Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Revisited

This is a very hard review to write. Sorcerer's Stone was the movie that brought me into the world of Harry Potter. I'd not had any interest in "those kids books" and only went to see the movie because it had a Star Wars Episode II trailer in front of it (oh boy was I burned there!). However, from the moment Harry and Hagrid arrived in Diagon Alley I was a fan. I was sucked into the world in a pretty intense way. For all its differences to the later movies in the series, this was the one that made me believe in the magic of Harry Potter. While it might not be the best movie from a technical stand point, it has a very high place in my heart.

And so I began to watch Andreas's edit with both excitement and trepidation. The opening lines from Harry's mother sent a shiver down my spine. Good start. The whole flashback beginning really sets the tone of what's to come. Having the discovery of magic be from Harry's point of view makes sense and I was okay with losing the opening scene even if it meant we lost a little of the late, great Richard Harris in action.

What's funny is that for most of the edit I barely noticed the changes. My wife, who has probably seen this movie a hundred times, was a little more attuned. In terms of cuts I would say the only big disappointment was losing the first Potions class as it (in my opinion) sets up the mutual dislike and distrust between Harry and Snape. In the edit it feels like Harry's distrust of Snape comes out of nowhere. I feel their antagonism is a key part of both of their story arcs in the whole saga. That was definitely missed. Another missed part is the final awards ceremony. Now, it's silly and childish and doesn't match the tone of the later movies so I absolutely understand the need for the cut, but it was sad to see Neville's achievement taken away (and losing the mirroring of him "defeating" a snake by giving them the points to beat Slytherin here vs. his more literal defeat of Nagini in Deathly Hallows). But in terms of tone I can see why Andreas chose to let it go.

Now, the biggest accomplishment of this edit comes down to the audio. The re-scoring of the entire movie gave it a whole new feel. It was scarier in the scenes that should have been scarier, more exciting in the scenes that should have been more exciting. Amazing job.

Now the big question. Does this replace the original version whenever I watch the series? I don't know. I feel I'll find myself flipping back and forth between the two versions. Through no fault of Andreas's but rather because of my emotional connection to the original.

To sum up, this edit was fantastic and really does match to goal of giving the first movie of the series a tone that is similar to those that came later. In that Andreas has done an outstanding job.

Andreas did it. He fixed The Sorceror's Stone. The first two films in the Harry Potter series have this problem of feeling far too cheery and child-like compared to the darker, more cinematic franchise initiated from Azkaban, and by simply changing the music, re-colouring the movie and making some minor cuts for pacing, Sorceror's Stone: Revisited brings the first entry MUCH closer in line tonally to the rest. The film itself still suffers from being overlong and somewhat dull when compared to the later entries, thanks to Chris Columbus' direction and the far too book-centric screenplay, but Andreas did the best he could, and the best he could should be applauded, with the changes he made fitting perfectly into the rest of the film. This is definitely my preferred version of the first movie now, though I personally miss the scenes featuring Snape that sets him up as the untrustworthy ally for the rest of the series, and though I still see it as one of the weakest entries of the HP movies. Good job!

First off, my dad and I are HUGE Potter nerds, the books are awesome, the movies are great, and the universe is cool and well developed. Once I finally got this edit, I uploaded it to my Plex library and my whole family sat down and had our minds BLOWN. Andreas has made millions of little changes that make this a better movie than the official release, scenes become more exciting due to awesome re-scoring (snake escaping was awesome rather than cheesy) and flashbacks are also really cool (adds footage from the deathly hallows). So let me get right to the actual technical aspects of the edit.

Audio/Video Quality:
Great, nothing I noticed was out of place and the deleted scene was very nicely incorporated

Visual Editing:
Awesome, color correction is infinitely better, the devil's snare was black and sinister and it looked so cool compared to the theatrical. Gold was removed from most scenes which never really bothered me until I watched this and realized how odd it looked originally. Everything looks very natural.

Audio Editing:
Superb, sound effects, music, voices, etc. were changed and modified perfectly, nothing sounded off or strange. Loved spots where music was added into quiet scenes (library, Olivander's wand shop)

Narrative:
Fun, not much changed other than the first half hour of the movie being not completely in chronological order (which I liked) like having Harry's letter arrive right at the beginning and then show Dudley's party after that and then later show them trying to get rid of the letters.

Enjoyment:
Overall loved it, will burn to a disc and make it my go-to version of the film. This movie is my least favorite of the Harry Potter movies and Andreas has managed to make it way better than it ever was.

The amount of continuity errors unfortunately took me out of the movie but not entirely though as to the continuity errors themselves.

