Feels more like "Three Go to Hogwarts" - no magic.

Rating: 1/10 (15 August 2004)

This film has no sparkle to it.
The book which contains Oliver Wood's finest hour has hardly a mention of Quiddich when transferred to screen.
The horrifying scene when Ron is attacked in his bed by a maddened Sirius seeking Scabbers/Pettigrew has been dispatched without a backward glance. The knife-slashed curtains have been abandoned as unimportant. Pettigrew never appeared on the Marauder's Map.
Hagrid's hut across the lawns at the edge of the Dark Forest somehow manages to cling precariously to the side of a cliff. This will cause MAJOR problems when filming books four and five where important events happen at speed between the castle doors and Hagrid's hut.
It must really have taken some doing to make Julie Christie look like a secretary - they couldn't have made Madame Rosemerta look less like a pub landlady if they'd tried. What happened to the 'sparkly high-heels'?!
And - for heaven's sake - couldn't some middle ground have been found so that the children could have had a butterbeer in the pub instead of lurking in the doorway?! How are they going to set up the DA (Dumbledore's Army) in 'The Order of the Phoenix' in the 'Hog's Head'? That can't be tampered with - it's a vital part of the plot.
And a word about casting - and for this I'm on a planet of my own! Gary Oldman is a wonderful, accomplished actor who puts his heart and soul into everything he does. But Sirius he isn't. Sirius was the last of a long line of aristocrats. He was outrageously goodlooking with easy, graceful manners and abundant self-confidence. Azkaban made him a nervous wreck but it didn't turn the Scarlet Pimpernel into Gary Oldman. It also worries me a bit how they're going to change the nerd in the Mirror of Erised into the Snitch-twirling, show-off James Potter who 'roolz the skool'!
I agree that there was a need for a different approach from that Chris Columbus employed - Harry does need to grow up. But he needs to grow up 'magically'. There doesn't seem to be a lot of difference in approach between Uncle Vernon and some of the wizards in PoA the Movie.
Lastly, special effects. Why ARE they so patchy in the HP movies? Buckbeak was stupendous - absolutely fantastic. Lupin's werewolf was abominable - it looked like something out of a cheap cartoon. The Dementors are, I think, a matter of opinion. They depend largely on what you saw in your head when you read the book. Personally, I would have found them far more threatening if they had been more like the 'Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come' in the old black and white version of 'Scrooge' (Alister Simm). Check it out if you're under 105 - it's gruesome!