Reviews

Harry Potter Film Retrospect: Something AWESOME This Way Comes!

Yes something wicked this way came with the third Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. And it came with relative newcomer Alfonso Cuaron directing (who would later direct Children of Men and be nominated for three Academy Awards). This is who I like to think pioneered the cinematography and dark tones the rest of the series would follow. In Chamber of Secrets, there were definitely dark tones but they were kept on minimum. This one begins to unleash the darkness and gothic nature of the Potter books.

So let’s get down to it, what’s the plot? Well, after getting revenge on Aunt Marge, Harry goes to the Leaky Cauldron and stays there until he is ready to go back to school. During this, he hears about an escape from the wizard prison Azkaban by criminal Sirius Black. Of course, all sorts of twists and turns occur and the day is saved, as per usual. In the chronology of the series up to this point, Harry Potter had tried to get across emotional moments but was simply ruined by the child actors. Now that the actors were thirteen years old, they classified as teenagers and therefore could get emotional moments past better. The emotional drive of this movie and the fact that it’s all about Harry and his roots is what makes this one the best at this point. Die-hard fans hated this film when it came out because it wasn’t exactly the friendliest movie to look at. There is a lot of gothic imagery used in this film and the introduction of the dementors and werewolves meant it could never go back to being cutesy. A change I actually really like. The acting is so good now and Daniel Radcliffe can finally act somewhat but Emma Watson has gotten a big leap over Rupert Grint, making her the best of them. This movie actually gets a little complicated too, what with the time travel and discovery of the Potter’s real traitor. As well as all of the above, Sirius Black is introduced and thus we get the most badass dude in the entire franchise, as well as Harry’s father figure, which the poor kid deserves after all the shit he goes through. To be honest, I actually can’t think of anything that I find bad about this movie. As far as Harry Potter movies go, it’s really good. Thus why I give this film a 9/10 Awesome. I won’t give it Instant Classic because, let’s face it, it’s still Harry Potter and it’s not exactly Citizen Kane or Les Misérables. But for what we get, we got the closest thing we’ve had to a perfect Potter film in the series at this point and it seemed to be a series that was slowly crawling up the ladder. Join me next time when I discuss… That film.