Finally, a cinematic Harry Potter!

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2004)

No longer a disney magic kingdom Hogwarts, but a mystical place of the imagination. Not a rote by the numbers read along with the story film, but a cinematic vision of the book. Of course there are more differences but the spirit is truer. It will get harder and harder to keep all the details of each book as the books get longer and longer. This director took the bull by the horns, wrestled with it, and put his stamp on it. I find myself so enthralled with his vision that yesterday I just had to visit Hogwarts again and took an extended lunch hour to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 4th time. Went back to work humming Double Trouble. I do think that the Mauraders Map and the relationship of Prongs, et al. especially with the shape of the Patronus could have been explicated in just a few more lines with Sirius and the final Lupin scene, and needed to be. But when I compare how rote the other films were, especially the 2nd, and I think of Buck Beak dragging his claw in the loche and the four seasons of the whomping willow, Harry's talks with Lupin, all the details that just melt into the affectionate yet dangerous landscape, well I just sigh with happiness that there is finally a HP movie that I like as much of the books. I had almost given up. Gets a 92 from me!