After Asriel departs, the college is visited by Mrs. Coulter, who offers to take Lyra north as her assistant. Before leaving, the college Master entrusts Lyra with an alethiometer (the film's titular Golden Compass). This device is able to reveal the answer to any question asked by a trained user. It is the last one in existence since the Magisterium banned them. Though unable to operate it, Lyra accepts the gift, promising never to reveal she has it, and takes it with her to Mrs. Coulter's home. When Mrs. Coulter arouses Lyra's suspicions by delaying their journey, Lyra discovers that Mrs. Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board, the "Gobblers" who have been kidnapping local children. She also discovers that her best friend Roger and her Gyptian friend Billy Costa have been taken by the Gobblers to the north. Mrs. Coulter learns of Lyra's possesesion of the alethiometer, but Lyra escapes. The "Gobblers" pursue her, but she is saved by the Gyptians: a nomadic boat people. They are travelling north by sea to rescue the kidnapped children, including many Gyptians ones. Lyra travels with them and begins to understand the alethiometer's use with help from a Gyptian wise man, Farder Coram, and a witch queen, Serafina Pekkala, who appears during the journey. At a Norwegian port, Lyra befriends aeronaut Lee Scoresby, who advises her to hire Iorek Byrnison, an exiled prince of armoured polar bears. Iorek is employed as a metalworker after he was tricked out of his armour by the local townspeople. Lyra uses the alethiometer to discover the armour's location, which Iorek recovers. He pledges his service to Lyra's cause, and the Gyptians hire Scoresby to aid their trek north. The alethiometer guides Lyra to Billy Costa, who has escaped from a Magisterium research station. She finds him dazed and lacking his dæmon, and returns him to the Gyptians. The group is attacked by Samoyeds who capture Lyra. She is taken to the armoured bear king, who Lyra tricks into fighting Iorek for the throne. Iorek kills him and reclaims his kingship. He carries Lyra to the Magisterium research station, but the two are separated by a collapsing ice bridge. Lyra pretends to be lost and is welcomed into the station by Magisterium scientists. She locates Roger and instructs him to have the other kidnapped children prepare for escape. Lyra discovers that the Magisterium scientists, under the guidance of Mrs. Coulter, are performing experiments to sever the bond between a child and their dæmon. After being discovered eavesdropping by the scientists, Lyra is taken to a room where they begin performing the separation procedure. Before it is completed, Mrs. Coulter enters the room and rescues Lyra, taking Lyra to her quarters. Mrs. Coulter explains that the separation procedure is necessary because Dust begins to flow into a child via the dæmon when puberty begins, and says that it causes "bad thoughts" as children near maturity. She tells Lyra that she halted the procedure on her because the device is not yet perfected and sometimes causes death. She comforts Lyra and feels that it's time she knew the truth - she is her mother and Lord Asriel is her father. Lyra learns that Asriel is engaged in his research farther north and that assassins have been sent to kill him. When Mrs. Coulter asks for the alethiometer, Lyra incapacitates her and escapes. Lyra destroys the separation machinery, leading to a series of explosions which begin to tear down the facility. Lyra leads the other children outside, where Magisterial guards block their escape. A battle ensues when Iorek, the Gyptians, and a band of witches led by Serafina Pekkala arrive. The guards are defeated and the children are rescued. Rather than returning south with the Gyptians and the rescued children, Lyra and Roger instead travel north with Lee Scoresby, Iorek Byrnison and Serafina to find Lord Asriel. Serafina posits that the Magisterium does not just want to control their world, but "every world in every universe"; however, Lyra is certain that, once she delivers the alethiometer to her father, the two of them will be able to make things right. Sorry Movie not available
In a parallel universe in which a person's soul resides outside the body in an animal-like form called a "dæmon", Europe is controlled by an authoritarian organization called the Magisterium. In Oxford, orphaned Lyra Belacqua, a ward of Jordan College, tells tales of the "Gobblers", whom she and her friends believe are responsible for several local children's disappearance. Visiting the college is Lyra's uncle, Lord Asriel, who, against official Magisterium doctrine, is presenting evidence that particles called "Dust" exist. After Lyra saves Asriel from an assassination attempt by a Magisterial representative, the college funds his expedition to the far north to investigate the Dust substance. He believes it originates in a parallel universe and enters a person's body via their dæmon. Fearing the effects of Dust, the Magisterium has been experimenting on children to discover a way to inoculate others against it.
The Golden Compass
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Here in the unenchanted world of ordinary moviegoing, it has been about two and a half years since “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the first installment in Walt Disney and Walden Media’s mighty “Chronicles of Narnia” franchise. In wartime England, where the Pevensie children live when they’re not consorting with talking lions and battling witches, a year or so has gone by. But in Narnia itself, to which the four plucky Pevensies return in “Prince Caspian,” the second movie in the series, centuries have passed, and everything has changed. The grand hall where Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were made monarchs of the realm has fallen into ruin, and the friendly woodland creatures with their homey British accents and computer-animated fur seem to have vanished from the scene.
When the exiled child kings and queens are thrown back into Narnia (thanks to a sudden outbreak of special effects in a London tube station), they seem no longer to be in a children’s fantasy story but rather in some kind of Jacobean tragedy, a reminder that C. S. Lewis was, along with everything else, a scholar of English Renaissance literature. In a dark castle in a dark forest, men with heavy armor and beard-shadowed faces quarrel and conspire. Instead of fauns and Turkish delight, there are murder and betrayal, and a grave, martial atmosphere lingers over the story, even when the spunky dwarfs and chatty rodents return. (Aslan the lion also shows up eventually, speaking in the soothing voice of Liam Neeson.)
So “Prince Caspian” is quite a bit darker than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” both in look and in mood. It is also in some ways more satisfying. Its violent (though gore-free) combat scenes and high body count may rattle very young viewers, but older children are likely to be drawn into the thick political intrigue. The relative scarcity of digital effects in the first part of the movie allows the director, Andrew Adamson, and the director of photography, Karl Walter Lindenlaub, to explore the beauty of the Narnian landscape by more traditional cinematic means. Its lush glades and rocky escarpments provide a reminder that the supernaturalism of fairy tales originates in the magic of the natural world.
And tales of heroic adventure, however fanciful, are grounded in human problems of power, cruelty and conflict. “Prince Caspian” is named for its square-jawed, rather bland hero (played by Ben Barnes), but its major source of dramatic energy is the villain, Caspian’s uncle Miraz, who is played with malignant grandeur by the great Italian actor Sergio Castellitto. Miraz is a classic royal usurper, who has taken the throne from Caspian’s father, the rightful king, and who plans to pass it along to his own newborn son once Caspian is out of the way. His court is a viper’s nest of double-dealing and shifting allegiance.
