Review Detail

I've always been a Potter fan, but nothing too hardcore. I saw all the films in the theater, read all the books, etc etc. I haven't watched "Sorcerer's Stone" in a while because it can't hold a candle to some of the later films (especially "Prisoner" and "Deathly Hallows"), although it's nowhere near as cringe-worthy as "Chamber". So now, Andreas has set out to bring "Sorcerer's Stone" more in line with the later films, primarily by way of rescoring and color grading, along with some nips and tucks, and beefing things up with a nice flashback sequence.

A/V quality - 8
There's a lot of compression artifacts in this 8 GB MP4, and I suspect some of it is due to the color grading. It's not terrible, but image quality could have been much better.

Visual editing - 9
Not a lot of footage has been cut, mainly the visual editing is the color grading, which for the most part looked fantastic. There were a couple of crossfades that were decidedly un-epic and drew attention to themselves, but aside from those the cuts were seamless.

Audio editing - 10
Absolutely wonderful. If you showed this to a Potter newb, or even somebody who hasn't watched the flick in years, they wouldn't know this was rescored. Only one or two musical cues felt out of place, but the rest was flawless.

Narrative/Improvement - 9
Overall, Andreas keeps the story and characterizations intact, and strengthens the overall mood with the improved music. The biggest narrative change was the new Potters/Voldemort flashback, which was fricking excellent the first time we saw it, but by the fifth time it showed up, it felt repetitive. (And no, I didn't need a tissue for flashback #5.)

Enjoyment - 9
A refreshing way to revisit HP1, highly recommended for Potter-heads. Jolly good show chap!