The first occurred When Ron was attempting to turn Scabbers in one scene the sweet box comes of his head but in the next scene that shows him with Hermione standing outside the door the sweet box is back on his head.

When McGonagall says your house will be like your family it should have cut to the Great Hall doors opening to make for a smoother transition and to quicken the narrative pacing.

During the scene where the Troll takes a second swing of its club at Harry the sudden cut to Ron casting the spell felt a bit jarring to quick as another scene could have been added before he casts the spell.

Well I thought the scene with the Mirror was done pretty well the use of Jame’s actor from Sorcerer’s Stone contradicts the flashbacks as his appearance is different between those scenes, digitally removing Jame’s Sorcerer’s Stone actor from the Mirror and digitally placing his actor from the later films would be a good way to fix this continuity error.

When Hermione reads the book on Nicholas Flamel the various text in that book reads PHILOSOPHER’S STONE creating some plotholes the first being why everyone keeps calling it the Sorcerer’s Stone when Nicholas Flamel refers to it as the Philosopher’s Stone and it also makes it seem like Hermione can’t read properly and that she and everyone else in the Wizarding World are trying to discredit the author and call the stone by a name that they prefer, these plotholes could be fixed by either digitally altering the text in Nicholas Flamel’s book to read SORCERER’S STONE or through burning and editing a DVD of Philosopher’s Stone.

The scene where Malfoy appears outside should have played until he leaves with Harry than stating his name as it than cuts to Hagrid saying oh dear instead of him going over to the table as it would have made for a smoother and quicker transition.

During the Devil’s Snare scene the immediate cut to Hermione’s face after she tells Harry and Ron to relax felt way to fast and jarring as another scene could have been placed after she told them to relax before transitioning to the scene where the Devil’s Snare swallows her up.

As for the flashbacks well they certainly are an interesting element you decided to incorporate into the edit I felt that there was to many of them as it would have been better if the flashbacks were used more sparingly such as the scene where Hagrid is explaining to Harry about his parents and when Harry meets Voldemort for the final time in this edit.

As to what I enjoyed your choice of music really gave a lot of emotional power and resonance to the scenes that accompanied them as I was completely blown away and the darker filter gave the film a more consistent and mature feel that the films from Azkaban onwards while preserving the magic that made Philosopher’s Stone or for those outside the UK Sorcerer’s Stone so great in the first place.

When I first heard you were attempting to bring the tone of the film more in line with the others in the series I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, Philosopher’s Stone is my 2nd least favorite movie, but I was worried that you might possibly go too far in the attempt to darken the movie. I’m glad to say that my fears were completely unfounded. This is quite a brilliant edit, and though it has it’s problems, it’s so well done that those complaints don’t amount to much. Reworking the first few scenes of the film was an inspired choice and it works really well in changing the tone of the film. I also really loved the insertion of exterior shots from later movies in order to help make the changes between the 2nd and 3rd film less jarring. The musical score changes and additions are welcome. Most of the time it’s done seamlessly enough that if I hadn’t seen the movie over a hundred times (not exaggerating here) I wouldn’t have noticed.

That being said there were a few sections where I could hear the original track underneath the new music, and several times the new music would only play for a few seconds before disappearing which left me confused as to why the soundtrack changed there. The only music choice that I felt was bad was when they see Hogwarts from the boats. Mostly because the tone of the music doesn’t gel with the visuals at all. The school is lit up all nice and warm and you can see the smiles of joy and wonder on the kid's faces as they approach the school. If you were going to change it I think using a less foreboding theme would have been best.

I thought the removal of Norbert was an interesting choice. I’ve never even thought of removing that scene, but it works really well. There were also a few narrative decisions that didn’t quite work. The last act suffers a bit from the removals that were made. Removing the scene of Hagrid telling them how to get past Fluffy makes the pace moves a bit to fast and makes the trio look like complete idiots for trying to get past Fluffy with no idea how to do so, but the removal of Norbert, as well as the fact that Hagrid’s hut is in a different location from later films, necessitates this. Also, the flashback was used a bit too often.

The only other complaint I have is really minor and doesn’t affect my rating at all but I just thought I’d mention it. I wish you had used the Philosopher’s Stone edit instead of Sorcerer’s Stone but again that’s more of a personal preference than anything else. I still prefer the extended cut of the original movie, and this is mostly because a few important scenes for both the pacing and narrative structure were removed, making the film feel a bit too fast. That being said I’d still give this edit an 8/10 and would highly recommend it to anyone who’d like a different take on the film. I can’t wait to watch Chamber of Secrets Revisited and take a look at both Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix Revisited.