It is scarcely credible to think that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is 20 years old this year. It is just as incredible to realise that in all that time I have only read it the once. Until now.

I figured that it was time for a long overdue re-read, and I was right. Reading the first adventure ten years after the last, and with all the films having gone between it was surprising how much of the detail of the book I had forgotten. It was near to halfway through the book before Harry had even arrived at Hogwarts, met Hermione, and been ‘sorted’ (still longer before he and Hermione became friends) but the pace was perfect througout.

I have always thought that some of the longer, later books could have done with more of an edit, and a tightening up of the story, because I think that this, the original, had that, and it shows.

The only question that remains for me now, is when to re-read book two? Sooner rather than later or pretend that it was as it was at the beginning and treat myself to one a year as Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow up and go through the Hogwarts years. After all, that, I think, is how they should be read by everyone rather than binging on them in almost one sitting.

Two years on, and tonight I went to see the film with Emma, now my wife, in Oxford with Lucy and David and some other people I hadn’t met before.

It was good. In fact actually I think this film was better than the last – less of the whizz-bang reliance on the set piece special effects scenes, and more gentle, building, characterization with some wonderful cinematography.

Where this film fails, is that as a film I am not convinced that it works without prior knowledge of the books. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this (the last film also suffered from the same problem in a way that the first four did not) but this The Half Blood Prince more than anyone just adds colour to what you already have read in the books. Also this film doesn’t really go anywhere (other than the next film). The story just builds and builds, all very nice, but then suddenly it climaxes and is ending; none of the three act setup here.

Still good fun though!

Just 30 pages to go of Gregory McGuire’s Wicked and then I can relax and think about packing for the weekend. Not that I will need a lot if I’m going to be reading most of the time…

My only regret is that this dvd presentation is made exactly how the cinema release was. When you’ve seen the deleted scenes on the second disk, you kind of wish that they had cut them back into the film, and made an ‘Extended Edition’.

I think I shall make a Thomas’ Special Hot Chocolate potion^† and settle back and watch another fantastic presentation – Planet Earth…

Of the books, book four, The Goblet of Fire, is my least favourite of the books. The film of it, goes some way to improve upon it, but I am not sure how well it stands as a film in it’s own right, outside of the Harry Potter universe. Being the fourth film in the series you can excuse the film makers for not making it accessible to anyone new to the films, but I think that it possibly relies on the prior knowledge of the books too much. Events happen, and stories unfold, but they are not placed into a defined story arc. Also, in the last film I loved the older, rundown Hogwarts that they have retained in this book, but the oldy-worldy look stands at odds with characters wearing clothing made of modern fabrics. I’m not saying that this doesn’t work, but it does bring up some intriguing conflicts in the mís en scene.

The effects are of course stunning, and the aging of the young leads, is not a problem for me – the whole point of this series after all is that they do age. And there are some brilliant touches to this film, the Yule Ball for instance, just how did they film that with all those shiny-reflective surfaces. And the Wyrd Sisters was inspired. Jarvis Cocker, singing This is the Night, Magic Works, and Do The Hippogriff was fantastic in a post-The Darkness environment.

Yes, we lose the Dursley’s in their entirety, and ‘school’ is kept to the barest of minimums (but then this isn’t Grange Hill), but I feel that this adapation actually makes a better story out of The Goblet of Fire and the book. In some ways, it’s the story that the book could have been if it had been edited more. I will also be intrigued as to what we are presented with on the dvd. Part of me wants the ‘extended edition’ with all those extra ‘little’ bits that they had to trim off the scenes to bring it down to time. The detail they’ve gone to is exquisite.

In short, I enjoyed it!