Something wicked this film is... (In a good way, though!)

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2004)

The movie I waited for finally hit the screens, I waited for it for 1,5 years, and I can honestly say that it was worth waiting for a whole 100%!

The movie might not satisfy die hard Potter book fans like myself, for the movie serves the happenings of the 3rd book in its own way. A lot of the stuff is simply not in the movie. But actually it isn't bad. The third book is a lot thicker than the first and the second one - that's a really big challenge for the director. But the director Chris Columbus quit after the Chamber of Secrets. So, of course, the movie has a new form through the fact of Alfonso Cuaron directing it. Every director has his own vision. But J.K. still has her say in the whole game, and so the movie still has the familiar HP charm.
The kids are growing up in Hogwarts, the characters have developed, they're teenagers now, but none of them loses their true self. Which is very good for the movie, which brings many new characters and creatures at once, which need to be presented shortly but true, such as Pr.Trelawney or Pr. Lupin, or the minister of Magic - Fudge, the prisoner of Azkaban, of course, Sirius Black. And the nasty dementors (scared the hell out of me at one particular moment! And I'm not 12!) or Buckbeak(a really nice creature, actually).
The movie could've been longer, because a lot of things, in my opinion, were missing.It was said it'll all be ok and taken everything that couldn't fit (like the relationship between Harry and Cho Chang)in into the 3rd one and place it into the 4th one. Poor Mike Newell, book four is even thicker than the first 3...
Despite little mistakes and other little episodes, which I didn't like (although there were only a couple - like the way Lupin looks when he changes: Count Dracula of 'Van Helsing' called: he wants his puppy dog back, y'all!!!Or the fact that his boggart changes into the moon nearly at the very beginning of the movie, which I find very revealing for the ones not familiar with the book...) the movie has a couple of moments not mentioned in the book, but figured out for the movie and all I can say is - they fit in smoothly! Big bow...
It saves a lot of headache (and maybe even for some - the feel of being disappointed after reading first and seeing afterwards) if you look at the movie separated from the book. Like LOTR, for instance. It's a remix, if you want to look at it that way. A well-done remix, by the way. A perfect family summer movie.
9.5 /10