Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – A review from the clueless.

Okay, I’ll admit – I haven’t read the book. I’m not kidding when I say I don’t really enjoy reading novels too often. I realize that this movie is obviously being sold to the book lovers; those tikes have a much greater advantage… like possibly enjoying it to name one. However, there is still a small number of us that quite fancy movies and will view just about anything if invited – and hey, I didn’t mind the first film and this director has some clout behind him – so why not, right? That said, at 4PM today, I sat down to watch the newest Harry Potter flick and folks…. I didn’t like it. Nope. Not at all.

I’m no dummy – I’ll give credit when it’s due, this sucker had some really tight visuals – the acting was great and often humourously exaggerated (Emma Thompson) and various scenes were shot really sharply. Long story short: It looked great if you were watching it in bits. Very small bits. But I wasn’t. It was one long bit. Let me say that with a bit more intent: ONE REALLY F**KINGLY LONG bit. Holy crap.

Once the story was rolling, the scenes were strung together with such abandon, I, who can pride himself on graduating from grade 8 a LOOONG time ago, had no definite clue as to what was going on. Timelines and continuity were blown to bits like yesterday’s spicy food from my butt. Meanwhile the list of character names and references grew and grew until I had no clue who anyone was anymore. I didn’t want to feel like I was over-examining the film, but I would’ve appreciated some clue as to why some situations were being shown to me as there was no lead up to it at all. Repeat this a number of times and you’re left depending on the film’s constant direct dialogue to fill you in… You know what I mean, right? When the movie basically spells out EXACTLY what’s going on?… When a character says something like: “Remember when so-and-so told us that if we were ever in “Situation X” [situation X being whatever’s happening RIGHT NOW], then we were supposed to do [insert some crazy cool looking event that had no previous mention]?” The rest of the scene would surprisingly enough, be a visual of whatever was just “revealed” to you. This got quite annoying — and seemed to be the movie’s acknowledgment that its story was flopping along like an old man’s prowess.

Again, let me compound that had I been a FAN of the books, I understand that it may have made a lot more sense to me, on top of that, I’m not the target audience. However, that only shows me that the book to screen transfer was unsuccessful. And don’t even get me started on the “ending” – which was drawn out more than Da Vinci’s doodles. At parts, I was surprised it held some children’s attention. If you asked me to quickly tell you exactly what the final battle was and who it was between, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Folks, there’s some good stuff to look at, and even some laughs – I’ll give the film that much. But if these books were based on the films instead of vice versa, there’s no way they would deserve to be as popular as they are.

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5 thoughts on “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – A review from the clueless.

  1. I found it horriable i love the books and the first two movies we awesome but the thing that realy killed it for me was the scenary changed the whole hogwarts grounds were trurned upside donw the whopming willow is in the wrong play hargirds cabbin is no in a ditch when it ust to be on pegs and near a brilliantly green flowing lawn this realy annoyed me and as a result i couldnt enjoy the movie also the hogwarts ghosts and teachsr like nearly headless nick , prof dumbldoor , ect ect didnt appear more then once and finaly the quiddich was anbismale with no actualy quidditch shown just a few seconds of the snitch all in all i think the director should be fired this was by far worse then the matrix revolutions which i thought was the worst ever on a not to whats was up with the name calling betwee ron and hermione calling him ronald and calling harry harold i mean what the hell that never happened in the books

    [email protected] if u wanna chat more baout how bad the movie was

  2. I went to see the prisoner of azkaban last night. I agree, it extremely disappointing. I have read all five of the books and watched the last two movies, and after all they hype about the third movie, i was looking forward to it. After seeing it, I regret having gone to the cinema for it. I would have preferred to have waited till it was out on dvd and watched it at a friends house. It would have saved me wasting my money. I saw the movie with my fiance, and had to spend an hour after viewing it to explain what everything meant and how it tied in. What is the point of having a movie if you have to read the book to understand it? They missed too much important information and kept in too much stupid stuff. All in all, i think i would give it a 3 out of 10.

  3. LOTR was beautifully laid out. Not once was I lost or confused about who a character was or what they were supposed to be doing.

    I read the books so long ago that I have forgotten more than I recall. They offered no help to me. I went in blind and was lead like a child throught this wonderous world Tolkien crafted, and never once stumbled to remember what was going on.

    Havent seen Potter yet, but my 6 year old keeps begging me!!

  4. What you’re saying is essentially one of the problems I have with the LOTR trilogy.
    No one seems to acknowledge this with respect to LOTR though…

  5. I just saw the movie today too, and I can say that I don’t understand how can anyone like it. I’ve read all of the Harry Potter books, and I did understand everything that was going on in the movie, but I also know about a lot of stuff which should have been in the movie, and wasn’t. The people who have read the books will probably think that the movie lacks a lot of stuff. And the people who haven’t read the books won’t understand the movie. The movie could have been very good, it’s got some very clever shots, some decent maybe even good acting, and good special effects. It just lacked the proper flow of events.

    Also the world of Harry Potter seems completely different in this movie than in the previous one (I know that the first two movies were made by a different director, but still, it should feel like the same world). For example, Hagrid’s cabin is now lost around some sort of mountains, while it was clearly not there in the previous movies. The whole scenery around Hogwarts looks different too. The movie also has many plot holes not found in the book. For example, no one explains why Sirus is an animagus or how does he and Loopin know about the map.

    Also, many of the scenes in the movie could have been cut out, and replaced with other scenes which are needed and are not there. I appreciate Cuaron’s touch, but he should have been more careful; the movie should make sense to everyone, not only those of us who read the books.

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