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THE HARRY/HERMIONE REVIEW: THE SORCERER'S STONE

HHr Awesomeness Rating:         & 1/2
Number of times R/Hr slithered its way across the screen:  3

Number of times it actually bothered me?:   Once.

Missing Canon HHr moments?:   Quite a few. See my "Gripes List" at the bottom of the moments

Number of HHr squee moments?:   31. Hell yeah!




Ready? Set? Squee!


¤ On the train, when Harry passes out and he hears his mother's voice, trying to protect him, which fades into Hermione's voice. She's sitting on the floor beside him when he wakes up with a look on her face that justsays volumns.

¤ I loved how they pan in on Hermione when she sees Harry for the first time in the Leaky Cauldron.

¤ After Harry's fall in the Quidditch match, the look of concern on Hermione's face when he wakes up, and how she's sitting at his bedside is really sweet.

¤ The scene of Lupin describing Lily. I know I can't be the only one out there that was thinking... my God, it's Hermione he's describing. I don't know why I feel like this was an HHr moment.... I guess it's because, eventually, Harry is going to realize how amazing Hermione is.

¤ When Harry is outside crying under his cloak, Ron tries to hold her back from going to him, but she doesn't hesitate to walk over, pushing Ron's hand away. She drops down to her knees in front of him and gently and cautiously pulls the cloak off of him. I loved how it was almost slow-motion how Hermione's hand went to him, and the look on her face just before she removed the cloak. And she doesn't make him feel awkward for crying; she simply looks at him with such compassion.

¤ When Hermione is explaining to Harry about the time-turner, she sort of pushes him forcefully into the wall after he says, "This is NOT normal..." I just thought that was cute. Then as Harry watches Hermione punch Malfoy again, he tells her, "Good punch," and Hermione smiles. It's almost like he didn't tell her the first time because Ron said something to her, and now it was his turn. Very cute.

¤ The way Hermione kept pulling at his clothes. I don't mean this in a dirty way, unfortunately, but she kept pulling him to the ground, pushing him, touching him. There was a lot of HHr touching in this movie, thank you Alfonso Cauron! But when they're hiding in the pumpkin patch, Harry's arm is behind Hermione's head, he's often going to pull her of grab her to him. When she throws the pebbles (or were they hardened snail shells?) at Harry's head, he's like, "that hurt!" and she was like, "sorry," with a small grin on her face.

¤ When the Willow attacks them, Harry is pulling her to him, telling her to watch out and protecting her in a way. They continue helping each other through the whole scene. Hermione's first instinct when getting up isn't to protect herself from the tree, but to practically run to Harry and try and help him. And Harry is doing the same thing, pushing to her to ground out of the way of falling braches. But she manages quite well on her own, thank you very much! She manages to hold onto Harry and throw him into the hole. Then when she lands on him... that was totally sweet.

¤ When they're making their way into the Shack, they're holding hands. They actually hold hands so much through this movie, I should have a separate squee scale just for how many hand-holding incidents there are! They cling to each other for support through the entire end scene, and the time-turner scenes.

¤ Hermione stands in front of Harry when she thinks Sirius is going to kill him. She doesn't even hesitate. She stands by him through it all.

¤ When Harry and Hermione wait by the tree, this beautiful scene begins with bats flying around and the moonlight. It's quite beautiful. The way Harry wanted to tell Hermione about seeing his dad, and the way she just sort of stayed quite, she looked sad for him. The way he told her in the hospital the first time, was like he was pleading for her to believe him, and she never once said it was impossible. She didn't want to crush his feelings. She just sat there and watched him. Then Harry talked to her about he and Sirius going off to live, and the music began...very sad and beautiful, and the look on Hermione's face as she watched him... It was like she was wanting it so badly for him, but knew it wouldn't happen. She just had this sad sort of knowing smiling.

¤ When Hermione did the whole wolf call and Harry tried to shut her up. He basically threw his whole body into her. She was like, "I'm saving your life." Then he was like, "thanks." Which brings me to the next moment...

¤ Hand-Holding Everywhere! Harry and Hermione seem to be holding each other's hands through the entire movie! What interests me more though is how they do it when they don't really need to.

