Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)June 16th, 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Full Price Feature
Hot damn! Now that's what I'm talking about. For the record, the companions who had not read the books (all male) thought the movie was "just fine." The female companions (including myself) who had read the books were transported in ecstasy. Director Alfonso Cuaron totally elevated this franchise from precious homage into delicious art. Please Alfonso come back! (Sorry true believers, the director of Four Weddings and a Funeral has the next one.)
It's darker, but the whimsy and the cozy familiarity are still there. The kids are notably taller and more conscious of their bodies. Dear Michael Gambon does a brilliant job reinventing the wheel as the new Dumbledore. Fred and George took acting lessons and were irresistible. Draco was teetering between blubbering girl-man and Aryan snake -he brought a lot more life to his character. And Oh. My. God. Hoogwarts never felt so real. The location seemed more cohesive, more tangible, more three dimensional, and more mystical than ever before. The giant clock and pendulum, the druidic stone markers, the fairy-like mountains (Scotland to be sure, but everyone knows Hogwarts, like Oz, is there, but not there).
Cuaron wisely retained the services of composer John Williams, with new and old themes, but brought in his heavenly director of photography Michael Seresin (Angela's Ashes). The camera work made me want to shout (yes I am a nerd) and swoon. Beautiful swoops through and across various reflective surfaces, into and out of spaces, through light and glass and ice and water and - oh! Someone fix me a mnt julep.
The dementors, written before Peter Jackson's interpretation of the Ringwraiths, no doubt were a visual challenge to be different than that perfect image. Rest assured, they were very cool. Still, we are sorely lacking the Snape levels that we need but it is always lovely to have him in a scene.
Cuaron and Rowling bring us new and exciting things this installment, and with such style! Emma Thomson is divine (ha ha) as Professor Trelawney. David Thewlis is overly sweet and heartfelt, and may eat up a disproportionate amount of screentime (especially compared to major plot element Sirius Black), but he solves a good dal of story editing problems and gives Harry some focus in an otherwise chaotic world of frustration and fear. The Marauder's Map is perfect, so very perfect, better than I could have hoped. If you love the map a lot, watch the credits; watch for Padfoot.
All the effects are very good, very detailed and precise, but most notable is the very real, very excellent hippogriff Buckbeak. His mannerisms and movement, everything is so very real, he made the centaurs from the first film look like Clash of the Titans.
Purists take note: some changes were made in the interest of narrative efficiency and there is a new fat lady. Overall, this is one for the DVD collection for sure. Awesome.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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