Reviews of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Posted : 8 months, 1 week ago on 16 April 2009 01:15 (A review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

As someone who had no real interest in this series or it's subject matter, it wasn't until this istallment that I finally watched a Harry Potter movie. And being that I never read any of the books, I was quite taken aback at the over-all consistancy of balance between the fantasy element of the wizarding world & that of the perosnal struggles of what goes thru a young person's mind trying to deal with things like death, authority & finding one's place in the life. Compelling drama, a storyline that both successfully continues the series & yet also manages to stand on it's own, well-placed chemistry between the characters, medevil sets that visually stun, Dementors that horrify, old tree willows that whomp & even a werewolf that looks pretty damn bad-ass.
I walked into this film an indifferentiated non-fan & ended up coming out of it a hardcore Pot-head.



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Where the story gets lost

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 3 September 2008 03:34 (A review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

This is actually my favorite of the movie series so far. Though that is likely because it is also my favorite of the books. But even saying that, I have to admit--this is where the series began to fail.

Sorcerer's Stone is Harry discovering the world of magic. He's still a boy, and most of the world is Hogwarts. He knows no better.
Chamber of Secrets is Harry learning a bit about the magical world at large. That not everything is good and descent there any more than in the Muggle world.
Prisoner of Azkaban is where he truly begins to learn about his own past. And because of that, there are vital pieces to what is to come in the rest of the series. This movie fails, in several fundimental way, to show some of those pieces. And without those pieces, later pieces get lost, and fall to the wayside. A dangerous thing when you're telling a story as complex as Harry's.

Quick, anyone who has not read the books, but has seen the movie. Cold you tell me where the Map came from? Or why Harry's patronus is a Stag? Or how about what the prank on Snape was?

I loved the difference in tone in this one, but overall, it is slowly but surely leading to the downfall of the series. And that makes me very unhappy.

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Third one's a charm

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 17 August 2007 10:27 (A review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

This is the first of the Harry Potter movies that takes a decisively different turn from the rest. The reason being can either be puberty, the fact the plot is getting darker than in previous incarnations, or simply because of a new director.

Myself I never actually hated any of the Harry Potter movies because I accepted the fact long ago that it'd be impossible to cram everything that happened in the book in two hours or so. But I really like the tone in this one better than in the previous two. This may just be my bias that the third book was my favorite book and I'd have died if I didn't convince myself the movie is decent but I really liked it either way.

My only sadness is that the actors have lost their childish cuteness and are in the awkward stage in their development.

The interesting thing about this one is also that it didn't feel like it was trying to cram everything, as opposed to the other ones. Hell it ends with Harry riding away on his Firebolt, which is a rather weird way to end a Harry Potter movie since if I recall correctly in the book he gets a Firebolt earlier on but it's obvious that some liberties had to be made with the script and that's just fine with me. The movies really aren't meant to stand alone, rather an accompaniment to the novels in my opinion.

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