We get flying dragons, a breathless opening sequence in which Gandalf (Ian McKellen) plummets down a belching abyss, and Shadowfax, a flawless white horse who will gallop in from nowhere, though only in slow-motion.

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On the whole, we don't write about dragons and flying saucers.

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Yes, the digital effects are phenomenal -- midget dragons, oversize dragons, a flying coach drawn by seven white birds, a fully rigged ship rising from beneath a lake, aerial shots of the Hogwarts campus that truly put the fanciful buildings on the map -- but they're so skillfully interwoven with the main action that you take them for granted as casual magic.

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Newport Gwent Dragons lock Luke Charteris is also a replacement after flying in to replace Davies in the squad after the Cardiff Blue chipped a bone in his neck against the Canucks.

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