New Director, Same Old Fun

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2004)

The third Harry Potter film has finally arrived in cinemas after a rather long two-year wait. Alfonso Cuaron takes over at the director's chair while erstwhile director Chris Columbus becomes a producer. It is Harry's third year at Hogwarts and this time he must face a new foe in the person of Sirius Black an escaped murderer from Azkaban prison who is out to get Harry.
There is always a risk for a successful movie franchise to take on a new director especially if the previous one did a good job. Well I got to say that Cuaron has justified his hiring as he has done a great job in crafting this film. He was really able to capture the dark moments of the film and I as a viewer was able to feel feelings of fear and uneasiness. I also felt that some of his rather unique camera angles were really good. Really breathtaking stuff that added to the overall feel of the movie.

I thought that the effects were great. The dementors looked really menacing and scary. The Hippogriffs also looked good. Even if the effects were not in a grand scale like ROTK, they still did great job in crafting these creatures and make him look real.
In terms of its story I felt that it was much richer and deeper than the previous films. Definitely a much darker and deeper story, which really helped the film in the long run.
I wasn't so convinced with the performance of Michael Gambon as Dumbeldore. I guess it may be because Richard Harris did such a great job in previous films that anyone who takes over pales in comparison. Harris' had a unique atmosphere which Gambon didn't have.
Even though the story places the characters a year after the previous film some of the looks much older than that especially Daniel Radcliffe. I guess you really can't blame the cast, as they cannot film every year just to make the grade. I would be really interested to see how the cast look for the fourth film.
Overall Cuaron did a great job in creating a great film. I must say that this is the best Harry Potter movie so far. It is really a shame that this will be the only HP film he will be able to direct. Based on what I have heard of the fourth book I must say that the next film promises to be even better than this film.