Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review

by allo for DanRadcliffe.com, 23rd May 2004

Two things that you notice quite early while you're watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 1) Director Alfonso Cuaron loves his visual gags and 2) he's got it in for the birdlife of Hogwarts.  This is a visually rich movie, played almost as much for laughs as it is for darkness and Potter fans will not be disappointed with his attention to detail.  It is also a physically exhausting movie to watch, as it shifts up and down the gears like the driver of the Knight Bus and there are times when you will find yourself gripping the seat and forgetting to breathe!

However, if you were thinking of reading the book again (or for the first time) before going to see the movie, my advice to you is "Don't".  This is probably the movie that, of the three so far, most deserves the classification "Based on a book by J.K. Rowling" because although all the key plot elements, events and characters are all in there, several more have been cut out or happen in such a different way that faithful book fans will go bananas trying to untangle the sequences.  No, although it has to skip, skim and even leave some details to the imagination, this movie stands on its own quite nicely thank you and you will do yourself a favor if you just immerse yourself in its version of the story.

I don't know that Cuaron's Hogwarts is necessarily a lot darker than in either of the first two movies but there is a noticeable change in scale.  Big sets like the Great Hall and staircases obviously remain but this time, the Hogwarts exteriors seem to have been filmed around more confined spaces.  Rather than using the expansive grounds of Alnwick Castle, Hagrid's Hut has been transplanted halfway down a Scottish gully and within the castle walls, outdoor action largely takes place in the cloistered courtyard.  I've seen the word "gothic" used to describe the overall look but I think it might be more accurate to say that this Hogwarts shows more evidence of its medieval heritage.

The young cast has made another quantum leap in performance and this time they certainly get some decent material to showcase their growing talents.  Often, it's the little touches that make you realize how much their performances have matured, such as an inflection here or a knowing look there.  We're introduced to the much-hyped teenage Harry (Dan Radcliffe, of course) pretty much straight away, when he scowls sullenly at his abusive Uncle Vernon and retorts sarcastically to his pompous, overbearing Aunt Marge, then smirks behind her back until one last stinging insult from her pushes him over the edge into rage.  Harry has a lot to do emotionally in this movie - he has to be angry, he has to be terrified, he has to break down at the discovery of the betrayal of his parents, he has to be hopeful, he has to hate, he has to be overjoyed - and Dan pulls off the whole lot magnificently again.  It's a wonderfully natural and uninhibited performance and it really makes you feel for, and with, Harry.  You can't help but grin as he rides Buckbeak over the lake, whooping with joy.

Hermione (Emma Watson) has know-it-all disdain down to a fine art now but she saves it for special occasions, otherwise she's your smart and sympathetic friend.  She's very take-charge in this movie, from slugging the obnoxious Draco to working out how to save the day in the closing scenes.  I thought Ron (Rupert Grint) got a bit of a raw deal though - he got a few good lines in but his primary function seemed to be saying "Bloody hell" a lot or to be freaked out by Hermione mysteriously turning up beside him in lessons.  Draco (Tom Felton) was a great improvement on the last movie - one minute strutting arrogance, the next minute a squealing coward and much more natural all round.  And Matthew Lewis does a lovely job as Neville, victim of several of the comic relief moments - he has such a great sense of timing.  One scene which worked especially well and demonstrated how natural and comfortable the younger actors are in their roles wasn't even part of the plot.   The Gryffindor boys hold a midnight feast in their dorm, sampling various magical candies, joking and laughing about their effects (this is the bit where steam comes out of Harry's ears) and having pillow fights and the camera hangs back so that you have more of a sense of eavesdropping on a real life event rather than watching a scene in a movie.