Cue grumpy dwarfs, swashbuckling mice and apple-cheeked Pevensies. And hail the popular struggle of the Narnian underground! Since the Telmarines took over and suppressed the old magic, a hardy remnant of Narnians has been hiding amid the pacified trees, sustaining themselves with the legends of King Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Queen Lucy (Georgie Henley), Queen Susan (Anna Popplewell) and High King Peter (William Moseley). When these rulers return, they rescue Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage), a small, angry Narnian taken prisoner by Miraz’s soldiers, and eventually join Prince Caspian, who exchanges some long, half-smoldering looks with Susan.
In spite of this hint of romance, what ensues is basically a war movie, with elaborate battle sequences in a castle courtyard and on a grassy plain, accompanied by thundering hoofbeats, whizzing arrows, clanking swords and Harry Gregson-Williams’s rousing score. These sections are ostensibly what the public wants to see, and certainly what the producers pay heavily to bring to life. There is a risk of sameness and tedium, which Mr. Adamson does not entirely overcome, though he and his fellow screenwriters, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, sprinkle in enough witty dialogue to keep the movie’s long middle from feeling like too much of a slog.
The main characters, whose sometimes fractious sibling dynamic provided the first “Narnia” movie with a hint of psychological complexity, seem a little flatter here, as if they’ve grown accustomed to their jobs as action heroes. And “Prince Caspian” isn’t really about them, anyway, except insofar as the kids in the audience identify with their courage and good sense.
The cloak of allegory in which Lewis swathed the Narnia books is worn lightly on the screen, and some of their charm and novelty has been chipped away — not so much by any lapse on the part of the filmmakers as by a sense of familiarity. Tales of good and evil set in enchanted lands populated by mythical beasts are ubiquitous these days, which may diminish the power of each new spell. The Pevensie children can withdraw to London between episodes, but moviegoers are unlikely, and also perhaps unwilling, to escape from Narnia and the other increasingly numerous, and therefore increasingly mundane, places like it.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). This rating may be a little misleading, since some of the violence is fairly intense, and some of the deaths may unsettle younger children.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth movie in the series, begins, as most of the others have, with a spot of unpleasantness at the Dursleys, and ends with Harry facing down Lord Voldemort. The climactic battle between the young wizard (Daniel Radcliffe) and the Dark Lord (Ralph Fiennes) foreshadows the final, potentially fatal showdown we all suspect is coming in Book Seven, which will be published later this month.
Anticipation of that event may be stealing some thunder from this movie — a rare instance of the book business beating Hollywood at its own hype-producing game — but between now and publication day on July 21, Potter fans can take some satisfaction in a sleek, swift and exciting adaptation of J. K. Rowling’s longest novel to date. Devotees of fine British acting, meanwhile, can savor the addition of Imelda Staunton (an Oscar nominee for “Vera Drake”) to the roster of first-rate thespians moonlighting as Hogwarts faculty.
Curiously enough, “Order of the Phoenix,” clocking in at a little over two and a quarter hours, is the shortest of the “Harry Potter” films. The nearly 900-page source has been elegantly streamlined by Michael Goldenberg, the screenwriter (who replaces Steve Kloves), and David Yates, the director (who follows Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell in the job). There is no Quidditch, and not many boarding-school diversions. Instead, “Order of the Phoenix,” which begins like a horror movie with a Dementor attack in a suburban underpass, proceeds as a tense and twisty political thriller, with clandestine meetings, bureaucratic skullduggery and intimations of conspiracy hanging in the air.
Mr. Yates, whose previous work has mainly been in television, is best known in Britain for “State of Play,” a brilliant mini- series about power, corruption and deceit. Those are among the themes he explores in this film, which depicts a wizard world riven by factionalism and threatened by chaos and inflexible authoritarianism. While Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic (Robert Hardy), maintains his highly suspect denial of Voldemort’s return, a coup at Hogwarts threatens the benevolent administration of Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). Harry, meanwhile, has gone from prince to pariah, smeared in the magical press (where his name is rendered “Harry Plotter”) and subject to cold stares and whispers at school. Back in Harry’s early days at Hogwarts, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), Harry’s foil and reluctant ally, sneered at the boy’s “celebrity.” But in this episode, the boy — if you can still call him that — encounters the darker side of fame.
Some of his schoolmates doubt his account of the death of Cedric Diggory, who was killed by Voldemort at the end of the previous film, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Dumbledore, Harry’s chief patron and protector over the years, seems to be keeping his distance, which leaves Harry feeling abandoned and betrayed. And more acutely, the pressures of being a designated hero — and possibly martyr — have begun to weigh on Harry, to isolate him from friends and to come between him and the possibility of a normal teenage life.
He does, at least, experience a first kiss with Cho Chang (Katie Leung), but that turns out to be a brief and equivocal moment of bliss. Whereas “Goblet of Fire” plunged Harry and his pals into the murky waters of awakening adolescent sexuality (or at least got their toes wet), “Order of the Phoenix” tackles the emotional storms that can buffet young people on their way to adulthood. Mr. Radcliffe, maturing as an actor in perfect time with his character, emphasizes Harry’s anger and self-pity. Mr. Yates frequently places him alone on one side of the frame, with Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson), his loyal but increasingly estranged friends, together on the other.
But this is not an Ingmar Bergman film, though perhaps Mr. Bergman can be coaxed into service for the film version of “Deathly Hallows,” the final book of the series. “Order of the Phoenix” has its grim, bleak elements, but it is also, after all, an installment in a mighty multimedia entertainment franchise. And like its predecessors, it manages to succeed as a piece of entertainment without quite fulfilling its potential as a movie. Perhaps by design, the films never quite live up to the books. This one proves to be absorbing but not transporting, a collection of interesting moments rather than a fully integrated dramatic experience. This may just be a consequence of the necessary open-endedness of the narrative, or of an understandable desire not to alienate “Potter” readers by taking too many cinematic chances.
Although “Order of the Phoenix” is not a great movie, it is a pretty good one, in part because it does not strain to overwhelm the audience with noise and sensation. There are some wonderful special-effects-aided set pieces — notably an early broomstick flight over London — and some that are less so. People waving wands at one another, even accompanied by bright lights and scary sounds, does not quite sate this moviegoer’s appetite for action. But the production design (by Stuart Craig) and the cinematography (by Slawomir Idziak) are frequently astonishing in their aptness and sophistication. The interiors of the Ministry of Magic offer a witty, nightmarish vision of wizardly bureaucracy, while Harry’s angst and loneliness register in Mr. Idziak’s cold, washed-out shades of blue.
