Cuaron skipped the backstory and apparently assumed everyone has read the book

Rating: 3/10 (4 June 2004)

For anyone who hasn't yet read the book, you'll do yourself no true service by seeing the movie. Harry's interaction with Dumbledore (the school's headmaster) is overwhelming absent. The parts of the story that are filled in by 3rd party dialog or interaction between Harry and other characters is woefully excised and any character development of Hermione dealing with time, her pet cat or her budding relationship with Ron is completely left out. Cuaron's version seems to be directed at hardcore Potter fans who might not mind the How's of the storyline and simply want the MAJOR plot points to fit between the books and the movie adaptation. Columbus' first two versions were true not only to the basic premise that there exists a miniature magician named Harry Potter and that he's cemented into some life and death struggle with the arch villain, Voldemort; those first two films were true to the nuances of the story. They followed the character development and told the backstory so that if you hadn't read the book (as several adults around me hadn't) you could still see the movie and not miss a beat in discussing Harry's life with your eight-year-old nephew or niece. With this installment you would be left to believe that Dementors are ghostly spirits who migrate with pack mentality and that Harry himself could lift off the whole lot of them from Azkaban just by mastering the Patronus curse (the book leans more towards a few Dementors circling him and some other people rather than 30 Dementors). I'm interested to see based on Cuaron's development (or lack thereof) of the Dementors how a future director will handle Dumbledore's assertion regarding who the Dementors will side with in the coming battle when Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge decides to try and hide that Voldemort has returned to human form in book 5 (Order of the Phoenix). Perhaps they are just Biblical demons and Voldemort is the devil incarnate. I like this story because it provides a whole new universe; a new context for fantasy and myths. Cuaron totally dropped the ball on explaining the Dementors and making them less demonic and more of a new type of creature like the books seem to imply they are.
The movie further leaves out any back story regarding the difficulty of becoming an AniMagus (as Harry's father, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew did) so that never is Peter or Sirius Black's mystical ability to change into animal form even commented on other than when Ron says something to the effect of "It's a trap! He's the dog. He's an AniMagus, Harry!" No mention of why Sirius, James and even Peter decided to work so diligently at this magic trick that requires registry with the Ministry of Magic.
Cuaron totally missed the opportunity to present a wonderful and engaging story by throwing in his unseasoned transitions such as Hedwig's flight from Autumn out over the lake and into Winter. Neat transition and I liked seeing Harry behind the clock hands but in my opinion Rowling tells a great story and Cuaron should stop screwing with it just to show that he is a "visionary."
I saw "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and I liked it. Not something I'd take my nephew to see but it was a decent story with a nice message that it didn't have to smack the viewer in the head with. You got the point at the end. Harry Potter's storyline ain't Cuaron's venue. He's edgy and it works when there is no preconceived ideas or framework into which it needs to fit. Here, in this movie, it blew big chunks of flubberwurms.
I liked the acting but the movie got in the way IMO.