Best Director for Best Installment

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2004)

Of the first five Harry Potter novels, The Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite. It was as if J.K. Rowling had spent the first two stories on a steep professional learning curve, gradually improving her prose while she was finding her feet stylistically. Only in the third book was she so able to focus on the story, weaving an ingenious plot which builds to an immensely satisfying conclusion. I was pleased to learn that a new director had been found to tackle the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the results are, in the main, wonderful. The music and visuals are great, with Hogwarts looking better than in the first two films. There is often so much background detail in each shot, that you will have little chance of taking it all in until the film reaches DVD. The Dementors are scary (though the full horror of their soul-leeching kiss is not really dwelt upon) and the animagus / werewolf effects are effective too. Each of the three lead players has enough to do to develop their character a little more. The assurance of Emma Watson's level-headed Hermione is such that having her, and only her, squealing in every scary scene is a bit difficult to understand. The time traveling plot mechanism is well handled, and unlikely to confuse even younger viewers. This makes it odd that the film makes no effort to state clearly who the characters Wormtail, Moony, Padfoot, and (most importantly) Prongs are discovered to be. The obvious clues are all there, and readers already knew, but at what moment did Harry, Ron and Hermione share this realisation? Overall, this film is well worth going to see. Enjoy!