Good as a movie, terrible as a book-movie adaptation

Rating: 5/10 (25 November 2005)

For starters, as a movie, this is easily the best of the Harry Potter movies so far. The acting has obviously improved from the first three and the scenery, breathtaking in it's own right, stayed consistent with prior movies (unlike the scenery from Chamber of Secrets to Prisoner of Azkaban). The special effects made the movie seem otherworldly yet believable and the characters had a depth that was somewhat missing in previous installments.
That being said, as a movie adaptation of a book, this was easily the worst of the Harry Potter movies.
Barty Crouch Jr was unrecognizable as the same character from the book. In the book, we were supposed to pity him, when he was dragged into court kicking and begging, pleading, screaming for mercy. We were supposed to feel angry at his father for exclaiming that Junior was "no son of mine." Not so in the movie. Junior is too obviously evil to give us any feeling of pity.
Besides that, nothing of how he escaped from Azkaban was mentioned. It was the biggest question on everyone's lips in the previous book and movie: How did Sirius Black escape from Azkaban? But here, it's a throwaway question, nothing of importance.
The Quiddich World cup, one of the most fun parts of the book, was introduced then dropped, and S.P.E.W. (the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare) was completely cut, along with the House-elves in general. Ludo Bagman and his piece of the story (which added depth) was dropped, along with the 1,000 Galleon prize that Harry gets for winning the Triwizard Tournament, which will create problems for the next director when he tries to explain how the twins will finance their joke shop.
Voldemort, while looking and sounding much like he came off as in the book, was far too insane, not nearly as calm and collected as he was in the story. It was how calmly Voldemort discussed the punishment of his Death Eaters for not finding him, how calmly he planned to kill Harry, how calmly he acted and spoke, that made him so frightening and unnerving. I found it difficult to imagine him killing so many people; he was just too crazy.
Overall, a good movie, yes. It was fun to watch and interesting to see. But it left a mess for the next director and made a mess of the book, which definitely lowered my opinion of it. If you're going to watch it as a book to movie adaptation, I'd recommend that you watch something else. If you're looking for a good movie and don't mind if it doesn't fit the book, then go ahead and watch it.