By Far the Best Harry Potter!

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2004)

First of all people lets stop comparing "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" to the novel, after all, how many movies are as good as the book? I've never read any of the books & in a way am glad I didn't, as it may have ruined this incredibly fine cinema experience, though I doubt it.
Now, let's compare this film to the other two "Harry Potter" films, which is a much more fair comparison. For me, "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" is a far improvement over the first two. While the first two had their childlike fantasy charm for us grownups, there was nothing really in these rather thin films to keep anyone extremely interested over the age of 14 with their rather thin & banal plots & long running time. When making a child fantasy film that the adult child in me will love, I need a stronger & darker plot, characters filled with complexities, credible dialog, darker stronger special effects, more adult content, & a great sense of wonder. Here "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban fulfill all these requirements in the same grand sense of the king of all child fantasy films "The Wizard of Oz." I'm not saying "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" is near the masterpiece that "The Wizard of Oz" is, but just like that great film I had a great sense of wonderment as I watched the story unfold. Just like that great film there were dark & mysterious characters that were not at all quite what they seemed, & finally like that great film Harry just like Dorothy is searching for the way back home to his roots.
I felt this film was an incredible improvement over the last two; much credit has to be given to the director who handled superbly the maturing Harry into a young man with real issues that we all can relate to. Even the look of the film has matured; the camera work was just incredible! The special effects fantastic! I've never seen Hogwarts look more real, wonderful yet foreboding at the same time. The creatures were done with a true sense of realism that is sooo needed for a film like this to succeed; my only complaint (Spoiler) was the rather weak & childish looking Werewolf. It reminded me of the Pink Panther. Maybe it was meant not to scare the kiddies to much, but then again the truly malevolent Dementors surely were enough to scare any 10 year old, so why make the Werewolf so...well...un-Werewolf like? Also one complaint about the plot is the character of Malfoy, he was just to weak & wimp like, it would of also been nice to see his father again in this picture, but with that said I can not really fault this film at all.
"Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" truly enthralled the child in this 43 year old body, I would highly recommend this film to other children of my age & younger & older. A truly magical experience, let the child out!
****1/2