The Series Darkens

Rating: 7/10 (18 April 2010)

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the third instalment in the Harry Potter series, and marks a new departure for that series in several ways. It was the first in the series to be released in summer; the original idea was for the series to consist of seven films, one of which was to be released at Christmas every year between 2001 and 2007. This schedule proved to be over-ambitious and the third film was released in midsummer 2004 rather than Christmas 2003.
The film also saw a new director, Alfonso Cuarón taking over from Chris Columbus who had directed the first two films, and a new actor in the key role of Albus Dumbledore, Michael Gambon replacing the late Richard Harris, who had died in the intervening period.
Finally, the film marked a darkening in the tone of the series, something possibly attributable to the change of director but also to the content of the original novel. The "Azkaban" of the title is the prison which holds wizards who have violated the laws of magic, generally by using their powers for evil ends, and the "prisoner" is Sirius Black, a wizard who has succeeded in escaping from the prison. It is assumed that Black is a supporter of Lord Voldemort (the arch-villain of J. K. Rowling's universe) and that his intention is to kill Harry Potter.
The perceptible "darkening" in this episode is both literal and metaphorical. In a literal sense the film is bleaker in appearance that its two predecessors, with many scenes being shot at night or in dim light. Cuarón uses a much darker visual palette than did Columbus. (David Yates uses a similar palette in the most recent Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"). In the metaphorical sense the film is certainly more scary than anything in the first two films. Although this is the only film in the series in which Voldemort does not appear directly, much of the plot revolves around Rowling's most terrifying creations, the Dementors.
Harry, who in the first two episodes was played as a young boy, now emerges as a rather rebellious, truculent teenager, and Daniel Radcliffe does well to suggest the difference. There are good contributions from two newcomers to the series, Gary Oldman as Sirius and David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, the seemingly mild-mannered new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who turns out to be a practising werewolf. (Rowling's names often have some relevance to the character's personality or attributes, Remus being one of the twins in Roman mythology who were raised by a she-wolf). There is another good contribution from an established cast member, Robbie Coltrane, as the genial West Country giant Rubeus Hagrid, now promoted to Teacher of Care of Magical Creatures. Gambon, however, does not yet seem quite at home with the difficult task of taking over a role first created by another actor. (He was to improve in subsequent episodes).
Overall, I did not enjoy the film quite as much as the first two, possibly because by 2004 the concept no longer seemed as fresh and new as it had done in 2001. There is, however, a lot to enjoy; scenes I found particularly memorable include the journey through the streets of London on that triple-decker bus and Harry's ride on the Hippogriff Buckbeak. This was also the first film which revealed that Harry's parents were named James and Lily; as my name is James and my wife is Lily we have decided that should we have a son we will name him Harry. 7/10