Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

And now we come to the movie that made me a fan of the world of Harry Potter. Prior to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I saw the movies, enjoyed them, and then never thought about them again until I stumbled upon them on cable. I was fine with this. Then Alfonso Cuaron replaced Chris Columbus and made my favorite movie in the franchise to date.

One of the consequences of bringing on a new director with a new artistic style was many more alterations of the book. There were a ton of little nitpicks throughout the way and a few big left turns. The stuff that I notice every single time I watch include Harry using magic in the first scene of the movie. I know we need to introduce the world as soon as possible but come on! Respect the restriction on underage magic! Then you got the goofy talking shrunken heads that pop up a couple times for comedic value and nothing else. I’ll allow it. One of the biggest omissions to this point in the movies was never revealing who wrote the Marauder’s Map, which is kind of important. And the less said about bombarda the better … just unlock the window. Why must we blow up things in movies? Remember when I made fun of hugging Hagrid at the end of Chamber of Secrets? Yeah, I wish Prisoner of Azkaban brought that back instead of a broomstick freeze frame of Harry looking stupid.

Prisoner of Azkaban takes the casting to an even higher level or maybe I just love Gary Oldman a bit too much. That may be the reason. Oldman comes aboard as Sirius Black and just tears up every scene he is in. The pinnacle of this is the confrontation in the shrieking shack, which probably still stands as my favorite scene in the series. One of the reasons why is because one of the other actors in the shack is David Thewlis. Thewlis is Remus Lupin and he has always been a fantastic actor. He was able to depict Lupin as the professor that Harry trusted and learned the most from which is the key to Professor Lupin. The third big name introduced in Prisoner of Azkaban is Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney. She’s Emma Thompson so, of course, she delivered. The last name is kind of sad because Richard Harris died in between Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. This meant that Dumbledore needed to be recast, which is a goddamned big deal. Thankfully for me, they got another actor that I’m a big fan of, Michael Gambon, to fill his shoes. I prefer his more active take on the Dumbledore to Harris' still and quiet version but I may be in the minority.

I’ve already mentioned that the new cast members were one of the main reasons why I loved Prisoner of Azkaban. But it went farther than that. Cuaron’s visual style is such an improvement from Columbus that it is not even fair. He darkened the tone and had a clear color scheme throughout. It was a fantastic looking film. There were also numerous slick editing moments that just improved the whole deal. Man, I love the work that Alfonso Cuaron does in each and every one of his films. Another improvement was starting to move Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson into more acting heavy scenes. This wasn’t a perfect alchemy, since Harry screaming about Sirius being his parent’s friend was his weakest acting moment in the entire series. Still, they had to start holding their own because from here on in it will just get more and more serious and emotional.

I wouldn't call Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban a perfect film but, then again, I don't have any complaints. Alfonso Cuaron is one of my favorite directors working today and he brought that skill to the Harry Potter franchise. Throw in the addition of Gary Oldman and you have the ingredients to make my favorite Harry Potter movie.

9 out of 10