Not what you might expect from the book

Rating: 2/10 (3 June 2004)

One should never judge a book by its movie or vice versa, this makes rating "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" very difficult. Having read books one to five and being somewhat of a fan of the series, the movies naturally are always worse than the books. Rowling brings so many details, so many sidelines to the story which later reappear or converge to the final act. This and the sheer size of the books make the adaption for the cinema very difficult (perhaps a four-to-eight-hours-miniseries per book would be more effective).
PoA is no different, and being the book I liked the most, I was not sure what to expect. The first two movies tried to show as much as possible (with an incredible pace in the second movie which ruined a lot of moments - like the shown winter's day which was over in a few seconds), but the third one tried to steamline the story and rewrite it at some points. They even brought in new scenes which were not part of the book (where did they find the time for that - well, they've cut a lot of other scenes). So, the third movie is ... difficult to describe. There are some surprising scenes, but most of the story stays the same, so it is very predictable if you know the books but perhaps incomprehensible if you don't.
Overall it is visually stunning (especially the Dementors and the Hyppogriff), so it's worth for that, the actors however ... for Hermione and Snape they were brilliant, for Harry and Ron they were ok, for Dumbledore not as good as the old one, but I was disappointed with Lupin. One of the effects of the books was, that you build up an image of a character. Lupin always seemed to me as a good-hearted person, which was forced by circumstances outside of his control to live a life of an outsider, thus being forced to be very poor although he is capable of so much more, which he can rarely show - but even with this burden he always seems to look on the positive side, never giving up. The Lupin in the movie just didn't have this battered but fighting style. At the moment I am not sure if I want to see the next movies. Seeing one and two was like reading the books a page per second, seeing the third was like reading the story retold by a stranger (recognizable, same plot, but different), and I wonder how the next one turns out.
I suppose I'll stay with the books and let the story play in my head, using some of the actors of the first movies to flash it out (nope, not Lupin), but without the cuts or funny but meaningless additions of the movies. So, if you do not know the books, shame on you but you'll probably enjoy the movie, if you know the books and liked them, be wary, the movie might not be what you would have expected from the book.
All in all, I would only give the movie a 2/10 - sorry, but if you know the source it was not a good adaption (although perhaps no good adaption is possible).