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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
6/4/04 - PG - 142m
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter
Emma Watson - Hermione Granger
Rupert Grint - Ron Weasley
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Screenplay by: Steven Kloves
Studio: Warner Bros.
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JEF
As much as I liked the books, and the first movie, I can’t give this film a green light. There were parts that were good, and parts that were bad, it is those bad parts that are keeping this from getting a green light.
Storyline: Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is starting his third year at Hogwarts. He and his friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are growing up. This movie brings about a darker Potter film, with some scarier elements such as the dementors. Harry learns of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) who has escaped the dreaded Azkaban prison and could possibly be after Harry next. The movie involves Harry and his friends trying to figure the mystery of whom this escaped prisoner is, and why would he want to harm him.
This is a hard film to review for me. I enjoyed all of the books very much. It’s been about 3 years or more since I’ve read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, so many of the plot elements and details are fuzzy or have been forgotten. As I was watching the film, I kept asking myself if that was how the book was… I suspect many of the plot elements have been edited for the film, and especially the order of the storylines. This is always the case though when bringing a book to film.
Perhaps the biggest complaint I have about the film is that it felt very forced and rushed. This film was under a new director Alfonso Cuarón, and it showed. I think Alfonso has potential, and I’m not ready to bash him yet. But like I said the film was very fast and rushed. At times the storyline was hard to keep up with. I was picturing how would a kid react to this film if they’ve not read the book? I think they would become easily lost.
The characters (and actors) are growing up, and the film was lacking a certain cuteness. That’s fine, but I sortta missed the kid elements, that made the books fun to read.
Perhaps the greatest strength of these books, are the characters themselves. They are complicated, and in depth, and this movie totally skipped over that. Prof. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) was hardly in this film (which by the way was good casting to find a replacement for Richard Harris). The character of Malfoy was very distorted… He is the school bully and a real jerk, but yet in the film, he was portrayed as real wimp. I don’t think anyone would be able to hold onto his “bully” status if he whimpered like Malfoy did in this film. That was disappointing. Perhaps this is also one of the films faults in that it didn’t really give you anyone to dislike. Even the “bad guy” (Sirius) was in the film too little in order generate a sense of dread.
On the plus side, I enjoyed the storyline overall. I got lost a few times in the film. I mean that in a good way. I was drawn in, and that was nice. I especially liked Daniel Radcliffe’s acting.
I thought the effects for the Hippogriff were very well done. The shots of this animal in the forest with the lighting were very nice. Even the flying sequences were very well done, and looked very natural. I also liked the lighting effects for some the spells. All the other effects were so-so, nothing really spectacular.
I could certainly understand it if a person saw this film and disliked it. But me personally, I enjoyed it overall despite the flaws. Perhaps this is easier since I consider myself a fan of Harry Potter.
Jef
PS> In the beginning of the film, I noticed one of the characters reading a book called “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. I found this kinda odd to be put in a kid’s movie, but while discussing the movie afterwards with Lyn it hit me. In this book there are some good explanations of time travel, and the physics behind it. A nice little detail added into the film, that only a geek like me would pick up on.
Here’s what Lyn thought
