My Thoughts On Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

Hype. I don't like hype and things that have a lot of hype. I have a fair imagination and when someone says to me, "It's the greatest book series ever written! Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and purchase yourself a copy!", well my expectations soar.

My imagination takes control and I begin to imagine the greatest book ever created, the most wondrous story ever told. I've read some great works of fiction and I get excited about something even better than what I've previously read.

And very often, I get disappointed. I've been let down by hype many, many times. It seems that my expectations get too high and I inevitably get disappointed in a book, or a movie, or a dessert. The hype has let me down.

This fear of being disappointed has given me a natural aversion to all things Harry Potter. The hoopla was just too great. At one point in time, the hype surrounding Harry was so big that I believe it actually eclipsed the sun.

I always knew that someday I'd meet Harry, the little girl, and the red headed kid. One day when the hype wound down and I could enjoy them on my terms. I figured thirty years aught to do it.

For several years I discretely hid my lack of Harry Potter knowledge, but late last year the news that I've never read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the movies got out. It was most shocking to the group of women in which I happened to be dining. I was the recipient of shocked faces complete with mouths agape. It was as if I had burped the entire 20th Century Fox Fanfare during the fanciest of dinners.

To make matters worse, my oldest daughter owns every Harry Potter movie, all eight of them, and I've never watched one with her.

(I know, I know. Insert your astonished phrases and expletives here. I've totally flabbered your gaster and I'm a terrible person.)

(You can't see me, but I'm hanging my head in shame. It's not my cutest look, people.)

But as of yesterday, I no longer must hang my head in shame because I have seen my first Harry Potter movie. And it was wonderful.

For those of you not in the know, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the story of an eleven year old boy who discovers that he is a wizard and attends Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

I loved it, everything about it: the story, the choice of actors, the costumes, the sets and the special effects. (Hello? The invisibility cloak? Amazing!). I loved everything.

And, contrary to some of the movies on last year's list (I'm looking at you Silence of the Lambs), Harry Potter wasn't one bit disturbing.

It's a delightful movie and I highly recommend it.

To recap: Saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and loved it. I get it. I totally get it. I get the Harry Potter hype. Yes I realize that I'm over a decade too late, but who knows? I may even crack open one of the books one day soon, just as soon as I figure out who the caretaker, Filch, reminds me of.

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