The best one yet!

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2005)

It's a peculiar thing. The "Prisoner of Azkaban" was written by the same author ... adapted by the same screenwriter ... played by the same cast ... so why the hell is it so much better than the previous two? The answer, of course, lies in the change of director. Mr Columbus, I don't want to hurt your feelings but ... you suck. The arrival of foreign director Alfonso Cuarón has saved the franchise for me, just when I was about ready to give up on the whole series of films. The problem was that I could see the potential of the books, which had thus far not been realised on film. They just had no magic about them at all. But this latest offering from Hogwarts has plenty of that magic to spare.
The colour palette for the movie is suddenly all dark shades of blue and green, a stark contrast to the browney-orangey memories I have of the first two -- and it suits the mood of the film so much better. And remember all those tedious sequences that you hated in the other two movies (i.e. the Dursley household, Dumbledore's office)? Well, in this one either they're cut short or they're done in an interesting way.
Also, the dialogue is considerably less clunky, even though it's written by the same people and spoken by the same actors. Either Cuarón fiddled with the script a little, or he taught the kids how to act. It certainly appears so, as the three child stars who failed to be convincing in the previous movies have suddenly learned their craft a whole lot better. The new arrivals, notably Gary Oldman and David Thewlis, are somewhat unusually cast in their roles, but both come off extremely well.
One criticism of the film is that it may be a little confusing to those who haven't read the books. Whereas the previous two movies had those tedious dialogue sequences which explained everything that happened, this one sacrifices those to save the pace of the film. I only wish that Cuarón had signed on to direct the next installment, and then I could honestly say "The Goblet of Fire" is one of my most anticipated movies of the coming years.