Third Harry Potter Movie Isn't The Best One But Still Terrific Entertainment

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2005)

It's Harry and his friends' third term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and the big news is that the sinister Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban Prison. Black was incarcerated for his role in the death of Harry's parents and will be seeking revenge, so headmaster Dumbledore orders the school guarded by the fearsome Dementors and appoints a new teacher in the Black Arts, the mysterious Professor Lupin ...
The third Harry Potter movie is an excellent adventure, bursting with great ideas and lots of deliciously scary scenes, but for some reason it doesn't quite match up to the first two films for me. I'm not quite sure why - it could be because the big revelation about Sirius Black at the end is that he turns out to be a nice guy, but I think it's the complexity of the script itself, which crams in so much detail it can often be confusing. There's a key scene where Smith and Hardy explain some crucial backstory to Christie - a character we have never even met before - which is hasty, badly written and vague; fantasy movies need to be clear about their mythologies and this one occasionally dips into incoherence. There is much to enjoy though - the wacky Knight Bus, an ultra-scary train ride, the cantankerous and unpredictable Hippogriff, the Boggart sequence, a supercool map of the School and a great time-travel loop. The cast are all terrific again, particularly Rickman as Professor Snape, but Thewlis completely steals the show as the troubled Professor Lupin - sad, thoughtful, kind and eloquent. Oldman is always a joy to watch, even if his part is really just an extended cameo, and Gambon is amusing as Dumbledore, but doesn't bring the role quite as much pathos and mystery as Richard Harris, who died in 2002. As with the previous films, the production quality is first-rate, particularly Michael Seresin's dark photography and the gorgeous sets by Stuart Craig. This is still a great adventure movie by any standards, but isn't quite as magical and enchanting as its predecessors.