Critic Reviews
65
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
25(68%)
mixed
12(32%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 37 Critic Reviews
100
A red-blooded adventure movie, dripping with atmosphere, filled with the gruesome and the sublime, and surprisingly faithful to the novel.
100
It’s still a very entertaining and spectacular movie, with a rush of nostalgia to go alongside the exhilaration of fun.
91
It's eye-filling, well-cast, often very funny and executed with great imagination and flair.
90
The script is faithful, the actors are just right, the sets, costumes, makeup and effects match and sometimes exceed anything one could imagine.
90
Happily, then, the first movie of the Harry Potter series casts a splendid spell, as screenwriter Steve Kloves has transcribed J.K. Rowling's novel nearly to a T, with precious little tweaked or trimmed.
88
If the movie doesn't ultimately transport us to places The Wizard of Oz once took us, that may be partly because "The Sorcerer's Stone" is just the first chapter, with more magic waiting to be parceled out in the coming years.
88
Can there be higher praise for a motion picture designed to capture a beloved book with fidelity, thoroughness and affection? Only this: They made it better.
80
Retains (and in many cases, boosts) as much of the spirit [of the book] as you could reasonably expect. And it makes a worthy attempt to duplicate Rowling's engaging sense of humor.
80
What saves Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is what created it in the first place: J.K. Rowling's enrapturing imagination. At those sporadic moments when the film allows us to share in Harry's wonder, it lets us recapture our own as well.
75
That sense of déjà vu is at once this Harry Potter's balm and its limitation: many charms, but few surprises.
