Y tú mago también!

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2004)

(spoilers) Okay, I won't make any more jokes about the director, but you really can't help making a crack or two about a director who just made an acclaimed nearly porn film and the turned to a wildly popular adventure series starring a lot of budding teenagers. As it turns out, of course, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, personally chose Alfonso Cuarón to direct the third installment in the Harry Potter films, so that should really end any controversy about how closely the movie follows the book. I read the third book not long after the second film was released, so it has faded a bit in my mind, but it's pretty obvious that the majority of the storyline remains intact, and quite frankly I generally find it boring to hear lists of things that were in the book but not in the movie, or vice versa. I got enough of that while reading reviews of Troy.
The amazing thing to me is how much the kids have changed since the last film. They're at that point in their lives where they'll grow faster than at any other time, and it's amazing how different they are. Draco Malfoy, especially, looks like an almost entirely different actor. Clearly, despite the changing appearance of the cast, the largest difference here is in the direction. Alfonso Cuarón brings a much darker and sleeker feel to the series, which I think is a welcome and necessary change.
The focus of the film is on the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban, the infamous wizard prison (which I would have liked to actually see in the movie), and his apparent dedication to exact his murderous revenge on Harry Potter. Early on, the film slips a little bit when it starts with a gigantic cliché, which is that Harry Potter's Life Is In Grave Danger, but thankfully it recovers quickly. Hermione's ability to take on a massive amount of classes in quietly hinted at throughout the film, exactly as it was in the novel, and it leads to a great sequence that reminds me of the Back to the Future movies, where Marty traveled through time and had to avoid running into his other self. This movie even throws in a scene to show how the multiple selves are ultimately melded back into their originals when the time traveling is done, which the Back to the Future series never put a lot of effort into.
Gary Oldman is tragically underused in the movie as Sirius Black, but he delivers a powerful and convincing performance and clearly had a great time of it. (Again, there are spoilers ahead) However, given the fact that he turned out to be a vastly different person than everyone thought he was ever since he was thrown into prison 12 years earlier, it seems that he would have been better able to convince people that he was really a good man had he not offered such a menacing pose for his WANTED poster. Oops.
As is generally the case, the new year at Hogwarts offers a few quirky new staff members, including the necessary addition of a new Dumbledore, the mysterious Professor Lupin, who has a tendency to disappear and then reappear covered in strange scratches, and the eccentric Professor Sybil Trelawney, a role which does not do Emma Thompson justice. Robbie Coltrane returns as the endlessly lovable Hagrid, now promoted to professor status, as well as the tremendously impressive character of Professor Snape, who I enjoy mostly because Alan Rickman fits the role better than any other actor in any of the Harry Potter movies fits theirs. Until the Harry Potter movies came along, I thought he would never top his role as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Turns out I was wrong!
The Hippogriff that Hagrid introduces to his class early in the film is one of the most impressive and realistic computer-generated animals that I've ever seen in a movie, with expressions and movements that made it seem so real that it actually had personality, despite being such a mythical creature. Compare it, for example, to the ridiculous wolves in The Day After Tomorrow, and you'll know what I mean. The first half of the film, unfortunately, seems a little uncomfortable with itself. It tries pretty hard to get Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson to act like their younger selves from the previous movies, but it's almost like the awkwardness of their early teenage years is creeping into their characters, who are younger than the actors playing them.
The film follows the novel as closely as is necessary, especially since Cuarón was deliberately trying to make the film noticeably different from the previous films, which followed the books with striking detail. A little bit of artistic liberty taken with a novel when adapting it into a film is a pretty dangerous proposition, but I think that, as in this case, the author of the work personally chose the director, a bit of artistic license should be granted, and I think Cuarón did a great job with the liberties that he did take.
That being said, I can't help but end with a quote I read in a review of The Prisoner of Azkaban, in which Time Magazine's film critic Richard Corliss speculates on possible directors for the remaining Harry Potter films - 'How about Tim Burton (Sleepy Hogwarts), Ang Lee (Crouching Wizard, Hidden Snape), Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Voldemort) and, for the wrenching finale, Mel Gibson (The Passion of the Quidditch)?'