguing in a way that will keep the audience invested. The film lets the audience breath in the environments so it can establish a visual and verbal identity, it really does feel like a living world that you could believe (and would want to believe) exists. The build-up is also quite good, knowing to hold on the whimsical magical stuff up until the right moment to keep the audience in suspense for just the right amount of time and then perfectly deliver then in a manner that feels very picturesque and permanently becomes ingrained in your head.  Some of the Hogwarts scenes have that mystical air to them that feels faithful to its source material, but never goes too far in feeling like a book, with the screenplay by Steve Kloves keeping the stuff that is crucial to the story but never over-saturating the picture with reams of dialogue and allows for plenty of quiet moments that just let moments speak for themselves. Hogwarts is at its most inviting and interesting when it actually feels like a school, and features typical components of a normal education facility like classes, dormitories, various houses to be placed into, etc. It adds an extra layer that isn’t in most fantasy stories and it was refreshing at the time to see a fantasy film more focused on visual oddities and charming spell-casting than on big action or epic stories (which is what these films and stories would become later on sadly). The downside obviously is that when the story tries to become relevant, it’s not only kind of uninteresting, but it’s also very meaningless. The typical ‘chosen one’ formula was a trope that died out even before these stories were created and this story doesn’t do a whole ton to make it feel that much different so its just annoying to see at this point. They try to set up a mystery that any audience member over the age of eleven could be able to put together pretty quick, and strangely enough, the movie is so reliant on building up its atmosphere and world that very little is actually constructed or set-up from a character or even narrative perspective outside of the barest attributes. Even some of the fanatical elements aren’t always great, and feel like they slow the movie down more than anything just to show off some fun effects (Quidditch is colorful, fast-paced and even features some decent effects, but its a total waste of time). It’s also a pretty slow movie, holding its audience for over two hours for what is essentially a prologue for future installments.

The characters in many ways do feel like book creations, but in a good sense. Many of them have very striking designs that are simple but detailed in a way that is visual descriptive and helps them stand out. Many of the teachers with their clothing, as well as many of the kids down to their hair color (the one blonde haired child just ”happens” to be evil) feels like something that is visual construction and the movie does go out of its way to capture that imagine on the big screen, and they do it pretty well. With that said, none of the roles are really anything that special or deep. Harry Potter as a lead isn’t that interesting, as he features very little to no personality, a set up that’s too cliched to feel original, and dialogue so generic that any other character could deliver the same lines and it would have the same effect. He’s not unlikeable, but he just doesn’t stand out much against other similar fantasy story leads. Some of the other character are very archetypal, but for a fantasy set-up they work fine enough. They are simple, but at least they have some semblance of character. Since the movie franchise is just starting off, it could have used a bit more character to hook the audience, but for a set-up premise, its manageable. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson aren’t the best actors, but they are also young and inexperienced and you can tell they are putting in effort.  It’s clear they are having fun on-set so there’s no point where it feels like any actor is phoning it in, and that can be said for everybody in this movie. The adult actors are where the spotlight is stolen however, as each of them are not only clearly well trained professional actors that never look like they are treating this material as beneath them, but they also feel like spot-on representations of their book counterparts. Featuring people like Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman, Ian Hart, John Hurt, David Bradley, Julie Walters, and John Cleese is already an outstanding list, and they are very likeable, enchanting and perfectly fit into this world. The villain is unfortunately pretty weak with not much of an identity outside of your standard fantasy villain components, but his reveal is pretty cool, the set-up though vague, could lead to some potential, and the acting by Richard Bremmer is appropriately sinister.

The movie has the ability to take very simple-looking locations and transform them either through the camera work or the props and people included, into locations that are fit for a wizard-style story. The production design for this film by Stuart Craig is outstanding, with assistance from set decoration by Stephenie McMillan and the art direction team to create something truly one of a kind and very accurate to its source material. It makes a simple gold-tinted bank look vastly more interesting with goblins walking around it, and even the pristine and legitimately cool looking, but still old-fashion castle of Hogwarts coming to life through elements like talking paintings and ghosts flying around, it layers the movie with more light-hearted mystical creatures on top of standard-looking environments and makes it their own. The costumes by Judianna Makovsky feel like they were treated with care and effort to recreate the images made in the books, even down to the British feel. Since this is a time before CG was everywhere, anytime something is actually there, its appreciated. Some of the make-up looks really good, the locations, as mentioned before, have good presence, and when CG is involved, it’s still feels like it fits in this universe with some of the more monstrous-looking creatures even when it looks fake looking. The film isn’t really an action movie so any scenes that are close to action-oriented feel pretty slow and bland, for example the climax isn’t that engaging, despite it looking rather impressive with the set and firewall in the background. The music is very famous among movie scores and it’s no surprise why, as John Williams composes a score that is both mysterious and subtle, while also being full of presence and atmosphere, it’s a great main theme.

Harry Potter is a charming simple movie that feels magical and down-to-earth at the same time. It isn’t grand or dramatic, but the magical world they create doesn’t need to be. Everything aesthetically about the movie is very pleasing; the sets, the music, the magical elements, that’s what the draw for the film is. The film moves very slowly, and it would only get slower and even more problematic as the franchise moves forward, but it’s important to appreciate your roots. The movie is more appreciated than loved, starting off something that would hold in the hearts of many for years to come. If the characters and story were better and it grabbed the audience more for what was to come, it could have been more evenly praised, but overall, it’s a decent first outing. Travel into the magical world of Witchcraft and Wizardry and witness the beginning of a worldwide phenomenon.

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