The adult cast is its usual stellar self and, once again, there are some fantastic choices for the new characters.  Michael Gambon is a worthy successor to the late Richard Harris and plays Dumbledore much more dynamically and with a wicked twinkle in his eye and it's a shame we don't get to see more of him.  David Thewlis, who plays new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin, comes across as a very sympathetic sort of uncle figure to Harry - there are very touching scenes where Lupin counsels Harry on the Covered Bridge and later teaches him the Patronus Charm.  The first time Harry managed the charm, the audience actually cheered.  Gary Oldman is outstanding as Sirius Black, the titular prisoner - he is so focused and brilliantly insane in his moments of psychotic fury and yet later, he still manages his own poignant scenes with Harry.  Timothy Spall was my first choice for Peter Pettigrew even before Chamber of Secrets came out and he makes his cringing, wheedling rat of a character very convincing.  More on these last three later because they have a scene together that deserves special mention.  Emma Thompson plays the spaced-out Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney, with obvious glee and provides some great comic moments.  Snape, McGonagall and Hagrid are the returning staff members, Snape seeming even more loathsome this time around.

The non-human cast tries very hard to steal the show again.   Buckbeak the hippogriff (part CGI, part animatronic) looks surprisingly realistic for a fantastic beast and displays quite a personality.  The movie also has some fun with the Monster Book Of Monsters, which Harry has to lure out from under his bed with a shoe and which later makes a point of ferociously attacking Neville.  However, the award for baddest attitude by a non-human goes to the Whomping Willow, which gets a much bigger role than in the last movie, including a vicious aerial assault on Harry and Hermione.  Cuaron also uses the Willow a few times for rapid sight gags between scenes, marking a change in seasons by the sudden simultaneous shedding of all its leaves or snacking on a passing bird, which disappears with a loud snap and a cloud of feathers.

Good scenes?  Oh what to pick, there were so many gems...  The inflation of Aunt Marge, although played rapidly, is played for laughs all the way.  Even as Harry storms out of the house with his trunk, you can still see her bobbing over the rooftops.  Harry's ride to London on the Knight Bus is absolutely dizzying - the speeded-up footage accompanied by a jazzy soundtrack makes you carsick (bus-sick?) just looking at it.  The backseat-driving Rasta shrunken head that hangs from the driver's rear view mirror is another wonderful comic touch (and expertly voiced by Lenny Henry).

It's refreshing to hear something so upbeat on a Potter soundtrack and the jazz also provides the perfect background music for Lupin's first class as the students tackle the Boggart in the wardrobe, a scene that seems to have been cut woefully short.  The Hogsmeade scenes are picture-postcard gorgeous (again, it's in the details) and the attack on Draco and his cronies by an invisible assailant is quite hilarious.  What's left of the Quidditch is also quite a rollercoaster, with Harry swooping through the storm, trying to avoid a pack of dementors.  The effects team has done a wonderful job of making the dementors totally creepy, from their skeletal bodies and gaping mouths to their death-rattle breath to the way they glide toward their victims.  The scenes with the dementors are generally quite chilling, not least because they have a nasty habit of freezing anything they come close to.  The dementor attack on Sirius and Harry by the lake is a particularly intense, seat-gripping experience.  

Far and away the best scene in the movie though (and in the whole series in my opinion) is the final confrontation in the Shrieking Shack.  First of all, Harry finally lets out all that pent-up anger at Black, who is obviously the cause of all his troubles, an action which triggers a breathtaking sequence of events and exchanges between the assembled characters that is a total drama masterclass.  Black, Lupin and Pettigrew really let fly, tumbling over each other in a full-blown shouting match.  Folks, this ain't no kids' movie.  I can see why Dan said he was in awe of these three in this scene.

The Shrieking Shack sets up the final scenes of the movie, including the very convincing werewolf/animagus transformations, and although a lot of explanation has to fall by the wayside, the ending has been very creatively retooled for the big screen to maintain the pace and the tension.  Beyond that, I really don't want to say too much because it'll probably give the game away for the dozen or so people left on the planet who haven't read the book!  However, instead of dragging out a finale in the Great Hall, there's one very last quick scene that ends with a big surprise for Harry to tie up one last loose end.  The final freezeframe will please anyone who visits this site on a regular basis!

It's the little touches and details that make this movie and Alfonso Cuaron really knows when to use them and how to make the right scenes pop and he has delivered a masterpiece that will stand with the other two Potter movies yet be uniquely stamped as his own.  You don't need to unfog your Inner Eye to see that this movie is going to make a lot of people very happy.  :-)