¤ Not really an HHr moment, but I think in the grand scheme, it's a nice scene to display how just because Harry protects Hermione, she can stand quite well on her own. When Harry is running and he falls, and she goes back to help him and they continue to hold hands until they get behind the tree. They keep their hands held until Lupin attacks and they huddle together. I also like the scene where Harry gets thrown back by the Whomping Willow and Hermione jumps over the branch.... I love Smart!Hermione and Kick-Ass!Hermione moments like that. Moments that show she's not some weepy wallflower that needs everyone to save her.

¤ The huddling moment. When Lupin attacks them, Harry uses his entire body to protect Hermione. Go back and watch it again. I have a copy of the movie now, so I've been able to see it over and over. This is really a great moment. Because, yes, even as friends they might huddle together to try and keep safe. But if you look at it again, Harry is placing himself around her as Lupin attacks. He was almost covering her with himself to keep her from being hurt. You do that when you love someone. And if you watch as Buckbeak is trying to save them, you see the backs of Harry and Hermione's heads and he's leaning his head into her hair as they watch. He's got his hands around her shoulders and he's pulling her into him. Then afterward, of course, she turns to him and leans into his chest and tells him how scary it was. The way she turned to Harry and buried herself in his chest. She clings to him for comfort. But again, what I loved about this movie is that, while she did cling to him for protection and support, we see that Hermione can stand quite well on her own and protect herself when she needs to. She does it when she actually isn't in any danger, like she's breathing a sigh of relief and feels safe with him. But when she's in the face of real danger, she can stand up and fight and really fight for those around her that can't. They didn't make Hermione seem like this helpless girl who needs a big protector to save her, which I think, unfortunately, JK Rowling does in the books sometimes. After Lupin runs away, Harry's still holding her with his hands on her back. They then see the dementors above them and she moves closer to him. Then they go after Sirius. And PS: they continue holding hands until they get to the lake and Harry runs off to do his Patronus. ; )

¤ The Patronus. This may not be construde as a HHr moment to anyone but me. But I just loved how Hermione's face looked as she watched Harry being tormented by the dementors. She kept goading him, telling him, "no one's coming, Harry." She knew, logically, even as Harry was telling her in the woods about his father, that it probably wasn't him. And even though she stayed quite because she didn't want to hurt him at the time, she knew, she panicked, that James wasn't going to show up. But really, the look on her face as she watched the dementors attacking Harry, the way she said, "you're dying..." and then added.. "you both are," as though, even though it was Sirius's soul being sucked out, it was Harry she was more concerned about. It was Harry she was watching. Sirius was an afterthought. I also loved how she stood by the tree and watched Harry with his patronus. If you watch again, you'll see how wonderful it was to see Hermione standing behind him just watching. I don't know how to explain it, but seeing her standing there, watching him with her arms (the music here was amazing too, bringing me to my next point...).

¤ The music. I call it the HHr Soundtrack. I may be completely obsessed, which is why I notice things that some people write to me an tell me they'd never noticed before, but if you watch through every movie, Harry and Hermione seem to have their own theme songs. The music changes slightly when they're alone together. In SS, it was at the end just before Harry went into the dungeon. They had a sweet moment and the music began; a sweet, soft melody. In CoS it was when Harry and Hermione met in the street and said hello. A subtle change in the music happened as they talked to each other. And it doesn't happen when Harry meets with Ron, or when Ron meets with Hermione. It's exclusively HHr. It happend again in CoS when Harry went to visit Hermione in the hospital the second time after she was petrified and again when Hermione came back to the Great Hall in the end. In this film, it happend QUITE a lot. I won't go through every single time, but the ones that come to mind the most are when Harry and Hermione are waiting and the bats come flying out of the forrest. They sit and talk about Harry's father. The music changed there into that beautiful flute theme that played throughout. It happened again with my favorite theme being when Hermione broke Sirius out of the cell and when Sirius was saying goodbye. They sort of ran together watching Sirius fly off. It was really sweet. I just loved the music in this movie so much.

¤ The flight on Buckbeak. I loved how Harry sort of laughed when Hermione said she didn't like flying and screamed. I just thought it was cute as all hell!

