Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban review

aelst's review

This movie is really long, but I found it fun all the way through. This one features werewolves, a griffon (first one I've seen in a movie), and elements of fear, time travel and a nasty rat. This is still a kid's movie, but had some scary / dark moments. I treated it as light entertainment and found it very enjoyable, and luckily there were less of those boring quiddich scenes.

I still haven't read any of the books. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

ratbag's review

At last -- a kid's flick that adults can truly enjoy! The third installment of the Harry Potter film feels more like a complete film, and less like a merchandising ploy. In Alfonso's capable hands, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" turned out to be an enjoyable movie where character and plot development is the focus of the film, rather than an emotionally void CGI-packed extravaganza. This means fewer useless scenes showing off singing paintings, headless horsemen, quiddich, etc.

The kids in the film are now more grown up, and less pretentious. The film also has a darker, scarier feel to it -- the Dementors are truly frightening! Kids who have read the book would probably nitpick about how certain scenes have been left out, but not having read the book myself, I would say that in itself, the film succeeded in thoroughly entertaining me throughout the 141 minutes.

The other "Harry Potter" films brought audiences down to a lowest common denominator. This one might be a little too scary and confusing for the younger audiences.