A Much Improved Addition to the Series...

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2004)

Thank goodness for the new director on this one! We get a more realistic setting (as Hogwart's actually looks like it's in Scotland and not in some large bland flat cartoony field), more realistic teens (note variances in students' ties... do you honestly think youths would be able to properly tie their own ties perfectly? I like this touch, along with other similar ones), properly used CG (physical effects were used more, allowing computer effects to really shine when employed), and a new musical theme that also utilizes the old to emphasize change between this movie and the last two.
The actors really shined, as I thought they always have in these movies, and I must say the new Dumbledore is much more like the book Dumbledore, and pushed to the background as he should in this movie, as Harry's relationship with Lupin is more necessary to move the film along.
Many have commented that all the change really threw them off. Well, change is good. If you never saw either of the previous movies (with their cartoony, unrealistic, pandering), but had read the novels, this one is much easier to enjoy. The first two instilled an idea that we thought was the truth, and thus most are staunchly opposed to Hogwart's successful facelift and the portrayal of the characters as actual human beings. Most of the clichés surrounding the young witches and wizards are lifted away, Hermione able to leave her bookworm stereotype (that being there is nothing else about her... as a matter of fact, we see little of her knowledge blatantly displayed, instead hinted at and commented on by others)and Harry is not continually successful, must rely on others, and has an exploitable yet non-kryptonic weakness (ridding him of his typical hero-ness, and allowing a real person to shine through). For once, camera shots are beautiful and intense, too.
There are some things I would liked to have seen in the movie, but nothing so bad as to soil the experience. The one thing I most would have liked changed was the ending. It would have really stuck home much more effectively had Harry received a signed permission slip to Hogsmeade from Sirius rather than a new broom. The movie may have then ended with happy tears from Harry, and not a silly yet charming open-mouthed grin
If not for its cartoony predecessors, Prisoner of Azkaban would be much better accepted and enjoyed as the wonderful piece it is. Unfortuneately, Columbus may have sugar-coated Rowling's world too far to repair.