The scariest color in his palette, however, turns out to be pink. That is the color favored by Dolores Umbridge (Ms. Staunton), whose cheery English-auntie demeanor masks a ruthlessly autocratic temperament. She posts proclamations on the Hogwarts walls, subjects violators to painful punishments and substitutes book learning for practical magic. Her purpose is to institute Minister Fudge’s head-in-the-sand policy with respect to the Voldemort threat, and she does a heck of a job.
Ms. Staunton joins an astonishing ensemble of serious actors who, in the best British tradition, refuse to condescend to the material, earning their paychecks and the gratitude of the grown-ups in the audience. Mr. Rickman has turned Snape (whose animus against Harry is partly explained here) into one of the most intriguingly ambiguous characters in modern movies, and it is always a treat to see the likes of Emma Thompson, David Thewlis and Gary Oldman, however briefly.
Even better, the Potter enterprise has become a breeding ground for the next generation of British acting talent. Mr. Radcliffe has already spread his wings (and dropped his pants) on the London stage, and cultural pessimists of my generation can take comfort in knowing that while our parents may have witnessed Malcolm McDowell and Julie Christie in their prime, our children will see Mr. Grint and Ms. Watson in theirs. “Order of the Phoenix” also introduces Evanna Lynch, a pale, wide-eyed 15-year-old nonprofessional from Ireland who, having read the book, decided that no one else could play Luna Lovegood, the weirdest witch at Hogwarts. It seems Ms. Lynch was right. She’s spellbinding.
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Its violence is intense, though not graphic, and some of its images are quite scary.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Childhood ends for Harry Potter, the young wizard with the zigzag scar and phantasmagorical world of troubles, not long after the dragons have roared and the merpeople have screeched their empty threats through broken teeth. And, as in the book "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on which this latest and happily satisfying film adaptation is based, childhood ends with screams and a final shudder in a graveyard crowded with tombstones and evil. In a scene of startling intensity, one boy dies while another is delivered from the malevolent force that has steadily wended its way through J. K. Rowling's series toward its prey.
This is the second time that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), now 14, has experienced childhood's end, of course, as Ms. Rowling and the directors of all four films have reminded us. Orphaned at 1 by the malevolent wizard Lord Voldemort, Harry has developed over the years, books and films from a sentimental Dickensian figure into a prickly adolescent for whom girls now present almost as serious a problem as the Dark Lord. As those who have cracked the spines of the books know, their genius rests as much in Harry's dual identity as in Ms. Rowling's grasp on the fantastic: at once susceptibly human and wholly alien, a geeky outsider and an awesomely cool kid, Harry holds up a mirror to those who curl up with books and congregate in theaters, taking flight in their imaginations.
As did the last film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," the new one opens and ends on an ominous note. In "Azkaban," a giant tree whacks a bird out of the air both at the start and at the close; in "Goblet of Fire," it's people who get whacked. These poor creatures are not in the novel, but they cleverly bookend "Azbakan," setting the stage for the scarier, more dire and serious story immediately to follow, as well as for the darker stories yet to come. If the world of the first two installments, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," both directed by the aggressively upbeat Chris Columbus, represented some kind of paradise for the boy wizard, it was a paradise that, we come to see, would soon be lost.
The slithering snake and shivering caretaker who inaugurate "The Goblet of Fire" make it clear that the PG action has been ratcheted up to PG-13. Like his predecessor, Alfonso Cuarón, who brought new beauty and depth to the series, the director Mike Newell embraces the saga's dark side with flair. This time, the story pivots on the Triwizard Tournament, a competition that finds Harry risking life and limb against three young challengers and a litany of more menacing foes. In between feats of derring-do with digitally enhanced dragons, there are dining-room flirtations, schoolyard confrontations and a gaggle of visiting girls who line up like so many Madelines, only to break ranks like La Femme Nikita. There are also the usual growing pains and, somewhat less thrillingly, no small amount of teenage angst.
Now 16, Mr. Radcliffe pouts reasonably well, but has yet to develop the skill to make that pouting feel emotionally substantive. This might pose a serious obstacle for the films, but it hasn't yet, largely because watching him and his young co-stars - the excellent Rupert Grint as Ron, the touchingly earnest Emma Watson as Hermione - grow up onscreen has its dividends. Cinema doesn't just immortalize actors, locking them into youth, it also solicits our love in a way that books do not, since it isn't just the characters we fall for, but the actors playing them, too. Mr. Radcliffe isn't an acting titan or even one of the Culkins, but you root for him nonetheless, partly because you want Harry to triumph and partly because there is something poignant about how this actor struggles alongside his character.
If the lead attraction remains somewhat unsteady on his feet, one of the constant pleasures of the films, and one of the benefits of the big Hollywood money behind them, has been their pedigreed talent. Among the British sirs, dames and quality hams returning to the series are Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall and Gary Oldman, whose brief appearance is sadly little more than a tease. New to the scene are Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter, a snoopy journalist who is mainly on hand to remind us that Harry is no longer a child, and Brendan Gleeson as the latest addition to the Hogwarts staff, Mad-Eye Moody. A man of garrulous temperament and removable parts, including a googly eye that he wears like a pirate's patch, Mad-Eye is a pip.
As good as these actors are, nothing prepares you for the malevolent force that is Lord Voldemort and the brilliance of the actor playing him, Ralph Fiennes. Dressed in a flowing black robe that seems to float off his body rather than hang, Mr. Fiennes moves with lissome grace, his smooth white head bobbing like a cork on a sea, his fluttery hands and feet as pale and bright as beacons. For years, the movies have tried to transform this delicate beauty into a heartthrob, but as "Schindler's List" proved, Mr. Fiennes is an actor for whom a walk on the darker side is not just a pleasure, but liberation. His Voldemort may be the greatest screen performance ever delivered without the benefit of a nose; certainly it's a performance of sublime villainy.
Mr. Fiennes enters the film spectacularly, if regrettably late, whooshing into that crowded graveyard like a Butoh dancer from hell. He brings the film to an unsettling close, one that doesn't so much polish off the story as leave it in tatters. That's to the good of the film and the series, since each new story has to satisfy on its own terms as well as prime us for the next installment. If Mr. Cuarón raised the series to a new level with "Azbakan," Mr. Newell, best known for ingratiating mainstream fare like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and best remembered for the bracing likes of "Donnie Brasco," manages to keep his contribution at a similarly high level of enthrallment. The gloom and doom may be less poetically realized, but the combination of British eccentricity, fatalism and steady-on pluck remains irresistibly intact.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Appreciably more violent than the first three films, this chapter includes two human deaths, including that of a teenager.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
For certain grown-ups in the audience, the most thrilling moment in ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' may well be the director's credit at the beginning. Alfonso Cuarón, who made the feverish and romantic ''Y Tu Mamá También,'' is a name sure to set many critics' hearts aflutter, even as the majority of hard-core Harry Potter fans, who tend not to see many unrated, subtitled pictures or to know the names of many foreign filmmakers, are likely to respond with a shrug.
