Something Wicked Finally Came

Rating: 5/10 (3 March 2013)

Does this series get better and better as everyone proclaims? Well, yes and, sadly no.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sure as hell started that way – good, that is. The film actually, for once, felt like a real film, meaning well made. Though the previous two entries were not an amateur's projects, this one showed real signs a higher talent took the wand and ran with it. The cinematography was my first indication – it was crisp, expansive and absolutely gorgeous. It almost made me wonder if Hogwart's Castle had "magically" relocated in the year since the previous entry.
That was the first sign that I noticed we were heading in the right direction. The second was a visually older Harry, inside and out. He's running thin on wonder and amazement and he's finally showing signs of frustration. Good. Let it out, Harry. But don't go all Anakin on us
Thirdly, with the locations, most names of creatures, teachers and bleachers (in the backdrop of the never-ending Quidditch matches) and the themes, score or otherwise, established, finally the storytelling can settle in and have fun
until roughly the last third of the movie. I wouldn't necessarily say that's "where it all fell apart" but it was a rather tame and lame finale(s). Sure, I guess, Harry can't always thwart a giant snake (#2) or play a game of chess (#1) as the final battle, but this one – no spoilers – was so ho-hum and was completed with one of the most ridiculous final second shot of a movie that I've seen in a long time. I was half tempted to literally erase half a star from my rating for that final moment before the credits rolled. But, as much as it didn't fit and as much as I hated it, I'll just mark it as a "WTF" moment in Harry History. (Like when Harry stole a sucker. I didn't know he was a thief. ??)
Leading up to that disappointing third act, there were sure signs of the book here. Now, I haven't, nor plan to, read past book one, but the utter randomness of multiple scenes and characters indicated to me they were just trying to appease the book fans. Although, I'm sure there are a great majority sooo sad that everysingleplottwistanddialogue wasn't involved in every movie. GET OVER IT. I was ecstatic that this was the shortest one, albeit still too long at 2 hours 21 minutes and I DO NOT care to see a 6-hour miniseries of each book (or 42 hours) to ensure every single line was shown on screen.
I digressOnce again, Harry's being abused by his adopted family and takes the long journey back to school after summer break. Upon arrival, once again, he's warned not to be there and once again he ignores such "rubbish" – I'm guessing he's thinking. And finally, once again, Harry & Pals must combat a mystery/terror that threatens to shut down the most unsafe harbor of mutants since Professor Xavier's school, long before J.K. Rowling thought of Hogwarts.
Sure, I made that last paragraph out to sound like a complaint, but I confess: it doesn't really bother me. I understand this is the common theme, at least from the first three chapters. What I like is, aside from the obligatory (too long) 25+ minute running time of getting him to Hogwarts, is that once there, the mystery starts sooner and sooner with each film. I'm an impatient guy and can only take so many shots of the kids learning proving to me that A: there's teachers, B: there's classes and C: there's students. Yeah, I get it: it's a school, but can we get back to what Harry needs to solve?
Oh, and I also understand we need comic relief, but I've never been a fan of the Three Stooges. The appropriately named Ron Weasley is definitely one of the three stooges and is completely useless. It's painfully obvious that Harry won't be dating miss know-it-all, Hermione, but it's still best they drop him like a bad spell.
I know, I know, all of this sounds like criticisms. Allow me to backtrack – for the first two-thirds, I did enjoy this feature and I liked the addition of David Thewlis and I always like both Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore – although, Richard Harris was much better in the first two.
As much as I wanted to proclaim this series has "increasingly gotten better" when it was about an hour over, it was that dreaded middle-of-the-road final act that lowered my score to make it actually slightly dip in quality from Harry Potter #2. I said slightly as I still awarded both 3/5 stars.
Here's to Gobleting some Fire for the next movie
(Editor's Note: I decided to listen to the masses for this Harry POTter phenomena and revisit the series. I've only seen the first two, both once and in first run theatres. Since it's been around a decade since the initial releases, I've started over with #1 and will get to what everyone calls: the better years. Cheerio!)