worthy entertainment

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2004)

In this third installment of the Harry Potter franchise, the action is much more fast-paced, the characters more developed (for the good or the bad) and the cinematography much, much darker.
For those who have read the books, the many cuts in the movie will seem annoyingly numerous. For those who have not read the books, the plot is somewhat hard to follow, especially at the end.
To all purists out there (including myself), there will surely be many objections to the changes made to the movie. First of all, the entire story of Sirius Black was, in my opinion, cut too short. Many memorable scenes and explanations, such as the nicknames Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs, were omitted and many elements of the Harry Potter universe has been changed. For example, there is much more wandless magic, something J.K. Rowling has yet to precise, and some characters (i.e. Hermione and dementors) have been modified. Also, there are many Muggle objects that seem to work in Hogwarts. And I thought that electricity could not function in the castle...
Hermione suddenly seems much more prominent in this one, while Ron takes a back-seat to all the aciton. With all due respect to Alfonso Cuaron, many modifications he made to this character bother me greatly. Hermione is no longer a bookworm, nor does she spends her time studying anymore and for god's sake, even her hair isn't bushy. She has morphed into some kind of refined and almost preppy teenager.
While many of the characters are far from what I had imagined (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tom, the Leaky Cauldron innkeeper and even Sybil Trenawley), once you accept them as they are presented, they fit quite well in the plot. However, one minor detail that has always bothered me was Harry's physical appearance. His hair is finally messy and tousled (but still not black...), but his eyes, whom are mentioned several times, are NOT GREEN!!! How hard can it be to make him wear colored contacts? Furthermore, while Micheal Gambon is a great actor, his performance is somewhat different to Richard Harris'(may he rest in peace). And what happened to Goyle?
On the good side, many of the children's performances have greatly improved and the special effects are just incredible. The hipogriff and the dementors appear unbelievably real. Speaking of dementors, I must say that they are very different to how I personally imagined them (Where in the books does it say that they can fly and freeze liquids???)
Overall, the action and suspense (kudos to John Williams for the great score, once again) are great, the cinematography superb and the casting appropriate ( Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith should have had more screen time). Your money is worth this movie. My only great complain lies in the general feeling of this movie. I somehow felt that it was empty and full of holes and at the end, it felt a bit shallow and incomplete.
8/10