The kids may also, at this point, be feeling a bit blasé about Harry himself. He will no doubt remain a beloved and profitable fixture of juvenile popular culture for years to come, but the mania that greeted the publication of the two latest Potter books (and the release of the first two movies) seems, at least for the moment, to have subsided. The first generation of Potterphiles has moved on to other forms of fantasy -- Philip Pullman's ''Dark Materials'' cycle, J. R. R. Tolkien's perennial ''Rings,'' the study manuals of Stanley Kaplan -- while their younger siblings now encounter the Potter series as a hand-me-down, rather than as their own special discovery.
All of which places Mr. Cuarón in an awkward position. As a filmmaker he is very much on the rise, while his hero may have reached a plateau. His accomplishment is thus in danger of being underappreciated. ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' -- which opens nationwide tomorrow, with some midnight showings tonight -- is the best of J. K. Rowling's books so far. It balances the narrative economy of the first two with the thematic depth and imaginative ambition of its ungainly sequels. And Mr. Cuarón's adaptation, from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, more than does it justice.
This is surely the most interesting of the three Potter movies, in part because it is the first one that actually looks and feels like a movie, rather than a staged reading with special effects. ''Sorcerer's Stone'' and ''Chamber of Secrets,'' both directed with literal-minded competence by Chris Columbus (who has stayed on as a producer) may have been more faithful to Ms. Rowling's text, but ''Azkaban'' attempts, and for the most part achieves, a trickier sort of translation. This film may disappoint some dogmatic Old Hogwartsians: a few plot points have been sacrificed, and Mr. Cuarón does not seem to care much for Quidditch. But it more than compensates for these lapses with its emotional force and visual panache.
Mr. Cuaron's wizard world, shot by the gifted New Zealand-born cinematographer Michael Seresin, is grainier and grimier than Mr. Columbus's. It feels at once more dangerous, more thoroughly enchanted and more real. While the two first episodes took place mostly in the corridors and classrooms of Hogwarts, this one lingers in the shadowy forests and damp meadows outside the school walls, a setting that emphasizes Mr. Cuarón's knack for evoking the haunting, sensual power of the natural world.
Harry, Ron and Hermione (played once again by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson), hover on the brink of adolescence, and while they look braver and more capable than before, the dangers they face seem far more grave and their own vulnerability more intense.
At the beginning, in the obligatory Muggle-baiting scene, Harry's latent anger at his orphaned state (and at his cruel adoptive guardians) nearly overwhelms him. As the story leads him toward a confrontation with the man who may have killed his parents (an escaped prisoner played by the all-purpose movie villain Gary Oldman), Harry's happy-go-lucky decency is darkened by grief, rage and moral confusion.
Or at least they should be. Mr. Radcliffe, arriving at puberty, may also have reached the limit of his range as an actor. When called upon to convey deep or complex feelings, he has a tendency to blink and look nervous. To be fair, Harry is an especially treacherous role, since he is both the charismatic center of the drama and the character everyone watching imagines him- or herself to be. This means he has to be heroically distinguished from his peers without having too distinct a personality of his own, a paradoxical demand very few young actors could ever satisfy.
Luckily Mr. Radcliffe's blandness is offset by Ms. Watson's spiky impatience. Harry may show off his expanding wizardly skills in facing down dementors, werewolves and mad dogs, but Hermione, her fuse shortened by an impossible course load, earns the loudest applause with a decidedly unmagical punch to Draco Malfoy's deserving nose.
While the monstrous special effects are seamlessly inserted into the musty halls and twilight fields, ''Prisoner of Azkaban,'' like its predecessors, is anchored by top-of-the-line flesh-and-blood British acting. Michael Gambon, as the wise headmaster Albus Dumbledore, has gracefully stepped into Richard Harris's conical hat and flowing robes, and Maggie Smith shows up now and again to shake her head and purse her lips.
I am happy to report that this story has more Snape than the last, which means more chances to savor Alan Rickman's dry, sibilant sneering. New additions to the Hogwarts faculty include Emma Thompson as a daft, half-blind soothsayer and David Thewlis as an apparently kindly professor of spells with an uncomfortable secret.
''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' is rated PG-13 (Parental Guidance suggested). It has some uncommonly sc
ary monsters and a dark, unsettling mood.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith to find the steward Denethor mourning over Boromir, and Pippin swears loyalty to him. Meanwhile, the Witch-king dispatches his immense orc army from Minas Morgul, heralding the start of the war, as Frodo, Sam, and Gollum begin climbing the stairs nearby. The Morgul army drives the Gondorians out of Osgiliath, and Faramir is forced to take a doomed ride to reclaim the city. Near Minas Morgul, Gollum convinces Frodo to send Sam home in the belief that he wants the Ring. At the urging of Gandalf, Pippin lights the first of the beacon signals to Edoras, alerting Théoden and the rest of the Rohirrim and prompting them to ride to Dunharrow to prepare for war. While preparing for battle in Dunharrow, Aragorn meets Elrond, who presents the future king with the newly reforged sword Andúril. Aragorn then sets off with Legolas and Gimli to brave the Paths of the Dead, enlisting the help of the cursed Army of Dead in capturing the ships of the Corsairs of Umbar (Sauron was planning to use the corsairs to launch a surprise attack on Minas Tirith while the defenders were preoccupied with the Orcs). Théoden rides off to war with six thousand riders, unaware that Éowyn and Merry are also part of the army. The Morgul forces, composed mostly of Orcs, begin the siege of Minas Tirith, and many missiles are traded, while the Witch-king and the other Ringwraiths on their Fell Beasts also attack, destroying siege weapons and sowing terror among the defenders. The Morgul army break into the city using the enormous battering ram Grond. At the same time, Gollum betrays Frodo to the large spider Shelob, but Sam returns to fight her off. Sam believes Frodo is dead and takes the Ring from him, but when Orcs from the Tower of Cirith Ungol take Frodo, Sam overhears that he is still alive. At Minas Tirith, Denethor has gone mad and prepares a funeral pyre for himself and the unconscious Faramir. Gandalf and Pippin arrive on the scene and manage to save Faramir, but despite Gandalf's best efforts, Denethor dies. The Rohirrim arrive and charge into the Orcs, but the Witch-king responds with a counter-attack, attempting to rout the Rohirrim with the forces of Harad, including the immense Mûmakil. The Witch-king descends on Théoden, fatally wounding him. Aragorn finally arrives with the undead on the captured Corsair ships and proceeds to annihilate the Orcs and Mûmakil, while Éowyn and Merry kill the Witch-king. Théoden dies of his wounds, and Aragorn holds the Dead Army's oath fulfilled, releasing them from their curse at last. Sam rescues Frodo from Cirith Ungol, which is mostly empty following a fight between the two factions of the Tower's Orc garrison over the mithril shirt, and they begin the long trek across Mordor to Mount Doom. Gandalf realizes ten thousand Orcs stand between Cirith Ungol and Mount Doom, which will prevent Frodo from reaching his destination. Aragorn proposes they lead the remaining soldiers to the Black Gate to draw the Orcs away from Frodo's path. Sam carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, but Gollum arrives and attacks them, just as the Men of the West furiously battle the Orcs. At the Crack of Doom, Frodo, instead of dropping the ring into the lava, succumbs to its power and puts it on, disappearing from sight. Gollum renders Sam unconscious, seizes Frodo's finger, and bites it off. As he begins to celebrate reclaiming the ring, Frodo gathers his strength (and his senses) and charges at him. After a brief struggle, they both fall over the edge. Gollum falls into the lava flow with the Ring, while Frodo hangs onto the edge of the cliff. Sam rescues Frodo as the Ring finally sinks into the lava and is destroyed. The Tower of Barad-dûr collapses, Sauron's essence fades and then explodes, destroying him for good, and the Orcs are killed in the ensuing shockwave and earthquakes. Frodo and Sam are stranded until Gandalf arrives with the Eagles, and they awake in Minas Tirith, reuniting with their friends. Aragorn is crowned King, heralding the new age of peace, and is reunited with Arwen. The hobbits return to the Shire, where Sam marries Rosie Cotton. Frodo, having finished writing the story of the Lord of the Rings and still exhausted from his quest as the Ring-bearer, decides to leave Middle-earth with Gandalf, Bilbo, Elrond and Galadriel at the Grey Havens, leaving his account of the story to Sam, who peacefully continues his family life.
