Harry Potter 3 was Good Enough for Me

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2013)

Part two of my Harry Potter reviews is a single review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This movie is very different from the previous two and also from the next five films. We have the same actors from the other two, the only real difference is the director. The director for this film is Alfonso Cuarón and he put his own directing style into the movie. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it did not. He really is the major strength and weakness of the movie itself.
Here we are, year three, and another year at Hogwarts is on the way, but a mass murderer named Sirius Black has escaped. Sirius Black is built as an evil character down to the core. You even see it in his name "Black." Black is a color that literally means evil and bad. He is accused of selling out the Potters to Voldemort. Now he is after Harry so Hogwarts is sort of on lockdown. That's our story but I think it was one of the most well written stories.
In this movie we are introduced to a lot of new characters and animals. It is a different view of the magic world. There is a little less physical magic such as spells and potions and more of an abstract magic. We have Dementors, Buckbeak, the boggart, werewolves, and animagus' , and many other ways the magic world blows our minds. I like most of them but I have a few problems with the Dementors. First off, they are a complete rip off of the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings. Rowling likes to take ideas from Tolkien and make a tiny difference. I don't like that and seeing it on screen just made me think of Frodo and the ring. Dementors are beings that wear all black and have a skeleton like appearance under the cloaks. They are really terrifying and symbolize fear and death. People feel cold when they are near and they suck the happy memories from people. It is a really good idea and it fits well with the film but the appearance could have been done differently. This is twice that Rowling rips off Tolkien and there are more on the way. Its frustrating to fans of movies and books. We are also introduced to Professor Lupin and he is one of my favorite characters throughout. He is a great character and a role model in Harry so in turn he is a role model to the audience. He was a childhood friend of the Potters and he teaches Harry how to fight the Dementors. He has a weird feeling and throughout the film I got the sense he was hiding something and he wasn't all he was showing. I knew this by following the pattern. All Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers have a major flaw and Lupin seemed too good to be true. This is the first movie not directed by Chris Columbus and this is almost a completely different movie. The color scheme is really different. It is very dark and most scenes are dark. He decides to have the kids wear regular street clothes a lot rather than the Hogwarts robes. He tries to be fun and funny a lot in the movie and most of the time it doesn't work. From the opening title sequence when Harry is trying to light up his wand and Uncle Vernon comes in and out of the room. It is supposed to be funny and I think he made too much of an effort to be comical in a simple title screen. We see it again with the shrunken head. Let's set the scene. Harry just made his aunt Marge into a balloon floating up in the sky, OK that was funny and I enjoyed it so touché, but Harry is emotionally torn and upset. He runs away from home and sees the creepy dog so he is sad, scared, and angry. Then the Knight Bus shows up and we hear about Sirius Black and how he is a murderer. All these negative emotions and feelings and it instantly turns to comedy with his one liners and unfunny comments to Ernie. The whole Knight Bus scene was a disaster and I wish it was done differently. Not all was a fail. I liked the scene when Marge was blown up and the buttons flew off and hit Dudley. It was funny and it worked. Same with Harry in the invisibility cloak and hitting Draco with snowballs and messing with Hermione and Ron. Little things like that made the movie better and added a nice touch to a very depressing and sad story arch. A big question in making the movie is how they will handle the big twist at the end and how mind bending the writing is. I think it was done brilliantly. Walking out it made me think how it actually happened. It was a different type of magic and the director nailed it perfectly. It had a plot hole or two but it makes the audience think and try to make sense of it so that's a good thing. The third book and movie is very significant in my opinion. It is different from all the rest mainly because Voldemort isn't that important. He is only mentioned a few times but he isn't a real threat. Sirius Black is the primary focus as the bad guy. I loved that. I like that there was another sense of evil in the world other than Voldemort. There was something else to fear and it made the world more real and believable. Overall, Harry Potter 3 is not a bad movie but it has a few flaws. The directing style is really well done but has a few things I did not like so Harry Potter 3 gets the WillyT Honorable Mention.