¤ I know this probably won't be the favorite one of all shippers, what with all the hand-holding and huddling going on. And yes, those were really wonderful, but I just think this moment goes to show how much Hermione cares about Harry in a way that is very different than the typical moments people lookout for. The moment was when Sirius is talking to Harry about not being able to stay. If you watch Hermione, her face, you see her sort of look sad for a moment, as if she knows Sirius is saying goodbye. And even though neither of them ask her to... she walks away. She leaves them alone to talk. That takes class and maturity that is well beyond her years. She has enough respect and care for Harry to let him have that moment with Sirius to himself. She knows how much it would hurt him to know he couldn't be with Sirius, and she leaves him and Sirius to have their moment. Wow... I just really loved that. I just think that moment, above almost all the others in the movie, went to prove how well she knows Harry and how much she cares for him; how thoughful she is about his feelings.

¤ Hermione's lingering. When Harry is told he can't go into Hogsmeade, Ron turns and everyone begins to leave, but Hermione stands with a sad look on her face for a few moments, watching him, before she walks away. It's sweet to see that while everyone turns their backs on Harry, Hermione is the one to think of him. It's a bit of a hint of things to come in GoF and OotP, if you ask me.

¤ It's interesting to note that Hermione is always the one intimately close to Harry each time he passed out or was hurt in any way. She was on the floor beside him on the train, she sat on his bed after the Quidditch match. She was actually hovering over him in the hospital before the time-turner scene, when Harry told her he saw his father.

¤ The way Hermione told Harry to go to Sirius after they leave the Shack, and she offered to stay with Ron. When Harry told her he'd stay, she reaches for his hand and tells him softly, "You go, I'll stay.. Go." and Harry gives her a thankful look and makes sure Ron is okay before getting up.

¤ The way Hemione holds Harry back from running to Lupin as he's shifting into a werewolf. She really pulls him and says, "Harry!", not allowing him to walk away.

¤ When it seems like Lupin may attack them, Harry and Hermione are on either side of Ron helping him stand up, but Harry's arm is all the way over holding Hermione's arm.

¤ When Harry runs to get Sirius after he and Lupin begin to fight in animal form, Harry runs from Snape and in the background, we see Hermione try to run with him, but Snape is holding her shirt (or elbow or something, it was hard to see) keeping her from going after Harry. She wasn't really concerned about Ron right then, who was still standing behind Snape.

¤ The look of concern on Hermione's face when Harry woke up from passing out from the Dementors in the woods. He was in the hospital bed, and it's her voice that brings him out. When his first words are, "I saw my father," Hermione grabs his shoulder. Ron was hurt in the Shrieking Shack and while Hermione was concerned for his well-being, it wasn't the same. The look on her face wasn't the same.

¤ When Quidditch begins, we hear everyone in the stands, and I mean EVERYONE, is cheering "Go, go, Gryffindor!" over and over, except for Hermione. Hermione is screaming, "Go Harry!!!" She also not watching any of the other players. Only Harry.

¤ When Hermione throws the time-turner around Harry's head, she slaps his hand away, very cutely.

¤ The way Hermione didn't need to bow to Buckbeak to get his respect before she could touch him or go near him. It was almost like Buckbeak knew she and Harry were together. Like Buckbeak trusted her because Harry did.

¤ The way Hermione sort of leans her head on Harry's shoulder when they're hiding from Lupin around the tree.

¤ If you look really hard an pause, just for an instant (you really have to catch it), when Buckbeak attacks Lupin and Hermione screams, in the corner of the screen we see Harry almost push her down to protect her, but Hermione has both arms across him, protecting him, like Snape did for the kids on the hill. It's really very brief and you have to look for it!

¤ The way the camera pans in on Harry and Hermione's shoes and we see how close together they're standing, before we see the dementors flying above them. I'm so making an icon of that. And don't you steal my idea!!


Major Gripes About the Movie:

Done Already?
First and foremost, it was SO RUSHED! Every scene felt like it was being cut off. Even little kids in the theater were saying, "I wish it was longer!" I think The Powers That Be really need to get over their fear of the movie being too long because I've yet to meet anyone that has complained! There were a lot of scenes missing that really would have been amazing to see. The actors were so great, but underused because of time constraints. The characters weren't explained enough to make it believable, although the acting and the whole "feel" of the movie was so good that this was almost unnecessary. This was a movie created for fans of the books. By "fans," i mean people that really know them, not an average viewer. Getting to the point, like the scene with Aunt Marge, was totally fine with me. But other scenes that were cut short, or simply missing, needed to be there. I think my biggest one, other than the missing HHr moments- which I'll get to, was the explanation of the Mauraders Map and who the Mauraders were. I can almost positively say that they filmed this scene and just didn't get to use it. I expect to see it on the DVD. Without that crucial piece of information, a lot of things didn't make sense and were a bit hard for even me to just "take". This was so important to the plot, like how Lupin knew to say "mischief managed,"... he wouldn't know that without knowing the map, which wasn't explained. Again, this film was made for people who were supposed to understand and know these things going into it.

