Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

#104 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban continues the young wizard's journey. This time, he is in his third year at Hogwarts, and he has found himself in a lot of trouble. A man by the name of Sirius Black has escaped from the wizarding prison: Azkaban. His target? Harry Potter. The school has hired extra protection to surround the school - the dementors. Dementors are soul-sucking creatures that have one job: to attack suspicious witches and wizards. They create a bit of a problem for Harry when he comes face to face with them a few times throughout the school year. Professor Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, has taken a liking to Harry, and he agrees to teach Harry the patronus spell to ward off the dementors. He catches on to the spell very quickly, which is good, because he is attacked by a swarm of dementors when he is trying to help the allegedly dangerous Sirius Black. Harry finds out that Sirius Black is his godfather, and that he did not betray his parents all those years ago. It was a man named Peter Pettigrew: an animagus (or man who can transfigure into an animal) who has been posing as Ron's pet rat Scabbers for 12 years. He sold the Potters out to Voldemort when Harry was just a baby, so that is the man that Lupin, Black, and Potter team up against when the time is right. Just when they have Pettigrew in their hands, ready to ship him off to Azkaban, the full moon rises, and we find out that Professor Lupin is a werewolf. He transforms, and Pettigrew scurries away to safety. Now you would think that this is nearing the end of the story, but it is not. Hermione has been using a Time Turner to take on her full load of classes during the term. Hermione and Harry use the Time Turner to go back a few hours to not only save Sirius Black from being discovered, but also to save Buckbeak: a hippogriff of Hagrid's that has been sentenced to death for "attacking" Draco Malfoy. They are successful on both accounts, and Sirius escapes with Buckbeak. 

I hate this movie. I hated the book as well. At this point in the series, Christopher Columbus left the director's chair and passed it off to Alfonso Cuaron. Alfonso tried to put a gritty spin on the scenes by making it darker visually...it didn't work. It's awful. There are so many changes from Chamber of Secrets to Prisoner of Azkaban that I don't think I ever stop criticizing the screen out loud. Whether it's an eye roll or a blatant WTF, I am constantly upset with this film. One of the changes that sticks out to me the most is the placement of the Whomping Willow. In Chamber of Secrets, the Whomping Willow plays a huge role at the beginning of the film. Ron's flying car smacks into it, and it is thrown onto the ground at the base of the school. The tree is directly next to the school. In Prisoner of Azkaban, the tree is on the side of a cliff about half a mile from the nearest entrance to the school. That isn't even the school grounds anymore, so Snape's line about the tree being a part of Hogwarts "since before you were born" doesn't make any sense when the tree is moved in the third film. I think I like the idea of the tree being further away from the school, because the real reason the Whomping Willow attacks is because Lupin, Black, Potter, and Pettigrew enchanted it to hide Lupin when he would transform into a werewolf...however, a director must stay consistent with the other films, and in this case, he did not. 

I also don't like the awkward humor that was put into the script. It seems misplaced. For example, the scene with the Minister of Magic in the upstairs level of The Leaky Cauldron. He has this weird Igor-like assistant that, I think, would draw some major attention to himself; however, he walks out into the streets of London to turn off the alarm on his regular "Muggle" car. That would NEVER happen! Seriously? The assistant to the Minister of Magic has a car in London? Um no. I didn't like that at all. I also don't like the odd scene where the Gryffindor boys are eating candy in their common room. Each boy eats a piece of candy that makes them sound like an animal - and Harry has one that blows steam out of his ears. I get that it's a scene showing how the boys have a bond, and they have fun sometimes - not always serious and focused on school - however, it is short and really stupid. I don't like to bash the actors because two of them are my absolute favorites (Rupert Grint and Matthew Lewis) but even the acting is bad in this scene. It's like they felt how stupid and misplaced the scene was as well. 

I will only talk about one more thing that bothered me because, quite honestly, I could go on forever. Why was it necessary to change the look of Professor Flitwick? They made him go from a cool looking wizard to a creepy looking (pedophile-like) character. Not okay at all. Because of this change, the other directors had to keep this to stay consistent. Changing Flitwick once might not be noticed, but if another director chose to change his look, it would be noticed. It makes me upset. I loved Flitwick as a cute old wizard.

Okay, so I lied. The last thing I have to complain about is that STUPID. F'ING. TIME. TURNER! I hate it. I hate it with a passion. Just when you think the film is coming to an end, Hermione flips that Time Turner around, and we have to watch everything Harry and Hermione did over the past hour AGAIN. It's awful. Yeah sure, they save Sirius Black from going back to Azkaban, but other than that, who cares? It's like when the Teletubbies scream "Again, again!" and then that stupid baby replays the same damn video we just watched. I want to shoot myself, and I tune out immediately...or change the channel. It makes this movie seem long, and it made me close the book and actually give up for awhile.

The only redeeming qualities to this film are that it followed the book pretty well, and it has Professor Lupin in it. Lupin is one of the best characters in the series, so I feel they did a great job of portraying him on screen. David Thewlis is fantastic as Remus Lupin. I also like seeing Hogsmeade on screen. It's such a fun place, and I think it was brought to life wonderfully. Honeydukes is gorgeous. Only problem I have is that Harry steals a lollipop from Neville, and then carries it through the streets of Hogsmeade under the Invisibility Cloak...but 1) no one notices the lollipop and 2) he wouldn't be able to physically carry the lollipop and wear the cloak without some other part of his body being seen....his hand...

Overall, I don't think Alfonso Cuaron should have ever been given this movie to direct. He made an unlikable story even more unlikable. 

I have to end on this...who the hell is this kid? Honestly. He just comes out of nowhere with these philosophical lines, and he's never been seen in any of the other films. Did he like win a contest or something? He's literally everywhere in this movie.

I give Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 3 out of 5 stars.