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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 104 Reviews)

Best HP Movie So Far
This movie is definitely darker than the first two. It didn't do as well at the box office, but I think there are two reasons for that: (a) The people who liked the first two movies probably went away a bit disappointed. (b) The people who might have liked this movie probably didn't go to see it, thinking it would be more of the same, which it isn't.

What I liked the most about this movie was that the big three (Harry, Hermione, and Ron) are given a chance to act--and they can act! In the first two movies Ron especially was forced to do little more than scrunch up his face to look stunned, baffled, awed, scared, etc. What a waste. The quality of the acting from all three of the kids was very impressive--especially when you consider they were chosen initially because they "looked" like the characters in the books, and they could easily have all turned out to be duds, with absolutely no acting ability. The fact that all three can act is nothing short of a miracle.

In several cases, I thought the screenplay was actually an improvement on the book. This is heresy, I know. But listen, in the movie, it's Hermione who realizes that they're to save Buckbeak--which makes much more sense and gives Hermione her due, while in the book it's Harry who makes the connection, something that is slightly out of character for him. I also like the way that Hermione blows open Sirius's jail cell door near the end (girl power all the way, woohoo). And the way that Harry overhears the conversation in the pub is much more believable in the film, as it makes use of the invisibility cloak, rather than on the fairly lame "move a tree in front of the table" ploy in the book.

The special effects are awesome, a big improvement especially over the first movie. The scene where Harry rides Buckbeak is worth the price of admission all by itself. The clocktower, bogart scenes, dementors, broomstick scenes, etc., are all done quite convincingly.

The scenery is spectacular and is used to good effect, with the talks between Harry and Prof. Lupin, especially, being done in places where there is very nice eye candy to look at in the background.

There are also a lot of nice smaller touches, like the scene with the student choir singing "Something wicked this way comes." It's cute, but also adds a real touch of atmosphere. The womping willow is used as a nice comic relief element, as are the shrunken heads. (I could have done without the shrunken heads in the extra features part, where I felt it detracted from the otherwise very interesting interviews with the cast and crew.)

When I first watched the movie, I wasn't as impressed with it as I am now, after I've watched it half a dozen times at least. For me, this movie has enough going on visually to give it quite a bit of replay value--and the eye candy is almost always left in the background so that it doesn't detract from the solid screenplay and the advancement of the storyline.

I couldn't quite give this one five stars, but it's probably worth 4.5 when it comes right down to it. Very solid, and certainly the best HP movie so far.


Excellent film, Fun extras, Horrid interviewer
Given the effort and hype that comes with "special edition" DVDs, I just have to make a comment about the Interviews with Johnny Vaughan on the second DVD. But first, for those interested in the movie, it is great - 5 stars.
I give the DVD 2 stars because of the Johnny Vaughan. I have rarely ever seen such awful interviews. Just one example: unbelievably, one of the main questions for almost every actor is "how many girls" (he even uses the offensive term "birds"...) have you been able to seduce thanks to your fame from the HP films. Even when the boy who plays the Dursley kid states early on that no one recognizes him in the street, Vaughan still asks (maybe even twice if I'm not mistaken) the same stupid, sexist question. (The pathetic attempts at humour using the Shrunken Head are also incredibly annoying.) What a lost opportunity.
This is of course no reason not to by the DVD, but Warner Brothers should be embarrassed.

Better than the first two
I have absolutely nothing against Chris Columbus' versions of the Harry Potter series. I just much preferred Alfonso Cuaron's interpretations. I like the fact that it's much darker than the first two. The humour is sublte and the transitions from one scene to the other are great. The new whomping willow has attitude and spunk. Who'd have thought that a tree would have such traits? There is one issue with which I was quite disappointed, and that was when Harry conjures up his Patronus when the Dementors were after him and Sirius. It's just that what I saw wasn't how I'd imagined it. What I had imagined was that his partonus would chase the dementors away and not just stand there and glow...Otherwise, the movie is great to watch, though I can understand why younger childern may get scared at some points...but kudos to Alfonso Cuaron because I think the movie looks and is great.

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