Harry 3 the rough version

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2005)

Anybody who has read the books will be able to tell you just how good the Prisoner of Azkaban was, and how good the movie really should have been. POA is by far my favorite of the five books that have been so far released and to say I was excited to watch this movie doesn't even come close. This was the first of the Potter movies that I went to see on the big screen and although I did enjoy the amount of information and aspects that made the book so good were sadly missing from this adaptation. Add the fact that due to a new director the grounds were completely changed and you find more reasons for me being upset at Alfonso Cuaron. Richard Harris being replaced didn't help either but that couldn't be changed unfortunately. Harris was the best person for the job and although Gambon did an almighty job in the role there really was no way to replace the man who many people will now see as the face of Albus Dumbeldore.
But anyway enough with the critical side of things, I'm not paid to do that. (I'm obviously not paid enough to do my actually job either since I'm doing this whilst in the office! Oops) Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is about to start his third year at Hogwarts but all is not well. His Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris), although not his actual aunt he still had to call her that under strict orders from Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths), is coming to stay and she's brought her dog with her too. All sorts of antics occur and eventually her bad mouthing of Harry's parents (James and Lily) leads to her blowing up, not in an explosive way but a floating away sort of way. Which forces Harry to leave his summer home and take to the road, enter the Knight Bus which takes him to the leaky cauldron in London and all sorts of hectic adventures can start right there. The introduction of several new characters occurs in this latest episode of the boy wizard including Professor Lupin (David Thewlis) and the maniacal Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) and there former friend Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) these three actors I believe did there parts tremendously and although the relinquishing of the directors title of Chris Columbus I did enjoy this movie, here's hoping that Goblet of Fire is better. I guess that depends on Mike Newell however.