Best Harry Potter movie yet, but ...

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2005)

I have read all the Harry Potter novels so far and I saw the first two movies before I watched 'Prisoner of Azkaban', which is definitely the best Harry Potter movie yet. The acting skills of the youngsters improve steadily, the CGI was nice but not breath-taking and there were some tense and exciting moments. Cuarón did a much better job than Columbus, that's for sure.
So far the good news. The whole movie was totally messed up by the worst adaptation I've ever known. It was completely disorderly, unbalanced, indistinct and without any structure. The movie starts way to fast (you only have to blink after Aunt Marge's blowing up or Harry is suddenly in Hogwarts), the mid part is an incoherent pack of randomly taken fragments of the book (with leaving out lots of important stuff and mentioning vague, further unexplained elements: Snape taking over the lessons from Lupin, Trelawney making a creepy prediction) and the end isn't too long but also not very interesting. After Black is saved, Harry suddenly receives a new broom, he flies with it, and BAM! the movie is done ... The pacing was horrible. I also didn't like the 'restyling' of Hogwarts and its students. There weren't hardly any resemblances to the Hogwarts from the first two movies and the school from the third movie. Hagrid's hut is suddenly replaced, there are Stonehenge-like structures, the Wood has a totally different look ... not to mention the fact that the students almost never wear their costumes anymore, contrary to the first two movies.
I rated HP1 4/10, HP2 5/10 and this one 6/10 (so maybe number 7 will get a 10/10?)