Cinema Lounge Reviews

Warner Bros have recently released a special edition of arguably the most famous wizarding story of all time but this time with a few extra features included. Throughout this edition of the movie, we’ll be greeted with commentary from the director himself giving us behind the scenes information, wizarding facts through each scene, deleted scenes plus loads more to look forward to.

If you haven’t read our last post about this, then Warner Bros are releasing a special edition of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone this year to celebrate 20 years since it first appeared on our screens. The film came out not so long ago on DVD, Blu-ray and digital to let us relive that first movie all over again. As mentioned before, the film contains extra features at every scene with pop ups of wizarding information about certain spells and items, deleted scenes which originally didn’t make the final cut, commentary from the director Chris Columbus giving us his own filmmaking stories and secrets about the film. I gave it a watch a couple of days ago and I’d thought I would share what I thought of it.

This isn’t really going to be a movie review as such as I don’t have anything negative to say about the movie. How can I? It’s Harry Potter! I just want to let you know what its actually like incase you were wondering. I thought this was a fantastic idea from both Wizarding World and Warner Bros as it not only gives the fans something new to watch but also give him behind the scenes knowledge of how they brought Harry Potter’s wizarding world to life. As I understand this is only one of many surprises this year to celebrate 20 years since the first movies release so this is only just the icing on the cake. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind at all if they released magical movie modes for the next seven movies in the series. I felt like a little kid once again watching this as it always brings back memories of watching it for the first time even with the extras included. So believe me, this film will still give you that feeling of awe as if you’re watching the story of Harry Potter for the very first time again. There’s no doubt about that.

One thing I will say is that if you for some reason haven’t already seen the original Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone then I wouldn’t recommend watching the magical movie mode one first as it will constantly be interrupted with the directors commentary and other little pop ups here and there. However what is pretty handy is that if you purchase the DVD or Blu-ray then you also get the standard film on one disc as well as the magical movie mode one on a second disc included. This way it gives the fans who have already seen it something fresh to watch with the additional movie mode features.

Something which I did enjoy playing along to with my family whilst I watched the film was the quiz it gives you to participate in throughout the film. At the start of the magical movie mode film, it introduces you to a quiz which you can join in throughout as they will be questions to answer during some scenes as well as finding the hidden golden snitch, which will earn you more points. This made the film even more interactive for the fans watching and I wished there were more interactive features like this which viewers can join in on but I can’t complain really, we were already given so much to enjoy with this one. To be honest, this version of the film can sometimes feel like a completely different movie even to older fans as this time the film has been extended with deleted scenes which didn’t originally make the cut into the full release 20 years ago which flow quite nicely into the scenes we already know.

Finally, if you haven’t already I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this version of Harry Potter epically if you’ve been a long term fan like me as you might be pleasantly surprised with what you might find.