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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Full Screen Edition) Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 101 Reviews)

Harry Potter matures
In the third installment of the Harry Potter saga, a dangerous murderer has escaped from Azkaban Prison, and Hogwarts has been put on full alert. Harry discovers startling revelations about the man's connection to himself and his parents, and sets out to learn the truth.

This installment seems to be viewed as the weakest of the series, and I can't understand why. A large part of it may be that the film omitted several plot points from the novel, stuff fans were hoping to see. At this point, I'm trusting Rowling (who has creative control) knows what will and will not matter in the long run, and that the cuts are unfortunate but justifiable. A good adaptation is not one that is three hours long and squeezes in every detail, but one that stays true to the spirit of the source material. I think Alfonso Cuaron did a great job with that.

I also like that he gave the film a distinct visual edge, something the first two films lacked. This was the first film where the trio of child actors looked noticibly older, and the film's darker look fit that. The only part of the film I didn't like was all the talking at the end, where characters start spewing story points and motivations when everything is revealed. It works in novel form, but so much condensed talking doesn't work for the movie screen. Maybe there was a better way to convey that.

WB switched packaging styles with this release. Maybe they should've kept everything the same, but whatever. Film presentation is solid, and the extras are again a mix of interviews and production footage with mini-games. I'm starting to really wish these films had commentary tracks. In all though, another fine installment in the Harry Potter franchise.

FAR FROM HOGWARTS... NEAR TO HOLLYWOOD..
When I watched the movie I had to turn it off half way because I didn't want to ruin my mental image of the book. Only Harry Potter freaks understand that. I thought their interpretation of the book was TOO far from Hogwarts and TOO near to Hollywood.

was i watching a different movie than you-all?
First, I must say that I have read all the books so far (at the urging of my college English professor - thanks, Mary), I've seen all the movies, and I long ago accepted the fact that you cannot expect a movie taken from a 700-page (approximation; don't really know how many pages there are) book to bear very much resemblance to the original. Get over it.

Now that that's out of the way, this was my favourite of the Harry Potter movies. My favourite moment, by far, was Hermione giving Malfoy a well-deserved slug on the gob, but I've been waiting for it to happen; it doesn't do a lot for plot advancement, but it was satisfying.

Harry has had it with his insufferable Muggle relatives and, after an unfortunate moment with his piggish aunt (in which he blimpifies her for remarks about his parents; I quite enjoyed that as well), takes off on his own with all his worldly goods. It doesn't take him long to consider that his timing might have been a bit off, as he sits in a creepy deserted park at midnight and wonders if that's really a vicious black dog across the road. Miraculously, just as he's about to find out, along comes the Night Bus ("for...the stranded witch or wizard"), a device I honestly don't remember being in the book but might have been; here, it works well as a way of getting Harry out of Muggle-Land and back in the magical realm.

Delivered to the Leaky Cauldron, he hooks up with his friends Hermione and Ron and is put on the Hogwarts Express. It is there where we are first introduced to the Dementors, evil wraithlike beings assigned to find and retrieve Sirius Black, a convicted killer who has escaped from Azkaban Prison and is on the hunt for Harry, who also happens to be his godson. Perhaps because of his connection to Sirius, the Dementors home in on Harry, who is rescued by another new - but subsequently recurring - character, Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher.

They arrive at Hogwarts under the cloud of the Dementors' presence - the creatures are supposedly there for protection - and the year begins, with the requisite bad choices of magical beasties on Hagrid's part (as professor of Magical Beasts, he unerringly chooses some critter that is an overall menace to the greater part of the student body)and the consequent accident which seems to be a plot device. I enjoyed the hippogriff, and it proved important to the story; but it did take a while to get back to the hunt for Sirius Black. This line of the plot was aided by Ron's older twin brothers - underused, in my opinion; I enjoy every minute they are on screen - who, being the scamps they are, possess a marvelous map - nicked from the school custodian - that shows where everyone in the school confines might be found. They give the map to Harry, and from there the pace escalates toward the eventual confrontation with Sirius Black and other bad elements.

I do have one pathetically minor quibble - the Whomping Willow must be able to move from place to place, as it seems to be a mile from where we last saw it in Movie #2. And this movie - aside from a mention here and there - is totally devoid of any manifestations of Lord Voldemort, which perhaps is not a bad thing.

Overall I found this movie to be more watchable than the other two previous - it's both darker and lighter than the second one; there is more humour used here, but on the other hand, the whole Dementors thing is too intense for little kids, as is the werewolf segment - and, yes, the book is better. The book is ALWAYS going to be better. Your own imagination is a great and powerful tool. But as cinema, this is not bad at all.

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