The film begins with a flashback of how Sméagol acquired the One Ring, before his degeneration and name change to 'Gollum', taking Frodo and Sam to Minas Morgul. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Théoden and Éomer meet up with Merry, Pippin and Treebeard at Isengard, now under the Ents' control, and Gandalf deduces that Saruman will pose no further threat. They also recover the palantír. Pippin's curiosity gets the better of him at Edoras, and he looks into it. The vision he sees (of a dead white tree in a burning stone courtyard) alerts Gandalf that Sauron is planning to attack Minas Tirith, and he rides off there with Pippin. In Rivendell, on her way to the Undying Lands, Arwen has a vision of her son by Aragorn and convinces Elrond to reforge Narsil, the sword that cut the Ring from Sauron's finger long ago. She then forsakes the gift of immortality to be with Aragorn. Her fate now rests with the outcome of the war.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
ABOUT an hour into ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,'' Harry (more often referred to as Mr. Potter or the Famous Harry Potter) discovers, much to his amazement, that he can speak the slithery, sibilant language of snakes, which is called Parseltongue. For the audience, a similar shock arrives much earlier, the very first time Daniel Radcliffe, the young English actor who plays everybody's favorite English schoolboy wizard, opens his mouth. Though Mr. Radcliffe remains smooth-faced and wide-eyed, his voice (like that of Rupert Grint, who plays Harry's pal Ron Weasley, and Tom Felton, as the odious Draco Malfoy), has begun to break, and he speaks in the unmistakable, awkward tongue of adolescence.
But ''Harry Potter and the Onset of Puberty'' may have to wait for the next installment, when Alfonso Cuarón takes over the franchise from Chris Columbus, who directed this episode and its predecessor, ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'' Mr. Cuarón, whose most recent film was the moving and irrepressible teenage sex comedy ''Y Tu Mamá También,'' may be the perfect man for the job, though parents worried about an unrated, sexually explicit ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' should remember that Mr. Cuarón also directed a superb adaptation of ''The Little Princess.''
In any case, Mr. Columbus, once again working with the screenwriter Steve Kloves and a cast of talented children (especially Emma Watson, who plays the brainy and intrepid Hermione) and grown-up British luminaries, has acquitted himself honorably. ''Sorcerer's Stone,'' while far from a great movie, was good enough. Mr. Columbus (who is also an executive producer of the films) has faced the unenviable and unusual challenge of adapting books most of the audience will have read closely and recently. And a very demanding audience it is. My fellow critics and I may occasionally fault a movie for departing, in detail or in spirit, from its literary source, but the grousing of a few adult pedants is nothing compared to the wrath of several million bookish 10-year-olds.
Their presumed demands, and the hovering spirit of Harry's creator, J. K. Rowling, inhibit this movie as it did the first Potter film. Near the end of this one, Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris, in his last screen performance) sternly notes that Harry and Ron have broken at least a dozen rules in the code book of their school, Hogwarts, and then gives them a special award for service to the institution. Until the filmmakers absorb this lesson and show themselves willing to risk getting into trouble, no special awards are likely to be forthcoming for them. But passing grades will at least earn them their allowances. Because it is based on a richer, more interesting book -- so far Ms. Rowling's novelistic skills have grown, along with her ambitions, with each successive volume -- and partly because the director shows more dexterity and imagination of his own, ''Chamber of Secrets,'' which opens nationwide today, is a little better than ''Sorcerer's Stone.''
And at 2 hours 41 minutes, quite a bit longer. Ms. Rowling has been loudly praised for sparking the younger generation's renewed interest in reading, and Mr. Columbus may soon be credited with curing its notoriously short attention span. At this rate ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' the 752-page fourth volume, is likely to spawn the highest-grossing seven-hour film epic in history. (Too bad Erich von Stroheim isn't around to direct it.)
But for now the length is less of a problem than the pacing. Much of the fun in the books comes from how swiftly they move, and how much detail and information they carry along in their eddying, tumbling narrative currents. Ms. Rowling is capable of remarkable shifts in tone, gliding from comic observations of daily life at Hogwarts to tremors of absolute evil with a sure, deft touch.
Mr. Columbus, in contrast, is a master of the obvious and the emphatic. After the boisterous clowning of the opening set piece -- which involves the ritual humiliation of the Dursleys, Harry's swinish Muggle guardians -- the picture settles down into a plodding, heavy rhythm. Don't get me wrong: many of the sequences are thrilling. The digital editing of the high-flying Quidditch match is notably improved, and the monstrous special effects, including an angry tree, a swarm of spiders and a giant, slimy basilisk, are vividly creepy.
There is also an anarchic, rubbery computer-animated elf named Dobby, who steals every scene he appears in from the more restrained flesh-and-blood cast members; a shrill ghost named Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson); and a very scary haunted diary. The visual environment is beautifully conceived and skillfully rendered by Stuart Craig, the production designer, and Roger Pratt, the director of photography: more than in ''Sorcerer's Stone,'' Hogwarts has begun to seem like a real place.
