A film by Alfonso Cuaron
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the story of Harry s (Daniel Radcliffe) third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. No longer quite the timid young boy that he was when he first started at Hogwarts, Harry has grown up a bit and has more confidence. He also has a tinge of anger inside of him that gets fanned during this movie (and which we see grow throughout the series). Harry has no sooner left the Dursleys when he learns about a murderer named Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). Black has escaped from the Azkaban wizard s prison. Azkaban is where the wizarding world sends the worst of the worst, including those former followers of Voldemort. Black, who is said to be especially dangerous to young Harry, is counted as being one of the nastier inmates at Azkaban and is remarkably dangerous if only for the fact that he is the only person ever to escape Azkaban and the Dementor guards.
At school, Harry is back together with his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). The three friends go through their daily school routine, which is filled with fantastic creatures, new professors, and adventures. The talk of the school, however, is the escaped convict Sirius Black and the Dementor guards that are being hosted at Hogwarts. Dementors are particularly unpleasant creatures with a deservedly nasty reputation for single-minded ruthlessness. The strength of a Dementor is the ability to literally suck the soul out of a person, leaving him a mindless shell. A Dementor is a fearsome creature which exudes fear (it feeds on fear) and can cause a chill just by passing by. The question is not whether or not Harry will get involved in the hunt for Sirius or have to deal with the Dementors, but when and how.
Now in the hands of a new director, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a much darker story than the first two films. This is fitting, because the third book is also a darker story. What is remarkable here, though, is that Cuaron is able to rediscover the sense of wonder and humor that is present in the books but was lacking in the first two films that Chris Columbus directed. The first two films were very faithful adaptations, but lacked something of the heart of the novels. Cuaron succeeded in making Azkaban closer to the spirit of the novels, even while cutting more content than the first two films did. Azkaban is more tightly focused on its main storyline and does not spend nearly as much time dealing with the extras which were interesting in the book but would cause the film to lose focus. As much as I enjoyed the first two films, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was by far the best of the three films and here s hoping that Cuaron will come back to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .
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Some random thoughts:
My sons agreed that the dementors were not as scary as they thought they would be, and that the werewolf provided the scariest moments.
Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe are much more comfortable in front of a camera and are much better actors than we saw in the first two films. Perhaps it was Cuaron's direction?
Malfoy's character was portrayed as much more of a coward than the character was really intended to be, I think.
Although the film had a clearly darker tone, the humorous parts are well timed, and are not forced.
I can't wait to see Goblet of Fire.
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