Review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) by Axelkoch — 28 Dec 2013

After a less than passable second film, the Harry Potter series got back to greatness as Alfonso Cuarón took place in the director’s chair for Prisoner of Azkaban and gave Hogwarts a whole new style I very much enjoyed.

Not all gone is the ludicrousness of the second film and book with some scenes like the bloating Aunt Marge or Emma Thompson’s failed portrayal of Hogwarts’ divination teacher Sybil Trelawney decreasing the Spaniard’s serious approach to the source material. However, Cuarón makes up for such flaws with a loveable style and new ways of story-telling his directorial predecessor Chris Columbus didn’t venture. I personally adored the cinematography of Michael Seresin, especially the establishing shots of season and location that were used in an almost Arthaus-fashion in Prisoner of Azkaban. Not only that, but Cuarón also fully succeeded (at least in my opinion) in making what is likely the most difficult story of all seven novels understandable. I had some issues with the obvious way he depicted Hermione’s time-travelling (if you didn’t get it by the fifth time Ron stated “Hermione, you weren’t there when we came into this class” then your intelligence might be sub-par), but he excelled himself in other parts, i.e. in the subject of Sirius Black.

Cue Sirius Black, with Gary Oldman the director got a fantastic actor to work with and the Englishman established one of the most likeable characters in the series with an excellent performance. Three other wonderful English thespians joined the ever-growing HP cast, namely David Thewlis, Timothy Spall, and Michael Gambon, with the latter actually giving a better (and more philosophical) Dumbledore than the late Richard Harris. And despite a lot of problems I had in the first two films, the three main child actors got significantly better with Cuarón to direct them, which indicated for the first time that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson are in fact talented actors.

Altogether, I greatly enjoyed Prisoner of Azkaban, which turned out to be a humorous while still serious approach to J.K. Rowling’s novel and impressed me through outstanding visual (and aural John Williams did another splendid score) work.