Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004
Like the book series they follow, the movies are getting better and better. While there is still something mechanical to this one as it rushes to hit all the key plot points of the book, they also have streamlined a great deal and kept the movie to about two hours even though the third book was much longer than the first two.
Quidditch has been put on the back burner, with really only one scene. The competition between dormitories based on points is also left behind. And Hermione gets some of the respect she deserves.
A lot has been said about the darker “look” of the film but I didn’t notice much of a difference. The biggest difference was the age of the three kids who are looking less and less like kids and more like young adults. There are some low-key hints at romance between Hermione and Ron or Harry. And they wear normal clothes most of the movie so they seem a little more like the cast of Scooby Doo at this point than just kids. It looks like they will stick with this cast even though at one point they said this would be this ensemble’s last movie. At this point they are all getting personalities rather than just being the game pieces that they were in previous movies and moving from square to square as the plot demands.
The effects are sometimes very good. The hippogriff in particular is a well-realized character, maybe one of the best CGI characters I’ve seen. The supporting cast is also very substantial: Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and Gary Oldman. There are already at least a few Oscars in that crowd even if they don’t have to try that hard. Rickman’s Snape is perfect.
I don’t want to give away the plot (like Roger Ebert does) so I can’t say too much but I loved the way some unexplained things that happen in the middle of the movie are explained perfectly in the end.
I’ll give it an A- for offering a good story, solid characters, and an appropriate amount of chills as well as fun.
Owned on: Digital