Film: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón

Year: 2004

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman

Reviewed by: The Zombieslayer

After reading Kate's review, I had to write a counter.

Harry Potter tracks down a psychotic killer who was responsible for Harry's parents' deaths. Yes, it was considerably darker than the last two movies.

This time around, Harry shows a much larger range of emotions. The actors have matured, and the HP series finally got a top notch director. This is Cuarón's best work, even better than Y Tu Mamá También.

Cuarón does a marvelous job at developing characters. We get to see Ron's insecurities in a non-cartoonish way. We get to see Hermoine's rebel side. And we get to see Harry enraged in anger.

Oldman did a marvelous job with Sirius Black, but the other character I admired was Professor Lupin, played by David Thewlis. Thewlis captured the good professor cursed with the lyncanthropy disease perfectly.

Cuarón also did a great job with little things that you don't notice until you watched the movie three of four times. He did that with the other movie I saw he did. He has a great eye for detail, better than any of the other HP directors.

I seriously regret that he wasn't asked to do HP4 as well, which I thought wasn't as good. The director of HP4 lacked the character development skills that Cuarón possesses.

Head and shoulders above the others in the Harry Potter series, this is the most watchable for film geeks. I rarely give a mainstream movie this high of a rating. This is how you make a fantasy movie. Hollywood, take note.

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