If anyone had only watched the films, and not read the books, I think they would have seriously been lost. But I'll tell you honestly... I actually kind of love this and I'll tell you why. SOOO many directors, writers, producers these days seem to not really care about the current fans of a series at all. All they ever seem to want is to draw in a new audience, bring in more ratings, make more money and simplify things so "everyone" can understand them. It was nice to see that, for once, a film was made not for the newbies but for the true fans of the books. The things were left out almost seemed like they were left out purposely to confuse the new people. And somewhere in my little evil heart, I like that.

That being said, I still think it was too rushed. Too much was forced into too little time and there wasn't anywhere near enough background information...which would have taken moments to explain really... to truly enjoy the movie. I still loved it simply because I was able to see past that. You kind of just have to. I enjoyed it for what it was, and not what it lacked. But there were things that were omitted that really needed to be there to set up exactly who these characters turn out to be and grow to become. As much as i loved the filming style, I would have been happier seeing a little less scenery and more exposition. But again... this goes under the heading of, "movie for fans who already know it, so we don't need to explain it." I guess the way to say it would be that the movie felt like such an emotional and beautiful film, but everything was so rushed that nothing really had a chance to hold much meaning.

Poor Hermione...
While not specifically an HHr shippy gripe, I'm a huge Hermione fan and felt her character in this film wasn't as beaten down as she was in the book. I think it was important, not just because I'm a Harry-Hermione shipper and think her being so torn up really made for some of the best shippy moments in the series. It actually had little to do with Harry and Hermione. The underlying theme to this book, to me at least, was the trust of friends and willingness to go along even when they may be wrong; because they are your friends. Pettigrew should have died for his friends. Lupin should have believed Sirius wouldn't have ever hurt James and Lily. Harry should have understood Hermione was just tryng to help him by reporting his broom (which we didn't see) and threatening to tell about the map (which we saw for a brief second). They should and need to trust each other in order to survive and none of the anger and cattiness was really in the movie.

In the book, Hermione was rundown and exhausted. She was physically and mentally torn apart from everything that she was trying to do and her friends treating her so badly. But in the film, she wasn't having a hard time at all with the time turner. She wasn't exhausted, Harry didn't see that she was exhausted and Ron wasn't mean enough to Hermione. We didn't see Harry mad at Hermione at all, which is think was important. We never saw the toll it took on her. We never saw Harry feel badly for how he'd treated her. We never see Ron feel guilty.

And she never gave the time turner back at the end of the year. Maybe they'll mention in in GoF. But this was important because we needed to see that Hermione was smart enough to know her limits and was able to let go of something powerful when she knew she couldn't handle it. It went to show what kind of character Hermione is: she was smart and wise enough to let power like that go when she couldn't handle it. Unlike Voldemort, who is all about power and rage and anger and can never let it go.

We didn't see how Hermione had tried to protect Harry by reporting the broom, threatening him about going into Hogsmeade... etc. These were crucial elements to the story that proved how strong their friendship was; how Hermione would rather her friends mad at her than to see them hurt. And how much they needed to trust each other.

Ron who?
I love Ron, but i'm starting to wonder why his character is even IN the films. He rarely does anything and most of his book moments are cut from all of the movies. He was almost completely insignificant in this movie. Honestly, I can't say that there was any time in the movie that was important to have him in the scene, other than having him be the one that was dragged into the Shrieking Shack, allowing them to find Sirius. And of course, it was Ron's rat. Which is why I really wish the Ron and Hermione fighting (from the book) would have stayed in. There was a small bit of picking on Ron's part mostly, but no where near as hurtful and mean as it was in the books. His ignorance was important in the book and should have stayed in the movie.

Overall:
I liked it. It's my favorite movie of the series and there was enough HHr goodness to keep me happy. Although the producers really need to stop worrying so much about the movies being too long... it will only hurt them in the end!