My wife has a thing for Oliver Wood (the Gryffindor Quidditch captain) as well, Jodi. Even I have to admit that he’s pretty cute, and the Welsh accent is great.
Welsh? I’ll bet you a plate of haggis that accent is Scottish, a/k/a “the most beautiful accent in the world.”
I’m told by a British friend of mine that it’s most probably Welsh. It has a particular cadence that’s mostly unique to Welsh-speakers speaking English. That’s just what I’m told, though. It could pass for Scottish, but I can hear differences too.
shrug Either way, it’s great.
Sean Biggerstaff, who plays Oliver Wood, was born in Scotland.
Biggerstaff? That’s just an excellent last name.
chuckle I’ve never been more pleased to be proven wrong. What a wonderful name he has!
ThunderBug, I was disappointed not to see the gnomes too! But aside from that, I loved this movie. Thought the Quidditch match was better than the last one, really enjoyed Kenneth B.'s Lockheart-- it looked like he had a great time doing it, too. And Alan Rickman, hurrah! Although every time I see him I flash back to that scene in Dogma where we learn that angels are not anatomically correct…
And Jodi, at least young Biggerstaff (heehee) is almost 20… never, ever tell anyone that you think Daniel Radcliffe is “cute.” Trust me on this, I have firsthand knowledge 
Funny – with the first movie most complaints were about how they tried to cram in too much from the book instead of streamlining the movie. This time, I see more complaints about how things from the book are missing, like the deathday party and the gnome tossing. Yeah, I’d like to have seen those but I thought this movie was very nicely paced, and maybe those scenes would have dragged it down. Hopefully they actually did film them and they’ll be included on the DVD. I had high hopes for the deleted scenes on Sorceror’s Stone and was disappointed at the tiny bits they did put on the DVD.
There are two actors that play Hagrid. One for the body scenes where you see him next to people, and Robbie Coldtrain for the rest.
I forget where I read about this, but it was after the first movie came out.
Another complaint about things I missed:
More about the Burrow!! (including Ron’s room with the Quidditch posters and the garden gnome scene)
I think he’s goofy looking.
On the other hand, I think I’ll be having (still more) naughty dreams about Snape, and now some about Luscious…err… Lucious Malfoy. Mmmmm…
That would be worse than admitting thinking that Hermione is going to be hot when she grows up. Not that that’s what I’m doing, of course… 
Incidentally, did anyone else notice that most of the big special effects were done in very dark scenes - the willow, the spider, and the basilisk. The cynical side of me thinks they could get away with much crappier graphics in low light.
Also, this movie made me glad that LOTR postponed Shelob to the third movie. When the first movies came out, each one had a troll. This way, we avoid a repeat of the deuling effects.
I hadn’t seen the first one. I read that this was better but I was quite disappointed. First of all the lead actor can’t act and is especially poor at the big,dramatic scenes. The final confrontation in the chamber was particularly pitiful and seemed like something from a bad school-play. The other two kids are better but not by much.
Second the director is completely unable to build any kind of atmosphere or create any tension and appears to be more interested in cramming in as much of the book as possible. I also though that the film could have done with some more and better music.
If this was an improvement on the first I can only imagine what a snooze-fest that must have been. I only hope that the new director does better with the next one and that the kids are given some good acting lessons in the meantime.
This is pretty much true. If it had been called Bobby Smith and the Philosopher’s Stone it would have flopped. However, re the kids acting, I thought that Hermione was far superior to Harry or Ron.
I had a Dogma flashback myself. But it was with Moaning Myrtle in the school girl outfit with the glasses and the pigtails. All I could think of was Selma Hayek in the strip club scene. Maybe that is why I didn’t mind Myrtle so much!
To be honest Cyperpundit, I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the movies if I hadn’t read and been a big fan of the books. I enjoyed comparing how I saw things mentally with how they came out visually on the screen. Because of that I kind of looked past the flaws. But I’m pretty easy to please in the first place.
“I thought that Hermione was far superior to Harry or Ron.”
I agree she was better than the other two but this may partly be because she didn’t get too many of the dramatic scenes which exposed their limitations. Maybe she proved herself in the first one; I don’t know.
TB,
Actually I have read the book though I don’t remember the details too well. I should clarify that I didn’t think the film was horrible; the visual effects and Kenneth Branagh were enough to make it tolerable; it was just that it could have been so much more.
BTW my respect for Roger Ebert has dropped somewhat after his reading his 4 star review. What was he thinking? I can understand a “thumbs up”, but 4 stars mean a masterpiece and I can’t believe any serious critic would consider COS one.
So am I the only one here who thought it was a pile of poo?
The plot was kinda dull, the kid who plays Harry Potter REALLY needs some acting lessons (it not often a CGI character is more belivable than a human) and he was in EVERY scene, the established actors (Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, etc.) didn’t get enough screen time, the ending was WAAAY to Hollywoodised and the script was just plain rubbish.
I haven’t read any of the books, but I enjoyed the first one more than this.
A complete waste of 3 hours (half an hour of adverts and trailers, didn’t put me in a good mood) and £4.
I loved the Weasleys’. It looked almost exactly the way I imagined and the family interaction was perfect. I would’ve cut way back on the flying car and whomping willow scenes and the accolades to Hagrid at the end (agree with others that it was an odd way to end the movie that strained) to get more time at the Weasleys’
Also to finish the floo powder scene–wasn’t the whole point of Harry ending up in the wrong place overhearing something significant? (what I can’t remember anymore)as it was the scene dragged on with shrunken heads and clutching skeletal hands–and did not advance the plot one iota, when it probably would’ve taken 30 seconds to include the payoff.
This movie was really badly edited I think, not that I understand the technicalities of it. As others have said, the tension and sense of movement were very lacking.
I still very much enjoyed it though. Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) almost stole the show as far as I’m concerned. He really stuck in my mind after I left the movie in a way that little else did.
Watched it with a great audience, who howled at the early jokes. They seemed to adore the first 1/3 of the movie, and to be indifferent to the bulk of the rest. Stunned, I would say, at the irregular/weird/eccentric performance of Moaning Myrtle, so bad she should have been cut.
I was baffled about the director’s choices for various things, and not surprised they have replaced him for the next movie. The people who were so effective in the first movie were practically written out of the script: Snape, Germione, Hagrid. Thankfully, the people who were emphasized instead turned in better performances than before. The animation of Dobby was excellent, too.
Since the audience was hysterical during the first part, and bored by the time they walked out, I’d call this a real mixed bag, mostly due to Rowling’s not-incredibly-effective switch in the second book from light humor to “heavy” fantasy.
Heh, heh. Hermione.
I liked it better than the first one, mainly because the pace seemed less frantic. They were able to cover all the important plot points from the book. I also thought casting Kenneth Branagh as Lockhart was inspired.
I didn’t like the ending–it was very odd and overdone. Moaning Myrtle was annoying and was given way more time than she should’ve been. I also would have liked more scenes of the Burrow.
Overall, though, it was a lot of fun. Plus, Mr. moonstarssun HATES spiders, so it was fun watching him squirm during the Aragog scenes.