Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
In our quest to watch all five preceding Harry Potter films before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released next week, we have come to...this. Be warned. Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite Harry book and I am not happy with the way they made this movie. At. All. Basically, there are a lot of things that would have mildly irritated me about the way that the books have been translated into films and they all happen in this movie. Exhibit A: the new Dumbledore. I understand that Richard Harris passed away, but Michael Gambon (as good as he is) is just not Dumbledore. Exhibit B: lack of continuity. I am a continuity person by trade (something to that effect is usually my job on film sets) and you can't change the entire set from movie 2 to movie 3 and expect me to just accept that it's the same place. Exhibit C: the pacing. This movie too choppy, choosing to not show much of the action and fit the details in by having Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking through the castle talking about something that happened. Show, don't tell. Exhibit D: the werewolf. Don't even get me started. There's more (like David Thewlis being cast as Remus Lupin - didn't like him at first but I'm used to it now. He's just not how I pictured Lupin in my head) but I think that's enough of my rant for now.
My Netflix rating: 3 stars
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