Improvement on the first two movies

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2013)

By January 2013 I had never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies. I decided to start with the movies.
I liked the first two films but I thought that this was an improvement and acted and directed with much great assurance than its predecessors. The addition of Gary Oldman and David Thewlis to the cast gave the film greater gravitas. I also liked the casting of Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. Bear in mind that I haven't read the books so I'm not obsessed about everyone being portrayed as they were in the books. Richard Harris was great and it's a tragedy he died when he did but Gambon makes a more convincing head in my eyes.
The look of this film certainly lifts it above the previous two. Watching all the films literally one per day over a week, the changes to the geography of Hogwart's and the School itself was very obvious but I liked the new version. The creatures and the Dementors were realised very effectively.
On the downside there is yet another boring Quidditch sequence but at least the dementors livened it up. It is also clear in the latter part of the film that the title should have been "Harry Potter goes Back to the Future" but the reworking was well done.