'The Empire Strikes Back' of the Harry Potter world

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2005)

I went to the cinema, a bit wary about seeing this movie.
Being a huge fan of the first and second movies, and being so utterly disappointed with the third (yeah it was dark, but so disjointed!), forcing me to go and actually read all the books (you should never have to read a book to understand the movie!).
Anyway, I needn't have worried, the movie was awesome, yeah, on the plus side we could go on about the stunning special effects, the fast paced, but easy to follow story (very little of the movie left any questions to be answered). On the minus side, we could go on about what was left out of the book. From my point of view, a lot needed to be left out. Although the core story in the book was excellent, it was fleshed out with tons of 'crap' (sorry JKR).
But, in actual fact, what you need to know is that it is dark, occasionally scary, very exciting, fast paced and often funny, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.
The best part of the movie is actually the interaction with all the supporting characters, with each other, and with Harry. The Weasley twins are easily the most entertaining, Harrys strained relationship with Ron, Hermiones strained relationship with Ron, and so much more... This was probably my main problem with Azkaban, it really did ignore the rest of the cast.
There are many scene stealing moments from Mad-Eye Moody, especially when he has a go at Draco.
I think the oddest part of the whole movie is how 'open' Dumbledore has suddenly seemed to become with Harry. I might have to look at the books again, but certainly, in the previous movies, he seemed more mysterious.
There are so many moments in this movie that similar to 'The Empire Strikes Back'. This is no bad thing, and I am not going into it, if you know the movie, you will see what I am on about. Suffice to say, by the end of both movies, you are shocked at how the good-guys have ended up, and leaves you yearning to see what happens next.
This movie is an all-round winner, though, if you take some younger children to see it, prepare to leave early, there are some moments that they might find truly terrifying!