Great film, but sub-par adaptation

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2004)

Okay, I saw PoA, and I was wowed by the film. Cuaron did a great job of taking the movie in the darker and more focused direction of the book. Thewlis and Oldman were great as Lupin and Sirius. The camera in this movie actually gives the idea that Hogwarts is a huge boarding school. The camera moves along finding the characters, not being static as the actors move in a scene. Columbus was faithful to the novels, and for that he can be commended, but he never took any risks. That is where credit goes to Cuaron, who made the world of Harry Potter his own. That being said, there are some flaws. Michael Gambon is very good as Dumbledore, but he just can't live up to what Richard Harris did with the role. I would've been much happier to see Ian McKellen, or even (dare I say, it would be devilishly entertaining)Sean Connery. There are some discrepancies in the plot, but those can be overlooked. One major flaw sticks out to me, however. These books are fantasy tales: stories of witches and wizards and magic. Cuaron sort of forgets that this is fairy tale and focuses soley on the realistic characteristics of the movie. Given, he is very talented at this, but it seems to me his talent is mismatched with the material. He is given fantasy, and he tries to make it realistic. That is the only real problem, that the world of this movie isn't fantastical enough to be truly as engrossing as the first two.