Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Directed by Chris Columbus

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) has lived under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house his whole life. But on his 11th birthday, he learns he's a powerful wizard - with a place waiting for him at the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As he learns to harness his newfound powers with the help of the school's kindly headmaster (Richard Harris), Harry uncovers the truth about his parents' deaths - and about the villain who's to blame.

Considering I've read the entire series of books and all of the movies are now available on DVD, I thought it was time to watch the entire series of movies. While this installment isn't as good as the book (but really, what movie ever is) it was able to hold its own and didn't stray far from the novel at all. It stayed close enough to the book that I wasn't annoyed with it at any particular point, but to me movies just don't hold the pull in factor that novels do.

The movie itself was engaging, didn't seem to drag in too many places, and was able to flesh out the characters just as well as the novel did. The casting for this film was impressive and not once did I think that an actor didn't match up with the character from the novel.

It has a good message for kids throughout the film and not only did the ending stay true to the novel, but it also was done in a rather impressive way.

While I'm not a rabid fan of the Harry Potter series, I can say that this was a good movie and something I would recommend - though I would also recommend that one reads the novel series first.

My rating: Four out of five snails.