But the movie's scenes feel cut to uniform length and arranged in plodding, unvarying rhythm. Every speech and incident is blown up into a big effect, and as a result the quieter, quirkier aspects of Ms. Rowling's world are pushed to the edge of the frame, or left out altogether. The sense of a dramatic crescendo is lost, so that by the end, instead of feeling stirred to a high pitch of anxiety and excitement, you may feel battered and worn down.
But not, in the end, too terribly disappointed. I did wish that Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith -- who return as the rival housemasters Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall -- had more to do, but their absences are compensated for by Kenneth Branagh as a self-adoring teacher of defense against the dark arts, and Jason Isaacs as the viperous Lucius Malfoy, father of Draco. Mr. Harris, who died last month, gives us a last taste of his whispery, mischievous wisdom, and Robbie Coltrane, as the doting, bumbling Hagrid, has a welcome Falstaffian vigor.
The story would be hard to ruin. It moves, as always, simultaneously backward and forward, toward the mysteries of unfinished wizard history and through the passages of Harry's coming of age, tripping us up with the subtle differences between ordinary bad behavior and true evil. It does, however, remain more lively, and more at home, on the page.
''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has some very frightening scenes, especially for viewers who are afraid of snakes and spiders. Download......
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The film begins with a flashback set to the first film, with Gandalf battling the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm as both continuously to hurtle down below. Frodo awakens from his dream and continues his journey with his trusted and loyal friend, Sam. They are then attacked by the ring-possessed Gollum wishing to retrieve "his precious" from the ones he thinks stole it from him. The Hobbits subdue and bind him with Sam's Elven rope given to him by the Elven elder Galadriel in Lórien. Sam distrusts Gollum and wishes to abandon him, but Frodo understands the burden of the creature and takes pity on him. Realizing they are lost in the Emyn Muil and in need of a guide, Frodo persuades Gollum to lead them to the Black Gate of Mordor.
In Rohan, the pack of Uruk-hai run across the Middle-Earth landscape with their captives Merry and Pippin. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are in pursuit, following three days of running, Legolas surmises the Hobbits are being taken to Isengard. In the kingdom of Rohan, home of the horse lords, King Théoden is mentally and physically weak due to the enchantments of his steward, Gríma Wormtongue, who is secretly in the service of Saruman. Orcs freely roam the land and kill the people including the king's only son Théodred. Théoden's nephew Éomer interrogates Gríma, angrily realizing he has lustful eyes for Éomer's sister Éowyn and that he is now an agent of Saruman. Gríma banishes Éomer for undermining his authority and Éomer sets forth to gather the remaining loyal men of the Rohirrim throughout the land.
Frodo and Sam traverse the Dead Marshes, passing the fallen warriors of the Second Age. They hide in a bush from a newly seated Ringwraith on his flying fell beast. Later they reach the Black Gate, only to have Gollum reveal to them a less risky path. Meanwhile, Éomer and his Rohirrim ambush and kill all of the Orcs and Uruk-hai at nightfall. During the battle, Merry and Pippin narrowly escape their captors by fleeing into the trees where they are aided by Treebeard the oldest of the Ents. Éomer later encounters Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and in turn tells Aragorn there were no survivors of the Orc/Uruk-hai slaughter. Upon arriving at the battle site, Aragorn uses his tracking skills and find hobbit tracks that lead into nearby Fangorn forest. The three discover a wizard who is ultimately Gandalf reborn, now known as Gandalf the White. The quartet proceed to travel to Edoras, where they exorcise Saruman's hold on King Théoden and banish Wormtongue. Théoden is confronted with his dead son and rather than risk open war, decides to flee to a large fortification which in times of trouble has saved the people of Rohan called Helm's Deep. Gandalf leaves to find Éomer and his Rohirrim, promising to return within five days, as a strong attraction draws Éowyn to Aragorn during the journey to Helm's Deep. Wormtongue flees to Orthanc and tells Saruman of Rohan breaking from their grip; Saruman then decides to destroy Rohan.
In Ithilien, Gollum battles his split personality in an attempt to befriend Frodo and Sam and ultimately banishes his "evil" half. The two hobbits are witness to an ambush of Southrons but are taken captive by soldiers of Gondor. Meanwhile, along the journey to Helm's Deep, the travelers are attacked by Saruman's Wargs. During the battle, Aragorn is dragged by a Warg and falls off a cliff into a raging river as the grief-stricken survivors reluctantly move on to Helm's Deep. In Rivendell, Elrond knows that the age of Elves is ending and convinces Arwen that it is hopeless to stay and should leave for the Grey Havens. Elsewhere, Frodo and Sam are taken to Henneth Annûn and brought before Faramir, the younger brother of Boromir. Gollum eluded capture and in order to save his life, is lured into a trap unknowingly by Frodo. Faramir learns of the One Ring and to prove his worth to his father, decides the Ring shall go to Gondor. In Rohan, Aragorn washes up on the river's edge and is nudged back to consciousness by his horse, Brego. Battered but undaunted, he rides to Helm's Deep, passing Saruman's army of Uruk-hai; at least 10,000 strong. His arrival is met with relief but is short lived with the news of only 300 men in the stronghold. In the midst of despair, a battalion of Elves from Lórien, led by the Elf Haldir, arrives to assist in the ensuing battle. At Fangorn forest, Merry, Pippin, Treebeard and other Ents hold a Council to decide on the roles of the Ents in the war with Saruman.
In the pouring rain, the battle of Helm's Deep begins with a flurry of arrows from both human and Elven archers cutting down dozens of Uruk-hai. Scaling ladders are placed upon the Deeping Wall, and the Uruks swarm up to engage the defenders. The defenses are slowly being breached and the enemy manages to destroy the wall through its sewer drain, using a rudimentary explosive device created by Saruman. Despite Aragorn and Gimli's best efforts, the Uruk-hai manage to penetrate the main door and soon the stronghold is overrun. In the midst of battle, Haldir is slain and the few remaining Elves fall back into the Keep. In the Hornburg, however, the Uruks have also scaled the walls, and have breached the gate, forcing the defenders to retreat into the Keep. In Fangorn, Treebeard and the other Ents have decided to not have any involvement in the war. Frustrated, Pippin cleverly takes him to the section of Fangorn Forest Saruman has decimated near Isengard. Treebeard is filled with rage at Saruman's betrayal and commands all other Ents to seek vengeance. The Ents gather and embark upon 'the Last March of the Ents'.
