Maybe the best Harry Potter film yet.

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2009)

For a while I still had not come around to the idea that "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was as good as some critics have said. I think I was even left a little cold by this third entry in the series when I first saw it. I still really liked the film, considering it with "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" as the one of the strongest in the franchise so far. I never quite agreed that Chris Columbus's two Harry Potter films, which I loved were as weak as some critics believe but last night I found myself really coming around to the idea that "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" may be the best entry in the franchise; and even if it isn't it still a terrific movie. The director of this film is Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, director of "Y tu mama tambien," which I have yet to see, and also the excellent "Children of Men." Even though I loved the first two Columbus films I think Cuaron is probably the best director to direct a film in the franchise. He has a keener visual sense than Columbus, meaning that Cuaron is able to make a CGI sequence like the train sequence when the Dementors first appear into a sequence that owes just as much to the way it is shot and lit as it is to the CGI artistry present. He even makes CGI-less scenes and shots very interesting. The whole movie is visually alive in a way that the first two, as great as they were, were not.
As always, the actors are very good. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are the perfect actors to portray Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger. They capture the qualities in the characters that make them lovable. The adult actors like Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane are also perfectly cast as Hagrid and Professor Snape. Michael Gambon replaces Richard Harris as Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and does a wonderful job despite limited screen time.
There are also new characters in this film, and new actors as well: Remus Lupin as played by David Thewlis. Lupin is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardy; and also a friend of Harry's deceased parents, Lily and James. This movie, is very much about delving into the past, as many of the Harry Potter stories are, and this story is very poignant since it is about the past of Harry Potter's parents, which involves the fact that Sirius Black, a wizard who has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban, is possibly then man who betrayed Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort.
This movie is about Harry's continuing growth as a wizard, which includes learning how to defend himself from Dementors. The movie is in short, simply wonderful. I am sad that Alfonso Cuaron will not be back as director for any of the upcoming films but am glad that he got to direct a film in this wonderful franchise.