Efficient screen adaptation---a change in director makes all the difference!

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2004)

Very happy to see this film and eager to see it again, unlike the 2nd in the series!
A change in director makes all the difference! Careful editing and the improved sets also helped greatly. Most notably the Whomping Willow is now outside the castle walls and given vastly improved rendering!
The screenwriter appears to have hit his stride with this the 3rd in the series: seamlessly altering details of time and place for brevity without losing important exchanges between the characters and information for the uninitiated audience. He'll need it even more for The Goblet of Fire; so, I write this in eager anticipation of that product!
Standout Excellent Scene: the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack. Oldman is brilliant as Sirius Black, as is Thewlis as Lupin.
A solid film.
I was a little disappointed about the delay of arrival of Harry's broomstick until the end of the movie, when it was to have arrived at Christmas however; but, that really doesn't figure largely in the advancement of the plot (until the next movie) and so it is totally forgivable along with all other such story alterations.
Similarly I would have liked to see the Divination classroom more in keeping with Rowling's original description of having to be accessed from a trapdoor; but, that's just nitpicking. The actress playing Treylawny is a dead ringer for the part---excellent casting all around!
I will definitely buy this film for my collection, and seek to see it again before it leaves the theaters.