Best adaptation of the spirit of Harry Potter

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2004)

This movie was most clearly better adapted from the previous Harry Potter films not because of being true to the book, but the spirit. What struck me the most of what was wrong with the first two were that they were *too* close on following JK Rowling's Harry Potter, and left the wow factor at that, save for the pause-to-awe of the awesome magic that really made the films too childish and stupifying. This film weaves the magic throughout the experience and causing wizardry to be more normal and casual, helping to add to the darker, more adult act. I was especially pleased by Gary Oldman's Sirius Black, in fact most out of the new characters added to Harry Potter. The actors for Peter Pettigrew and Prof. Trelawney was passable, and the acting for Prof. Lupin was a good choice. This was definitely the best of the three so far, but unfortunately I will be happy to see the director skip HP 4, because of this history that he would go over many of the very significant plots of the book.