Feel thoroughly pleased.

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2004)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
I saw the movie last night at a 10pm showing. I had read reviews and was expecting anything from a gamut of so terrible I would storm out and so wonderful I'd melt. I think I feel more of the latter. OK, so I could drone on that the movie didn't follow the exact guidelines of the books, but I think that Cuarón captured the heart of the book perfectly.
As a fan of the books it is amazing to see your thoughts become real, I was especially pleased to not only see Hermione thump Malfoy, but also that his head hit the stone behind him!
The most touching part on the movie were the scenes with Harry and Sirius, both Daniel Radcliffe and Gary Oldman play their parts spectacularly. I had tears in my eyes when Harry said that he would like to live with Sirius in the country so he could see the sky. It was made even more touching by knowing what happens in OotP.
While the scenes at the Dursleys were short they were what they have been in the past two films, the performances are pleasant, though not a very integral part of the film. Bravo to Pam Ferris for getting just right the horridness of Aunt Marge.
It is quite amazing to see how the Hogwarts students have grown since Chamber of Secrets, I was particularly stuck by Radcliffe's aging in the quidditch scene (and is it me, or does he resemble slightly Elijah Wood?!) It is good to see the actors grow with their characters, I honestly can't imagine them being replaced as no one else would "fit".
Michael Gambon gives a good performance as Dumbledore given the few scenes he is actually in.
Alan Rickman has managed to make Snape even eviler, despite spending a minute dressed in drag! He captured the spitefulness of Snape in this movie, which grows - if possible - even more.
David Thewlis did an extraordinary job of playing Lupin, I could easily believe the part was written just for him. One thing I noticed was when he was packing up to leave the way he talked about "people like him" reminded me of the bigotry surrounding gay people, it seemed to me that was what they were aiming for so the the moral of the part of the story line was don't judge people on what they are but on *who* they are.
For some light comic relief Lenny Henry - as the shrunken head in the Knight Bus - and Dawn French - as the new Fat Lady - were hilarious. And Emma Thompson as Trelawney had me laughing non-stop. I found also that Rupert Grint did an excellent job at Ron's mostly unintentional humour.
Timothy Spall was OK as Pettigrew, I feel they could have let his scene extend a little, but he worked well with the time he had.
I did enjoy the whole time-travel part, it wasn't confusing but did actually make sense, what with the stone-throwing and Hermiones "I thought I just saw...never mind."
I saw the movie with my brother and mum, my brother like me has read the books and felt the movie justified them, my mum has not read the books, but was able to follow the story line and intricacies of the plot to the letter, I didn't even tell her about the bits the movie left out of the story (which I had done with the first two books) because I really do feel that this movie really did get the book and turn it into the ideal movie.