My own review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2004)

So was the latest Harry Potter Installment worth the wait?
I would say YES. The film itself is made very well, special effects up to standard and best of all, the scenery was excellent.
Surely Alfonso Cuaron has done us proud? Well, Yes and No really. Read on....
Standing at 142 minutes, you fail to realize that time has gone so quick. As the credits for the movie rolled, I thought, "my god, is that it?". I could have easily sat there for much longer, perhaps the length of a Lord of the Rings movie.
The downfall with this movie is that is strays through the book too quickly. At one point, I thought I must have fallen asleep because we got from one section of the book (in the film) to another, within a blink of an eye. So much has been cut from the book and I think this is its downfall. Obviously, for those people who do not read the books, they would not see anything wrong, but for the book fans, some may be disappointed. Major plots in the book are cut into 1-2 minute scenes and some important facts have been missed out. A lot of characters from the book were not used either and those that were, so little time on the screen- ie, Mcgonagall. She was only in a few scenes, as was Dumbledore himself (Michael Gambon--Well done!!) and Snape--compared to the book was hardly present in the movie
I give this movie 8 out of 10. For the normal viewers, you will Love this movie, for the fans-- very very good but it felt like a rush to get to the end and there was a lot of plot holes and parts of the book that should have been there