"He said the trouble with the film was that it stuck too closely to the book."
The guy had to be kidding. My daughters and I agree that a problem was the books didn't stick closely enough with the original. Oldest was very irritated with the first movie as it left so much stuff out. However, youngest and I both liked well enough, and we all three liked the second movie much better.
The story was a bit disconnected, though, and there were few of the actors I thought really did their parts well - Dumbledore, Snape (kids didn't like him, but I thought he was great), Hermione. We agree that actor playing HP was too deadpan. We disagree in that I didn't think the guy playing Hagrid was all that great, nor very many of the others. (Though I really liked all the Dursely characters.) I also loved that guy selling wands - he was cast really well, I thought.
Now that Sir Richard is gone, I hope Patrick Stewart reads for the part. (My kids want Ian McKellan to do it, but I think the Saruman guy would be much better.) Also, it would be really good if they could bring Derek Jacoby in on a good part. I love that guy.
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