Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: November 16, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The English cast is fun; but this is more spectacle than story, and the Steve Kloves script deserves better handling than director Chris Columbus -- plus any number of studio deliberators -- gave it. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
A clumsily directed, painstakingly faithful adaptation thats heavy on plot, light on nuance, and features in its title role a young newcomer whose most striking quality is an almost preternatural absence of oomph. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
I wish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had developed more of a life of its own instead of being essentially a flat visualization of the book. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
In their hands [Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton or even Steven Spielberg], Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone might have made as terrific a movie as it is a book. When Columbus got the job, however, it was guaranteed only to be a commercial success. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This version of the Potter saga is fun and harmless rather than memorable or imaginative. That's certainly no crime. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
As a movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has no inner life -- no pulse -- of its own: It's secondhand. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
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. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is, despite its trickery, that plainest and least surprising of artifacts; the work of art that is exactly the sum of its parts, neither more nor less. [19 Nov 2001, p. 78]
50
TimeRichard Corliss
The film lacks moviemaking buoyancy -- the feeling of soaring in space that Rowling's magic-carpet prose gives the reader. The picture isn't inept, just inert.
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
There's a palpable avoidance of risk as this new mythology is wheeled gingerly into the marketplace and carefully positioned to zap your pre-sold brain...Solid but uninspired, Harry lacks brio. It's respectable and a bit dull. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What's on screen, though, is a cautious approach to cinema wizardry -- broad, colorful strokes and flash-bang effects that turn J.K. Rowling's words into a long, cheerful spectacle with a Muggle soul.
50
Washington PostRita Kempley
Potter-philes are sure to get what they want -- if what they want is, in fact, an exacting version of J.K. Rowling's charming children's fantasy. If it's enchantment they are after, that's quite another matter. Read full review
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