The first Harry Potter movie to enter my home was a gift to my oldest son for his 4th or 5th birthday.  He liked it quite a bit.  So I decided to get them for him every time they came out on DVD.  Shortly after that I found the first four books at a fund-raising book sale.  I figured if I didn't read them my son would.  (Kyler is actually on the fifth book now.)

Shortly after I made the switch to Blu-ray the Harry Potter films were added to my library. Luckily the movies are okay for adults to watch.  Great sound and picture.  And lots of extras.  (You know I like extras.)

One thing I've appreciated about the books and movies so far is the way they paint the characters in an obscure light.  Hagrid for instance.  Did he open the Chamber of Secrets.  Well in the beginning we really don't know.  Moaning Myrtle was just as annoying either way.  Is Lucius Malfoy a bad guy, or just an asshole? (His character seemed much slimier in the movie.)  Even Dobby, the ill-fated house elf, was less annoying than I thought he'd be in the book.

And our new friend Gilderoy Lockhart.  Pompous.  Arrogant.  You almost wish bad stuff on him.  Okay, not almost.  Funny that you can tell Dumbledore knows he's full of shit.

Lots of little things get left out of the movies.  As always, of course.  It allows the movie-makers a little more leeway to create more tension, or a shorter movie and stuff.  Nick's Deathday Party, for example.  The book also punctuates the passage of time a little differently.  In the movie you can only tell by the weather.  The book is constantly talking about tOne difference I appreciated was the car and spiders in the Dark Forest.  In the book they find the car before they are forcibly taken to Aragog by Aragog's children.  That being cut made their rescue a little more dramatic.

The extras on this disc were cool because most of them are about the characters from the point of the actors.  The deleted scenes, while insightful, did seem like they didn't NEED to be in the movie.

A pretty good adaptation.  Anybody out there read Clive Barker?  Nightbreed was spot on as an adaptation of his book "Cabal."  And a fun movie to boot.