Meanwhile, as the Keep is now under attack and realizing Gandalf's words before he departed, Aragorn and the rest make one last gallant ride on horseback to attack the Uruk-hai army, in a desperate bid to allow the Rohirrim's women and children to escape. As all hope seemed lost, Gandalf, Éomer, and two thousand Riders of the Rohirrim arrive to push back the Uruk-hai into Fangorn Forest, where the Ents and their Huorn allies are waiting to deal out death and destruction in revenge. Elsewhere, the Ents also attack Isengard, tossing stone and rock while collapsing a dam to flood its surroundings. At the ruins of Osgiliath, Faramir and the Hobbits are confronted by a Ringwraith and its fellbeast. With the help of Sam, Frodo narrowly escapes the beast's capture. Sam narrates how the story must go on and how they should keep pressing forward as Faramir decides to free them to finish their quest. Gandalf and the others now know a full war is inevitable (as Sauron will surely seek retribution for the defeat of Saruman) and hope rests with Frodo and Sam, who have resumed their journey to Mordor with Gollum. Accompanying them once again and having felt betrayed after his subsequent mistreatment by Faramir's men, Gollum's darker nature returns and decides to reclaim the ring by leading Frodo and Sam to "her".
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The foreword, spoken by Galadriel, shows the Dark Lord Sauron forging the One Ring in order to conquer the lands of Middle-earth. A Last Alliance of Elves and Men is formed to counter Sauron's forces at the foot of Mount Doom, but Sauron kills Elendil, the High King of Men. His son, Prince Isildur grabs Elendil's broken sword Narsil, and slashes at Sauron's hand, separating him from the Ring and vanquishing his army. However, because Sauron's "life force" is bound to the Ring, he is not completely defeated until the Ring itself is destroyed. Isildur takes the Ring and succumbs to its temptation, refusing to destroy it. He is later ambushed and killed by orcs, and the Ring is lost in a river. The Ring is found by the creature Gollum thousands of years later, who takes it underground for five centuries, giving him "unnaturally long life." Since the Ring is bound to Sauron, it has a will of its own and wants to be found. Therefore, the Ring consciously leaves Gollum in its quest to be reunited with Sauron. However, it is instead found by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, much to the despair of Gollum. Bilbo returns to his home in the Shire with the Ring, and the story jumps forward in time sixty years.
At his 111th ("eleventy-first") birthday, Bilbo leaves the Ring to his nephew and adopted heir Frodo Baggins. The Wizard Gandalf soon learns it is the One Ring, and that Sauron seeks to retake it. Taking no chances, Gandalf tells Frodo to leave the Shire with the Ring and sends him to Bree with Sam, with plans to meet him there after Gandalf goes to Isengard to meet the head of his order, Saruman. Saruman reveals that the Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths, have left Mordor to capture the Ring and kill whoever carries it; having already turned to Sauron's cause, he then imprisons Gandalf atop Orthanc. Gandalf is then forced to watch as Saruman orders his orcs to build weapons of war and create an elite Orc army called the Uruk-hai.
While travelling to Bree, Frodo and Sam are soon joined by fellow hobbits Merry and Pippin. After encountering a Ringwraith on the road, they manage to reach Bree, and there they meet a Man called Strider, who agrees to lead them to Rivendell. They agree only because Strider already knows about the Nazgûl and that Gandalf isn't there to guide them. After some travelling, they spend the night on the hill of Weathertop, where they are attacked by the Nazgûl at night. Strider fights off the Ringwraiths, but Frodo is grievously wounded with a morgul blade, and they must quickly get him to Rivendell for healing. While chased by the Nazgûl, Frodo is taken by the elf Arwen to the Elven haven of Rivendell, and healed by her father, Elrond.
Gandalf confronts a Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
In Rivendell Frodo meets Gandalf, who explains why he didn't meet them at Bree as planned (he had escaped Orthanc with the help of an eagle). In the meantime, there are many meetings between various peoples, and Elrond calls a council to decide what should be done with the Ring. The Ring can only be destroyed by throwing it into the fires (that is, lava) of Mount Doom, where it was forged. Mount Doom is located in Mordor, near Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, and will be an incredibly dangerous journey. Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mount Doom as all the others argue about who should or shouldn't take it. He is accompanied by his hobbit friends and Gandalf, as well as Strider, who is revealed to be Aragorn, the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. Also travelling with them are the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli and Boromir, the son of the Steward of Gondor. Together they comprise the Fellowship of the Ring. The Fellowship set out and try to pass the mountain Caradhras, but they are stopped by Saruman's wizardry. At Gimli's insistence, they decide to seek safety and travel under the mountain through the Mines of Moria. They discover that an attempt by Gimli's cousin Balin to colonize it has failed. They are attacked by Orcs and a Troll, and encounter a Balrog, an ancient demon of fire and shadow, at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Gandalf confronts the Balrog on the bridge, allowing the others to escape the subterranean realm, while he falls with the creature into the abyss below.
The group flees to the Elven realm of Lothlórien, where they are sheltered by its rulers, Galadriel and her husband Celeborn. While resting, Boromir tells Aragorn about the troubles afflicting the land of Gondor and the people's desire to see a strong King rescue it from destruction. Frodo meets Galadriel, who tells him that it's his destiny to handle the Ring and ultimately destroy it. Before they leave, Galadriel gives Frodo the Phial of Galadriel, and the other members also receive gifts from them. Taking the straight path to Mordor, they travel on the River Anduin towards Parth Galen. After landing at Parth Galen, Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, believing that it is the only way to save his realm. Frodo manages to escape by putting the Ring on his finger and vanishing. Aragorn encounters Frodo, but unlike Boromir, Aragorn chooses not to take the Ring. Knowing that the Ring's temptation will be too strong for the Fellowship, Frodo decides to leave them and go to Mordor alone. Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship are attacked by Uruk-hai, who Saruman had ordered to hunt down the Fellowship and take back the Ring. Merry and Pippin, realizing that Frodo is leaving, distract the orcs allowing Frodo to escape. Boromir rushes to the aid of the two hobbits but is mortally wounded by the orc commander Lurtz, Boromir regrets having attempted to steal the Ring and then dies. Merry and Pippin are captured prompting Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas to begin their pursuit of the orcs with the intent of rescuing the hobbits, leaving Frodo to his fate. Before Frodo departs Sam decides to join him and together they head off to Mordor.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
THE world may not be ready yet for the film equivalent of books on tape, but this peculiar phenomenon has arrived in the form of the film adaptation of J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'' The most highly awaited movie of the year has a dreary, literal-minded competence, following the letter of the law as laid down by the author. But it's all muted flourish, with momentary pleasures, like Gringott's, the bank staffed by trolls that looks like a Gaudí throwaway. The picture is so careful that even the tape wrapped around the bridge of Harry's glasses seems to have come out of the set design. (It never occurred to anyone to show him taping the frame together.)
