Dissatisfied (some SPOILERS ahead)

Rating: 6/10 (6 June 2004)

Comparing this movie with the previous two might seem a little ludicrous considering the different director and the general tone of the movie and book, but after seeing this you can't but long for the bustling hubbub of The Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets.
I have read all the books, reread the Prisoner of Azkaban most recently, but I'll try to leave off comparisons for now.
As a movie itself it was unsatisfactory, and when you've read the book, it makes it that much worse. The scenes were rushed and felt contrived. No sooner where you emotionally in a scene then it hopped to another one with nothing to bridge that emotion. In what appeared to be an attempt to instill the darkness of the third book the director, and everyone else, accidentally left all the emotion behind. I felt no true sympathy for the tense and constant fear of his life that Harry had to go through during that year. It didn't seem at all apparent that he was. Though Rupert, Daniel and Emma have grown physically and as actors their performances felt wasted because of this rushing desperate need to pack as much of the action of the latter part into the book into the movie.
I think one the biggest flaws was the movie was not grounded. Since this is the third movie in a series it was a ghastly mistake to introduce so many new sets and change the location of previously fixed items. However beautiful they were, it caused confusion. Very little of the movie was set in familiar scenes. A lot of what should have been crucial dialogue was set in random locations out of doors, which made little sense. With the change in location of the Whomping Willow, Hagrid's hut, the change in actress and location for the Fat Lady, with new courtyards and other new sets, if felt like a whole different place. And when you throw in the abruptness of scene transitions, it gives you a very strong feeling of being lost. There was no "home again" feeling upon returning to Hogwarts. It barely felt like Harry was at a school at all with the time they spent inside the school itself. That was one of my bigger disappointments with the movie.
If they had stuck a little more to the castle and tried to instill some of the darkness there I would have felt better about it. Otherwise I was left being confused with the changes and where they were, and trying to keep track of the plot, which was not strung together well or edited. There was also little sense of time. They used the owl and the Whomping Willow to great effect to show this, but it didn't seem to "effect" much else. The whole passage of time was streamlined and gone through with a quickness that boggled the mind and made it impossible to understand where the plot was heading. There were no key ups or downs in the plot since so much was cut out that was present in the book.
((SPOILERS))
The Dementors, I went into this movie hearing how frightening they were. I was not frightened nor even moved. Dementors can't fly...yet they do in this movie and that steals away much of their looming, glooming, happiness sucking fear. Having something on the ground looming in closer and surrounding you, leaning over you, unable to escape by foot, then yes that would have scared the heck out of me. But having them fly made them comical in my eyes. It also causes changes to the end of the movie. Since the Dementors can fly then Harry's stag patronus has to pulse out light rather than charge them. Which steals a lot from that scene that they could have had if they had stuck a little closer to the book.
((End SPOILERs))
It seems the moviemakers went out of their way to be different from the first two and thereby stripped it of all the charms the book and the previous two movies had. They added in their own material, and considering the bountiful detail that Rowling instills in her books, leaving out so much original material and adding in so much new was rather inconsiderate to the fans. The more new you add the less time you have for the little things that fans of the book were hoping to get a glimpse of and never did.
I've heard Chris Columbus criticized for being so slavish in keeping close to the book, but I see no fault in this. Though not perfect, by no means, he managed to capture Harry Potter in a way that Alfonso Cuarón failed miserably at. I've heard Columbus lost the subtleness of the undercurrents in the books, but now that I look back on it I think that's wrong. By recreating the books so closely those undercurrents were created as a side effect, they were not affected or forced. Cuarón's method seemed to be the opposite and it didn't work. All the whimsy of Rowling's story telling was completely and utterly lost in this new addition. Which is a sad loss for those fans who so looked forward to The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The Chamber of Secrets and its themes and events (both book and movie) were dark, much darker than The Prisoner of Azkaban in truth and done to greater effect by Columbus. I think Cuarón and Steven Kloves latched onto the darkness that was present in the book and blew it out of proportion and to the detriment of the film. They also seemed to have forgotten they were making a child's film...and more disturbing yet, that they were making a Harry Potter movie...
As a film: 7/10
As an adaptation: 5/10
As an interpretation: 1/10