the best movie of the HP series so far, 8/10

Rating: Null/10 (25 October 2004)

Before assessing the good point of the movie, I start with the most obvious problem: it's length. If you've read the book, you'll know that it is a complex story with rich details and background and puzzles, so a 141 minutes is too short.
Consequently, the script is slightly less than perfect. Questions are left unanswered, and other details important to any HP fan were either left out or diminished. But considering that Kloves (aided by JKR) was fighting a mighty lost battle, the job he has done is truly amazing, as he nearly managed to compress and rework the story without reducing it to a pitiful broken image of the original one. He did succeed in preserving most of feelings of the novel, while adding a couple of new details (Snape's lesson about werewolves with the slides using 'lanterna magica', exiting and re-entering through the clockwork in the beginning and the end of time-turner sequence are just two excellent examples, Arthur Weasley talking to Harry standing next to Sirius Black's picture). The storyline of the movie is pretty enjoyable on its own right, even if it leaves the reader of the original novel a bit unsatisfied. I really hope that the Right Decision will be made concerning the length of the 4th movie (ie. the longer the better), as having seen this one I have no doubt that Kloves (& JKR) will be more than able to cope with the script of the 4th movie given half the chance.
Actors. There is no question about the adult actors being very proficient, including the new ones (Gary Oldman (as Sirius Black), Emma Thompson (as prof. Trelawney), David Thewlis (as prof. Lupin), Michael Gambon instead of the late Richard Harris (as prof. Dumbledore)). In a sense, it's a bit of an overkill: the script should have allowed more time for Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall to play. Tom Felton (as Draco Malfoy) and Daniel Radcliffe (as Harry Potter) could get better though. Felton did not manage to play the 'real Draco': sneering, rotten, ambitious, but witty, and not so helpless as in the movie - I guess this one might be partly the fault of the directing concept. Radcliffe is not that bad, but he is the main character, therefore his faults stand out the most. The good news is that overall the kids are definitely getting better. I personally think that the lowest point was the 2nd HP movie (Chamber of Secrets), where they did not act 'themselves' as in the first movie (Sorcerer's Stone) but tried to be more conscious in their acting to the effect that it was not natural at all. Now, with the 3rd movie they are much better, and a particularly spectacular improvement was shown by Rupert Grint (as Ron Weasley), and Emma Watson (as Hermione Granger) is just great.
Music. Good as usual with some new spice. John William's original score for the first 2 movies is excellent, so being excellent for the 3rd movie is old news (same characters, similar situations/places/emotions are associated to similar tunes part of the time). However, in this 3rd installment of the series, many times the music becomes integral part of the scene, driving it instead of being merely a background noise filling up gaps or conveying emotions. Traveling on the Knight's Bus; the choir in the beginning of term feast singing "something wicked this way comes"; the lesson with Lupin fighting a boggart are examples of this clever afterthought. I say afterthought, because it's apparent to me that it wasn't planned that way from the very beginning - unfortunately. If the whole movie had been interweaved with the music in all other scenes too, who knows, it might have challenged great movies with the same idea (a classical example is "Once Upon A Time In The West"). Some of the new scores could have been orchestrated more alike than the original scores to make the overall impression more 'harrypotterish'. But in overall, the music is even better then in the prequels.
Directing. I just liked it. Yes it's darker then the previous ones. And more disturbing. But the original novel is getting darker, and the characters are evolving too - and so should the audience. The terrible past of Harry's parents seems to catch up with this Harry, including treason and murder, plus dark creatures enter the scene: werewolves, dementors and the like, so this is not a story about cute little kids for cute little kids anymore. I think that the makers of the movie should admit this and reflect it in the length of the forthcoming movie - oh, well, here I go again about the length of the movie. But in any case, the director was right to make this movie darker than the previous ones. Hopefully the 'home alone' feeling will be abandoned altogether for the rest of the series as well - it does not fit anymore, and Cuaron has shown a feasible alternative.
Visual effects is pretty good: Buckbeak, the dementors, the patronus charm are excellent. I expected the Patronus Charm to fend off dementors as a stag, but this way it was probably better in making the impression that the Patronus is very complex and difficult and only extremely powerful wizards can perform it. The werewolf was OK, I thought it to would be more wolf-like, but I think they wanted to preserve some of it's human nature (I'm not telling which character - although one can guess by the name), so the compromise is acceptable. One thing which is (still) unsolved: the way people ride broomsticks. Acceleration, deceleration, turning, and the wind effect should be more accurately modeled with respect to clothings and hair - it doesn't look plausible most of the time. Harry riding Buckbeak is a scene beautifully done, beside being poetic.
-- SPOILER --
Plot (the novel). One particular thing I liked very much about it is the way it handles time traveling. Usual time travel stories go like: "one goes back, changes the past, travels back or maybe gets a little bit lost on the way, and voila, the present has been changed". No. With JKR, it's the "what you did is exactly what you've got". This has obviously been recognized and valued by the script writer so much that he added his own little sub-plot to reinforce this theme (the one with Hermione throwing snails (or stones? I couldn't make it out)).