Very Nice Transition, But still needs work

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2004)

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised at this latest installment of the HarrY Potter series. I know that many Harry Potter Fans are pounding the table about not staying true to the first film or staying accurate to the book, but once again , this is NOT the book. It is very difficult to translate every single line, every single situation from the book to the screen. First off as many would wish to believe that the film needs to take the same route as the first two films I HEARTILY disagree. The first two films got Me interested in this series, but they seemed more like a "kiddie" film and I think this newest foray into Harry Potter, it its headed in the right direction making the film much more appealing to movie goers of ALL ages. Alfonso Cuarón did a magnificent job in bringing an edge to the film and to begin bringing the dark shadow of future events slowly into focus, but not delving too deeply into the darker edges just yet. If there is any issues that I have with the film is that in many spots the storyline did move a bit fast for Me. If I didn't know the films or the story that well, there are a number of explanations that were either very briefly visited or were insufficient to explain certain events farther into the film. I believe this is more a problem with a decision about how long the film would take and most likely many of these issues were edited out(hopefully) to keep the film's running time down. The explanation about the makers of the Marauder's map, more of an explanation of the events surroundings His parents death, the time traveling Hermione had been doing. Hopefully these explanations will make it to the DVD of this film and they take heade of this fact when putting together "Goblets of Fire". All in all a very good and promising film, much better atmosphere than the first two, but a more darker edge to them. After all the author of the book was also very pleased with the overall direction this film has taken, so that in itself is a good sign.