Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Movie Review

Dagobart's Revenge

Movie Reviews

I first heard about the Harry Potter phenomenon through a friend that happens to also be a school teacher. A year or so ago she told me about these books that all the kids were reading and that I, an occult-minded soul, might actually like picking one up for a light, yet enjoyable read. I never did though. In the end, what made me finally want to see this movie was the vociferous opinions of the many fundamentalist Christians who felt that the books and the resulting first movie from the seven part series were actually driving young souls into the warm, prickly, pock-marked arms of the Devil himself. If something is so terrible that a fundy x-tian has to burn it or picket it, then I am there, and thank the Lord for heavy handed Christian propaganda for eventually getting my carcass into the theater seat.
Harry Potter is the tale of a young orphan boy whose parents were mysteriously killed. In his infancy, he goes to live with his only living relatives, who happen to be muggles (ordinary every day folk who discount magical thinking). In fact, Harry lives in such a mundane and dreary world until one day he is invited to attend the same school that his parents once attended, Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Incidentally, this school exists hidden away from the profane visions of the Muggle world, and is where eventually the movie begins to take form. It is here that Harry is indoctrinated into the world of potion making, broom riding, wand waving and all of the things that this sometimes entails. Along the way we learn more about what killed his parents, have a few adventures and meet a three-headed dog that is not named Cerberus, but is instead called Fluffy.

Admittedly this is light fare for the heavy handed occultist viewer, mainly aimed at the imaginations of pre-teens and above, but let's not forget the impact that this movie and others like it could have and have had in the past. The occult revival of the 1960's was somewhat due in part to Disney movies like Bell, Book and Candle, television shows like Bewitched and occult laden spoofs like Bedazzled. It wasn't soon afterwards that Wicca became an almost household name and tomes like the Satanic Bible and the Necronomicon began to fill everyday book store shelves. Perhaps Harry Potter will help stir the cauldron of another such revival, making serious occult topics once again more publicly acceptable. The secret society that Harry Potter joins and flourishes in may just be the first one that little Johnny might hear of, and perhaps it will make him more receptive to the second and third ones that he hears about. As well, any movie that mentions the name of a renown alchemist like Nicholas Flammel within it is hip in my book.

If you have got the extra money to go see this, then do. You'll have one more way of relating to the new upstarts that will soon be joining our occult related world and while you are there you just might like what the movie has to offer; incredible special effects, decent acting, and the occasional heart warming moment or two that is more centered on the love that is in children's hearts than what the pushers of original sin are preaching about this week from their bully pulpits.

NOTE: Emphasis by Cutting Edge Ministries