Review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) by Ian R — 22 Mar 2015

This movie's problem was pacing, as it felt rushed the whole time I was watching. It felt like this film was a mad dash to hit all the important events and moments from the novel without slowing down to let the audience take in the character development or impact of plot points.

It makes me sad how this story was adapted to film, because it is my favourite of the Harry Potter books (I like to call it the "Goldfinger" of Harry Potter, since it is the third installment and has no Voldemort at all, much like how "Goldfinger is the third Jame Bond film and of the first 7 films, is the only one to have nothing to do with SPECTRE).

I also struggled with the casting of David Thewlis as Lupin, as his appearance and voice is not at all what I imagined when reading the book (that's a me problem, really, and not an issue with the film).

I thought the acting in this film was good; Gary Oldman was spectacular for the 5 minutes he actually got to act. I was sad that he didn't get a little more development early on in the film, because his crazed portrayal was quite good.

Just another victim of adapting the complex book story to film. I'm a little thrown by Michael Gambon's portrayal of Dumbledore, as it is so drastically different from Richard Harris' portrayal.

It's not bad, just different and takes some adjusting. Overall, I wish they hadn't clung so tightly to keeping things quite so close to the book and retooled the story to flow and work better as a film.