Third time's the (magical) charm!

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2018)

Harry Potter was a huge part of my teenage years, reading the books and watching the movies. I even successfully got my mother into it was well. The magic of Harry Potter can be appreciated by anyone young and old alike. I enjoyed the first two Harry Potter movies directed by Chris Columbus of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire fame, but this one surpassed both and even to this day I come back to this one more than even the sequels as well, courtesy of Alfonso Cuaron's masterful direction. He knows how to add what's both light and dark, young and mature into a perfect mixture. Michael Gambon is great as Dumbledore, replacing the late Richard Harris, David Thewlis has that conviction as Professor Lupin, and Gary Oldman has that edge as Sirius Black. There are many great moments in this movie, almost too many to name! From Aunt Marge getting her (hilarious!) comeuppance, Harry's first flight on a fantastic creature that he and his friends later have to save and then it saves them, to Harry learning an important, though difficult spell that he will have to use against frightening, hooded, soul-sucking creatures, to many playfully mischievious moments inside a cloak of invisibility, trying animal candies and more. Indeed, of all the Harry Potter movies, this one's the most magical of the bunch.