It's long. The first hour and a half is magical, captivating, inviting, great cinema. The filmmakers aptly lead us into Rowling's dark mysterious story. The three lead witch teens enchant us with their friendship, humor, spontaneity. An awkward glance here, a silly starry-eyed smile there, romance is in the air. The teen soap adds and broadens the presentation. Draco Malfoy is most interesting in this film - quiet, brooding, not so much the mouthy bully of earlier. And the new professor played by Jim Broadbent bumbles up a nice mix of fun and shadowy history. I love the liquid memories. What he hides is the crux of this film installment. Unfortunately, filmmakers overlook that.

At the hour and a half mark, the Broadbent tension and conflict have artfully matured. This should have been the picture's climax, more emotional than action. But, the moment goes sorely underdeveloped. Worse, as if to make up for the unfulfillment the production rambles on for another hour. Additional material feels out of place, tacked on, fodder for another film. They should have left it off too, because even with a weak climax, I'd still have given the 1.5 hour long HP an A-. The last hour has almost nothing to offer emotionally. There's an obvious lack of attention to detail, artfully present in the first half. Did they feel obliged to get in important progressions from the book? Too bad, things were going so well.

Further, Draco's tension isn't wholly matured. The climax of that storyline also ends wanting as does the film itself. How long will audiences buy into a world where magic can bring people back to life? After a certain point, death loses meaning, impact, affect. Supernatural action without emotion leaves audiences much more aware of their own manipulation. Smoke and mirrors aren't so well hidden after 2 hours.

What was the theme of this film? I'm not talking about the book. I'm talking about the film. What lesson did it have to teach? What point did it have to make? Why was I rooting for these 3 teen witches? The emotional connection certainly held me earlier on, but by the end, I wasn't so concerned. I started to wonder why it was so important that they be protected. They weren't all that wonderful. I know much more wonderful people in my daily life than these three. In fact, in some cases they were down right rude. Harry left a perfectly nice girl waiting at the train station -- stood her up. That's a crappy thing to do to someone. Hermione used magic to get a deserving player cut from the school's team - that's foul play, that's mean, abhorrent really (google Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding). In fact, save for Ron's giddy innocence, these people seemed quite happy manipulating each other to get what they wanted. Is that the theme? (Again, I'm not talking about the book. I'm talking about the characters in the movie, the ones audiences who have not read the book will see.)

Sorcerer's Stone…B+
Chamber of Secrets…A
Prisoner of Azkaban…A-
Goblet of Fire…A
Order of the Phoenix…B-

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --