Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
written on 2004-06-11, @ 6:18 p.m..
Okay well I've been meaning to write a semi-in-depth review of PoA so here it is. If you want to see what I wrote about it right after viewing it then please go here but beware, there ARE spoilers in it! Don't say I didn't warn you. Okay if you want to read it then you'll have to highlight the text.
Okay first off I want to talk about the new Dumbledore. Michael Gambon was fantastic as Dumbledore. He made Dumbledore his own instead of just trying to emulate what Richard Harris did and I love Gambon's Dumbledore. He's as radon and wise as the canon Dumbledore. Gary Oldman was a fantastic Sirius and David Thewlis was a fantastic Lupin, though I still don't like that mustache. Emma Thompson was a great Professor Trelawney and I loved how they decorated her classroom. All the ottoman furniture was a nice touch.
I loved the style of this movie much more than the style of the first two. Cuaron is a genius and a great artist. I loved the little touches that he added like showing that scene in the boys dormitory where they're having that little slumber party and eating a bunch of candy. The icy black and blues were a nice touch, the mood was much darker so it deserves that darker mood. I loved the camera angles that he used too. My favorite is when Hedwig is flying and the scene gradually changes from fall to winter. Another really imaginative one was when the whomping willow shook off all the snow and some of it hit the camera.
The kids' acting also is much improved. They’re growing into their roles and I suppose that being a teenager helps when you have to play a teenager. Cuaron has done a magnificent job showcasing the emotional moments. Like the scene right after Harry finds out the truth about Sirius, you could feel the emotion because Dan was able to express the emotion. What Cuaron contributed to that scene was instead of telling him what facial expressions to use for that scene he talked him through it and in the end trusted him to make the right decision about how to portray that emotion on screen.
One of my favorite scenes was that scene on the bridge where Lupin talks about James and Lily, well mostly Lily really. The way Lupin talked about Lily you could tell that he was really fond of her. Now if you want to hear my argument about why whatever love Lupin and Lily shared was platonic then please go here.
Now some of the things that I didn't especially like was the werewolf. The werewolf resembled a very long-limbed gollum instead of a wolf, which the way I always imagined a werewolf to look. I also wished that some of the back story was explained, like the origin of the maurader's map and how Sirius, Lupin. Pettigrew and James were all connected. The people who haven't read the books must have been confused but it was decided to introduce that entire back story thing in a later movie, though I'm not sure why. I alo wished that it was longer but I appreciate the fact that it didn't lag anywhere and kept moving until the end.
Besides those few minor quibbles I thought that the movie was quite good and loved it a lot. I think this one sets the stage for the next four movies since the next four books get progressively darker.