A large improvement

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2004)

Prisoner of Azkaban exceeds its predecessors in almost all respects, which isn't to say that Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were bad, just that this is better. The acting from all concerned is top notch (especially Thewlis as Professor Lupin) - the young actors have come on leaps and bounds from their previous efforts - and the special effects are so much more realistic (who can say Buckbeak is awful?). What impressed me most though, is the way the whole idea of magic is portrayed: whereas Chris Columbus presented it as some wondrous, awe-inspiring thing that has to be marveled at at all opportunities, Alfonso Cuaron let's the camera just glide by, as if seeing a spoon stirring itself or pouring a cuppa from a teapot suspended in midair are completely normal, everyday things!
Chris Columbus was burdened with laying the ground rules of the Potter universe (at least on screen!), and it was obviously a big burden, resulting in lots of exposition, slow pacing now and then, and long running times for the first two excellent movies. But Cuaron has clearly been given more freedom to maneuver and he expresses himself wonderfully, supplying one of the best visual films I have seen in a long time. The Dementors in particular are a treat. Not only are they actually frightening (unlike the Basilisk or Spiders in CoS) - physically AND figuratively - but reading the novel, I just imagined them as indistinguishable from the Nazgul, or the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, or the Grim Reaper, and I was pleasantly surprised to see them flow and weave like they were moving through water. I would never have come up with that!!
Yes, some of the characters are barely given any screen time - Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall for example - and I do imagine that the one or two people who watch the movie with no prior knowledge of Harry Potter will be left floundering at times, but at the end of the day Prisoner of Azkaban is a continuation of a series and if the price for enjoying a simply brilliant film that zips by at a joyously fast pace is having to know beforehand who Harry Potter actually is etc, and being slightly disappointed that some good sections of the novel are cut, then I for one am glad to pay it.