The weakest of the three to date

Rating: 6/10 (12 October 2005)

The Prisoner of Azkaban tries to dazzle us with action, suspense, and special effects. These elements, I believe, take away from the character development that made the first two Harry Potter movies worth watching. This one feels a bit more like a video game than a movie, trying to cram as much excitement in as little space as possible. This is probably a great movie for children, but it fails to draw in discriminating adults the way the previous installments had. In the next installments, I can only hope the director reduces the tempo and pays more attention to the individual characters. I know this is difficult considering the length of the books they are drawing from. Nevertheless, cutting vast sections of the book's plot may make for a stronger, more intelligent film.