Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
There’s a point near the last act of the third Harry Potter film when the series finally goes beyond its literary roots and becomes a real “movie”, one that works as cinema, and can stand alone as a good film in its own right. The first two instalments seemed little more than filmed versions of the books, though, to be fair, they were entertaining and colourful adventures. The replacement of director Chris Columbus with Alfonso Cuarón combined with the darker tone of the book results in a movie that is easily the best of the series so far.
This time Harry is wary of Sirius Black, an escapee from Azkaban, who seems to have been party to his parents’ murder, and who now may be after Harry. Dementers, wraith-like creatures, are deployed around Hogwarts to ward Black away. Meanwhile, Harry takes lessons from the new Master of the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Lupin, while Hagrid is promoted to professor, teaching flying lessons with Buckbeak, an oh-it’s-not-Pegasus type creature. Of course, Hermione and Ron are there every step of the way.
All the extraneous scenes that made the previous films episodic have been trimmed, resulting in a much more focused story, even if sometimes the plotting is not as precise as it could be; for the uninformed, there is much that is left unexplained. Cuarón guides us through this world with a great visual sense, including a tongue-in-cheek moment when some snow appears to be splattered on the lens.
Where the three lead actors were timid in the previous outings, here they are strong and forthright. They’re growing with their characters — Hermione, especially, seems to be taking charge more often than Harry. The main “cameo by a famous British actor” this time is Emma Thompson, playing the rather wacky Sybil Trelawney.
If “darker and more interesting” was the most used line to describe the Chamber of Secrets, then it is equally applicable to Azkaban. Combine that with Cuarón’s skills, better characterisation and better performances from the leads and you have a movie that’s even worth the time of non Harry Potter fans.
***½ (out of four)
Josh
