Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
June 7, 2004Grade: A-
The latest Harry Potter film is definitely the best of the bunch so far. And in a way, I think it’s precisely because they had to cut so much out of the book to make the movie. The first two films in the series hewed a little too closely to the books, but for this third installment the film-makers had to slice lots of side plots to keep the main story down to a reasonable length. And that discipline of chopping extra stuff out makes for a better movie.
This third year at Hogwarts finds Harry under scrutiny yet again. A wizard who apparently helped Voldemort kill the Potters, Sirius Black, has escaped from Azkaban. And the creatures sent to hunt him down, the Dementors, are almost worse because they have a strange affinity for harming Harry as well as hunting Sirius.
The actors are all teenagers themselves, and seem to be growing into their roles. The one who’s turning out really ugly though is the kid playing Malfoy. He might have been a cute kid but he’s not looking too good as a teenager. He’s getting a bit of the Jay Leno elongated face/chin going on.
Other than that distraction, the movie was very entertaining. Perhaps a wee bit too long despite all the cutting, but still it keeps moving at a good clip so you never really notice.
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