Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" reviews

Movie

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-04-04 23:21:21

Rating

4/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Director Alfonso Cuaron plunges this third Harry Potter installment into chilling darkness but injects just enough humor to remain true to author JK Rowling's original story. This time around, 13-year-old Harry unearths some deep secrets about his mysterious past and finds unlikely allies in lifelong foes.

Story

After having survived yet another summer with the Dursleys, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), now 13, joins up with pals Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) to kick off a new semester at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But the heartfelt reunion takes a frigid turn on the Hogwarts-bound train when the fab trio has a chilling encounter with the Dementors--morbid phantom guards hired by Azkaban Prison to track down notorious escapee Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). The wizarding world believes Black is responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents and now wants to murder their only heir. But Harry notices that Sirius Black seems much more interested in Ron's pet rat Scabbers than he is in killing Harry, so the rattled but still curious young wizard decides to track down and confront Black about his parents' death and, in the process, unlocks secrets to his own mysterious past. Of course, none of this would be possible without the help of Hermione and Ron; Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), who's now a magical creatures teacher at Hogwarts; and Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), who eradicates pesky obstacles in Harry's way, like linear time constraints.

Acting

In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is now a full-blown adolescent--and it shows. His character here is slightly more rebellious than in the previous two films, and he's having a difficult time bottling his teen angst. In the film's opening sequence, for instance, Harry gets so angered by his aunt's disparaging remarks about his parents that he inflates her like a gaseous balloon and watches passively as she soars helplessly into the clouds. This new Harry is a feisty young man, and he's not overly concerned about pleasing everyone around him. And just as his young wizard has matured, so has Radcliffe as an actor. In one scene, Professor Lupin (David Thewlis) shares a touching story about Mr. and Mrs. Potter with Harry, as a completely silent Radcliffe eloquently conveys his emotions through his facial expressions--with the stillness of a seasoned pro. Watson and Grint also come into their own and stay true to their characters without overreaching. It is, however, a notable pity Hermione and Ron weren't more fleshed out this time around. Great new additions to the Harry Potter cast include Oldman, who crafts a crazy but sympathetic martyr as Sirius Black, and Thewlis, who renders Harry's mentor Professor Lupin with the perfect blend of mystique and acumen.

Direction

It's not surprising that Warner Bros.' came knocking on Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's (Y Tu Mama Tambien) door for its third Harry Potter installment. Although the director's critically acclaimed feature A Little Princess was a box office flop for Warner Bros. in 1995, the studio was so impressed with his work it did all it could to garner audience support, including re-releasing the film. With Prisoner of Azkaban, the studio took a chance on a lesser-known director and in doing so found a perfect fit in Cuaron. The director's vision here is a much less whimsical one than Chris Columbus' on the first two films; Cuaron drapes the wizard world in beautifully photographed darkness, oftentimes blanketed in shadows and rainstorms, while the sets and CGI creations--including Hogwarts, Hagrid's pet hippogriff, Buckbeak, and the faceless Dementors--are darker and creepier than ever. But despite his stylistic deviation from the first two films, Cuaron stays true to JK Rowling's tale and turns the author's intricate subplots and multi-tiered storylines into a gripping third installment that surpasses the franchise's standards.

Bottom Line

Director Alfonso Cuaron isn't afraid to immerse moviegoers deeper in the dark world of wizardry, and in doing so he makes Prisoner of Azkaban the most multifaceted and intriguing Harry Potter film yet.

Copyright © CinemaSource 2006.

Movie

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-27 22:16:48

Provider

MRIB

Review

JK Rowling's teenage wizard well and truly grows up in this dark and foreboding adventure from Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron has experience with coming-of-age tales such as Y Tu Mama Tambien and it's well used here as the early years of Harry's innocence and wide-eyed fascination with the magical world are changed forever and the franchise takes a far more sinister tone.

While the two previous films were pretty happy affairs, full of optimism and youthful exuberance, this outing is drained of both colour and, in some cases, hope. The movie finds Harry and co. heading back to Hogwarts for their third year but two dark shadows are hanging over the school. First is the fact that Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) the man who sold Harry's parents down the river and killed their old school friend, has escaped from Azkaban prison while the foul Dementors, the soul-sucking guards of the place, are out in force looking for him.

As we'd expect, all the regulars, such as Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman are back, although this time the robes of Dumbledore are ably filled by Michael Gambon following the death of Richard Harris in 2002. However we also get to welcome some new characters, most notably Emma Thompson's Prof. Trelawnney, David Thewlis's Prof. Lupin and Tim Spall's weasely Peter Pettigrew - and all fit in to the Potter-verse equally well.

But this film very much belongs to Harry. Young Daniel Radcliffe has grown up as the orphaned wizard and he continues to grow in confidence with every film. He even looks at home in the special-effect laded set-pieces, such as riding the Knight Bus or flying Buckbeak - solo pressures which he might have buckled under a few years back.

Hardened Potter-philes may whine that too much of the book has been omitted from the film (who knows what they'll make of the upcoming Goblet Of Fire) and that the darker tone removes some of the film's magical qualities - but it's time for Harry to grow up 'cos, as anyone whose read the books knows, he's got some tough times ahead. And this is the perfect first step into adulthood.

Copyright © MRIB 2005.