The movie comes across as a covers act by an extremely competent tribute band -- not the real thing but an incredible simulation -- and there's an audience for this sort of thing. But watching ''Harry Potter'' is like seeing ''Beatlemania'' staged in the Hollywood Bowl, where the cheers and screams will drown out whatever's unfolding onstage.
To call this movie shameless is beside the point. It would probably be just as misguided to complain about the film's unoriginality because (a) it has assumed that the target audience doesn't want anything new and (b) Ms. Rowling's books cannibalize and synthesize pop culture mythology, proof of the nothing-will-ever-go-away ethic. She has come up with something like ''Star Wars'' for a generation that never had a chance to thrill to its grandeur, but this is ''Young Sherlock Holmes'' as written by C. S. Lewis from a story by Roald Dahl.
The director, Chris Columbus, is as adept as Ms. Rowling at cobbling free-floating cultural myths into a wobbly whole. The first film from a Columbus script, ''Gremlins,'' had the cheeky cheesiness of an urban legend written for Marvel Comics. Mr. Columbus probably felt like the right choice for ''Harry Potter'' because he has often used the same circuit boards as Ms. Rowling to design his fables. His ''Home Alone'' movies, ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ''Stepmom'' employ the theme of abandonment by parents as if it were a brand name. And like Mr. Columbus's films, Ms. Rowling's novels pull together archetypes that others have long exploited. This movie begins with a shot of a street sign that will cause happy young audiences to erupt in recognition, as the dry-witted giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) drop a baby at the Doorstep of Destiny.
Years later Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), sporting the jagged thunderbolt scar across his forehead, is living there with his terrors of an aunt (Fiona Shaw) and uncle (Richard Griffiths).
Harry is the kid all kids dream they are. His special abilities are recognized by people other than the ones who have raised him. Hagrid returns to rescue him from his tiny room under the stairs and clues Harry in about the boy's inner force, which is why he doesn't fit into the world of Muggles, the nonmagical and nonbelievers.
Harry is shown the way to Hogwarts, an English boarding school for wizards run by Professor Dumbledore (Richard Harris), where Harry pals up with the gawky but decent Ron (Rupert Grint) and the bossy, precocious Hermione (Emma Watson). The instructors, who rule the classrooms with varying degrees of imperiousness, include the acid Snape (Alan Rickman) and the mousy stutterer Quirrell (Ian Hart).
The casting is the standout, from the smaller roles up; it seems that every working British actor of the last 20 years makes an appearance. John Hurt blows through as an overly intense dealer in magic equipment, schooling Harry on selecting his tools. While shopping for his magic equipment, Harry comes across the Sorcerer's Stone, a bedeviled jewel whose power affects his first year at the enchanted school.
Mr. Radcliffe has an unthinkably difficult role for a child actor; all he gets to do is look sheepish when everyone turns to him and intones that he may be the greatest wizard ever. He could have been hobbled by being cast because he resembles the Harry of the book cover illustrations. It's a horrible burden to place on a kid, but it helps that Mr. Radcliffe does have the long-faced mournfulness of a 60's pop star. He also possesses a watchful gravity and, shockingly, the large, authoritative hands of a real wizard.
The other child actors shine, too. Ms. Watson has the sass and smarts to suggest she might cast a spell of her own on Harry in the coming years and, one supposes, sequels. Mr. Grint has a surprising everyman quality, but the showstopper is Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. This drolly menacing blond with a widow's peak is Harry's plotting foe, and he has the rotted self-confidence of one of the upperclassmen from Lindsay Anderson's ''If.'' There has never been a kid who got so much joy from speaking his oddball name.
Ms. Shaw and Mr. Griffiths are enjoyably swinish, the most resolute of Muggles. Mr. Rickman, whose licorice-black pageboy has the bounce of a coiffure from a hair products ad, is a threatening schoolroom don who delivers his monologues with a hint of mint; his nostrils flare so athletically that he seems to be doing tantric yoga with his sinuses. The mountainously lovable Mr. Coltrane really is a fairy-tale figure that kids dream about.
The movie's most consistently entertaining scene features a talking hat, and that's not meant as an insult. The Sorting Hat, which has more personality than anything else in the movie, assigns the students to the various dormitories; it puts Harry, Ron and Hermione together.
But the other big set pieces are a letdown. The Quidditch match -- the school sport that's part polo, part cricket and part Rollerball, played on flying brooms -- has all the second-rate sloppiness of the race in ''Stars Wars -- Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.'' It's a blur of mortifyingly ordinary computer-generated effects.
Given that movies can now show us everything, the manifestations that Ms. Rowling described could be less magical only if they were delivered at a news conference. And the entrance that may be as eagerly awaited as Harry's appearance -- the arrival of Voldemort (Richard Bremmer), the archvillain -- is a disappointment, a special effect that serves as a reminder of how much he stands in Darth Vader's shadow.
This overly familiar movie is like a theme park that's a few years past its prime; the rides clatter and groan with metal fatigue every time they take a curve. The picture's very raggedness makes it spooky, which is not the same thing as saying the movie is intentionally unsettling.
No one has given Harry a pair of Hogwarts-edition Nikes, nor do he, Hermione and Ron stop off to super-size it at the campus McDonald's: exclusions that seem like integrity these days. (There's no need for product placement. The Internet is likely to have a systems crash from all the kids going online to order maroon-and-gold scarves, which Harry and his dorm mates wear.)
Another kind of exclusion seems bothersome, though. At a time when London is filled with faces of color, the fleeting appearances by minority kids is scarier than Voldemort. (Harry's gorgeous owl, snow white with sunken dark eyes and feather tails dappled with black, gets more screen time than they do.)
Mr. Columbus does go out of his way to give a couple of lines to a little boy with a well-groomed head of dreadlocks. This movie may not be whiter than most, but the peering-from-the-sidelines status accorded to minorities seems particularly offensive in a picture aimed at kids. It's no different in the books, really, but young imaginations automatically correct for this paucity.
A lack of imagination pervades the movie because it so slavishly follows the book. The filmmakers, the producers and the studio seem panicked by anything that might feel like a departure from the book -- which already feels film-ready -- so ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' never takes on a life of its own.
Someone has cast a sleepwalker's spell over the proceedings, and at nearly two and a half hours you may go under, too. Its literal-mindedness makes the film seem cowed by the chilling omnipresence of its own Voldemort, Ms. Rowling, who hovered around the production.
The movie is so timid it's like someone who flinches when you extend a hand to shake. This film is capable of a certain brand of magic: it may turn the faithful into Muggles.
''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' is rated PG (Parental Guidance suggested), probably so that kids older than 12 won't think it's baby stuff. It includes scenes of magic someone must have found intense and threatening and a soupçon of strong language.
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