Beautiful trees, yes, but the forest is lacking.

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2004)

I was a bit disappointed, as The Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite book, but, inevitably, as we progress into longer and more complicated books, more and
more will need to be cut out in order to condense them into feature-length films. The cinematography and music were better in this movie; the use of a hand- held camera feeling was particularly effective in the "muggle-world" scenes, and the atmosphere throughout the film was nicely and artistically constructed. The scenes themselves, however, had a very distinct feeling of disjointedness,
which led to a less powerful climax than desired. The plot, of course, is excellent, quite closely following Ms. Rowling's writings, although it seemed that many details (especially concerning Mooney Wormtail
Prongs and Padfoot) were tossed to the wayside. As I said earlier, it is inevitable of course that details are abandoned in the condensation process, but I have
the feeling that someone who has not read the books would not entirely
understand this movie. This may or may not be a huge problem, as most of its
patrons will most likely be in fact fans of the books, but it remains a bit of a problem. My biggest qualm was with the portrayal of characters. It was not a problem of acting, per se-- David Thewes and Michael Gambon were acceptable, Alan
Rickman was splendid as usual-- but rather a combination of writing, acting, and casting. Lupin in particular seemed an entirely different character than the one read about in the books-- he was a mentor/father figure, yes, but in the film seemed to lack any other traits. In general, the character seemed to be played rather blandly. Michael Gambon was fine as Dumbledore, and Richard Harris's
shoes are large ones to fill indeed, but left a little something to be desired. Alan Rickman is fantastic, but the character of Snape becomes a bit snively and loses a bit of his power in this film, which is unfortunate. A wonderful performance was given, however, by the lovely Emma Thompson in the role of the superstitious
divination professor Trelawny; I only would've liked to see more of her. The
three students (Potter, Granger, and Weasely) were perfectly well-played, with good performances around, especially by Miss Emma Watson. The three young
actors, whose slightly weak performances and immaturity I questioned in earlier films, have obviously grown tremendously as actors and are coming into their
own quite nicely. All in all, The Prisoner of Azkaban was all right. Each individual scene was well- made-- visually, acting-wise, music-wise, even in the writing-- but the film simply did not flow. There enlies the problem with forcing a quite-long book into a
single movie: crucial information must either be skipped or awkwardly
condensed, and the result is a movie that is choppy, confusing, and disorienting. Micro-examined, it was a good film, but the big picture just didn't add up. 6/10.