Cuaron takes a new approach

Rating: 9/10 (14 June 2004)

With Alfonso Cuaron on board as the new director for the third Harry Potter movie, the movies start to make a turn-around. While Columbus's movies were good, he adapted every single part of the book into the movie, which caused them to be good adaptions, but without any original material. Cuaron's new approach allows this movie to have an equal balance of original material and adaptation.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban begins with Harry having a bad moment with the horrible Aunt Marge; and by "bad moment", I mean inflating Aunt Marge until she floats away. Harry then runs away, getting to the Leaky Cauldron by the Knight Bus (a purple triple decker bus) and begins his third year at Hogwarts.
But things don't get better there. Harry learns that Sirius Black, who was sent to Azkaban jail for the murder of 13 people and the betrayal of Harry's parents, has just escaped from jail and is out looking for him. This causes the Ministry of Magic to send out the guards of Azkaban to guard Hogwarts for Black. However, the guards of Azkaban are actually Dementors (soul-sucking hooded monsters), and they are just as dangerous to Harry as they are to Black.
New teachers include a mediocre Divination teacher, Proffesor Sibyll Trelawney (Emma Thompson), and an all new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Proffesor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), who teaches Harry how to fend off Dementors. Even Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) becomes the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and introduces Harry to Buckbeak, a half-horse and half-eagle creature called a Hippogriff. Micheal Gambon replaces the late Richard Harris as Proffesor Albus Dumbledore, and while he acts a little less strict, he still captures the spirit that Harris had.
Even though POA has a darker mood (the sky's always overcast and the ground is usually wet), it is definitely the best movie so far. It left out unnecessary scenes in the book and added more humor and extra parts. I would give it five stars out of five, but it does have its problems.
Yes, POA left out unnecessary scenes, but it also left out important scenes. They also put a lot of things out of order, and a few of the scenes seem very rushed. I don't want to go into detail because I would spoil the movie if I did, but this may be a little annoying for people who have just read the book.
Overall, though, Cuaron's adaptation is still very good, while not being TOO faithful to the book. I just have to say this: I can't wait till "Goblet of Fire"!
****1/2 out of ***** Rated PG for startling moments, creature peril, and mild swearing