Not wild about Harry

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2004)

Harry Potter is a sequence of stories beginning with Harry as a child, and then growing up. Nevertheless, it is a kids story, and this film lacks that kid element - unless we have demented kids running around.
This particular story, The Prisoner of Azkaban, sets up Potter's mid-kid crisis so to say. He finds a friend of the family, but realises his own magical strength as a wizard. It's one of the most important stories in the series, but this film depicts a real dark side which I would never allow my kids to see. Columbus did a great job in the first two movies, endearing us to characters such as Weasley, Malfoy, Granger, Dumbledore, Snape, et al. This director's version made it all about Potter. One character can be a movie, but with the talented experienced theatrical actors such as Smith, Gambon, Rickman, and Thompson - they went to waste! Potter's father, if you read the books, was a slime bag - an arrogant man with an ego bigger than Aunt Marge. Sirius Black was his partner in crime, so birds of a feather flock together.
Albeit it's a good series of reading, the movies need to bring some compassion of the characters, which the first two did. It'll be interesting to see how the next director does with Goblet of Fire.