Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Thoughts and Review

The Core RPGC Main Forum
1

LOOK! I’M NOT DEAD!!!

Being the humongous Potter-head I am, I saw the very first showing of the movie in Auburn. Big turnout for the crowds, too. It wasn’t a good book-to-movie translation, but it was a great movie on it’s own. As for the rest, I’m just going to spoiler it.

The Actor of Dumbledore***-The guy who replaced Richard Harris makes a pretty d@mn good Dumbledore… but seeing the transition between the two films is still awkward. Harris was tall, had that long white hair trend going on, meanwhile the new guy (don’t know name, bah) has kind of short, scragly hair. Moral: Richard Harris kicked arse in his roles in his day.

Knight Bus***-The Knight Bus scene went off more than perfectly. Although there was a shrunken head talking to Ern, the driver, that wasn’t mentioned in the book. But the scene was still very enjoyable nonetheless.

Stupid Actor Replacements***-WTF happened to Tom, the innkeeper in the first movie? He was replaced by another Tom, who could’ve taken SOME liberty to look like the Tom in the first movie. The first Tom was clothed like a bar keep, balding, but had hair, and didn’t move with a hunch. The new Tom could play Igor in any sick twisted horror film. I like the new actor better, but still…

Stupid Hollywood Cheapasses***-The first chapter in the book was almost completely omitted. And the opening of the movie was way different than the other two. But hey, new directors, new things. Although Chris Colombus WAS the producer. Argh. >: (

Stupid Hollywood Cheapasses pt.2***-The parts in the book where Harry and Co. go walking around Diagon Alley for their school stuff and etc. was cut. Budgeting I suppose. Most of the details that were cut were fitted in right enough, though.

Beauty isn’t everything…-I don’t know which is uglyer. Crookshanks, or the Garfield 3-D movie

C’mon Ride dat Choo-Choo***-The Train sequence went pretty well…different, of course, but well. Lupin’s actor really though me off. They could’ve chosen someone better, really.

Add-Ins***-Everything that was added in the movie that was not in the book was mucho excellent. Good move on the new directors part.

Kudos to Jon Williams, once more***-The soundtrack was… different. Not excatly much darker, but it branched off from the first two soundtracks, as the first two kinda “reprised” off of one another.

Too much Spam Spam Spam spam spam spam***Where was Nearly Headless Nick? Looks like John Cleese had enough…

Stupid Hollywood Cheapasses pt.4***Only one Quidditch match. It was really short, but it mainly focused on Cedric (who was never introduced, only shown. You could only speculate that it’s him if you read the books) and Harry’s race for the Snitch way above the stadium. And Harry falling off his broom. The sequence was nice, but the match could’ve been longer. Also, since there was only one match, that means no Cho Chang and Firebolt match either. Probably due to budgeting, AND they’d have to make sure Cho played in movies 3, 4 (which is in production even as you read this) and 5, and so on. Also, this means no bloody QUIDDITCH CUP awarding. This pissed me off anyway you look at it. It’s easy enough to understand why they cut it but still…

In addition to above…***Oh, the actor that played Oliver Wood wasn’t in this one, either.

Monster in my pock…um…CLOSET!*[SPOILER]-They DIDN’T cut the Boggart scene, however. But they fked it up. Seriously. [/SPOILER]

What does a Hippogriff taste like anyways?***-Buckbeaks scene was bloody amazing and true enough to the books.

Score one for America. Add a negative marking next to it, though…***-Trelawny, the Divination teacher, was the ONLY American casted in this movie. And they made her the nutcase. How fitting…

Mischief Mangled!..not too much***-The sequence of the first Maruders Map was different as well. But better than it was in the book. For realz

Stupid Hollywood cheapasses pt.5/OR/LAW CONSPIRACY!***-The majority of Buckbeaks appeal was butchered. The important parts were kept, but not much. This also means the feud between Ron and Hermione was cut as well. Damnit, Hollywood, that was a crucial part!!!

Mommy never wuved meh***-When Harry flashbacked to his parents, he only heard his mom scream twice. That’s IT! Hollywood once again cut off on a real treat. >: (

The best thing done right in the movie***The entire sequence where the trio discover Scabbers in Hagrids hut to the end was terrific. I can’t belive the actually pulled it off, and THEN some!

W…T…F?***The ending is different as well. There’s no train-home sequence or anything. No Ron’s owl, no note form for Hogsmeade, etc. And at the END OF THE MOVIE is where Harry got the firebolt. Then the movie ends.

It was a good movie, don’t get me wrong, just not a good movie. Either way, go see it.

NOW!!!

Oh, and I don’t give a damn what anybody says, Emma Watson is too fucking cute.

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Cute maybe, but- forgetit. Go read the SomethingAwful weekend web instead. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m looking forward to seeing this one more than the other two. Probably has something to do with the fact that the book was darker than the previous two. Does that come off well in the film?

Also, all Americans are nutcases. The end.

3

He’s right. We really are.

Dunno if I’m interested enough to see this in the theater, but I’ll definately give it a rent.

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I just saw it at the drive-in, and I must say, I agree with you wholeheartedly Kagato.

5

This was my favorite book by far, however they butched every reason that I loved the book - the tremendous back story introductions to James Potter and his little crew of mischevients.

They left out the all of the relations between James, Lupin, Pettigruw and Moody, and they also left out why Snape hates Harry so much. They left out all the cool little facts, like the relationship between Lupin, the Whomping Willow and the Screaming Shack at hogsmeade. They never really captured the mysteriousness of Sirius Black, and they never truley explored the fear of Sirius Black being after Harry, mainly because they cut out the mailing of the Firebolt and it’s confiscation.

They left out everything that made it my favorite book of the series, sinking it to being my least favorite movie of the three. As far as being a movie goes, the movie felt like it dragged on in many places, leaving me pretty bored. I was completly uncaptivated until Hermoine and Harry traveled back in time, where they did an excellent job of showing that certain aspects of what had happened were caused by the time travellers, such as the throwing of the stones. They also completly butchered the relationship between Sirius Black and Harry, Ron and Hermoine. By leaving out the letter, and the signed permission slip for Hogsmeade, they’ve made Sirius Black “just another guy”, while in the other books Black plays a major role in guiding the trio in what to do at school, and informing them a great deal about whats going on in the outside world. They almost made good on the Black-Harry relationship by including the invitation to come live with Sirius, and Harry telling Hermoine how he wants to escape the Dursleys, but that wasn’t enough to show that Black truley wanted to be in Harry’s life.

The Patronus was also pretty fucked up. It took Harry months to learn how to even produce a patronus, much less one as grandiose as the first one he conjured. His first few were small whisps of light, not giant shields.

Overall, I was severely dissapointed. And they made me fill out a survey, which wasn’t as obnoxious as the guy that stood in front of the screen during the Catwoman trailer, where I was happily oogling Halle Berry. That and these kids kept doing laps around the audience during the movie. I had the urge to just trip one of them. Survey people and screaming children aside, this was easily the worst of the three movies thus far.

However, I must note that I liked the cinematography of the movies a lot more than I did in the past. I always felt like Hogwarts was far too constricted, while the new director expanded the school grounds considerably, making the school feel far more open. But I liked Christopher Columbus, the original director, far more for keeping the movies true to the books.

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Yessss. This is what bugged me the most about the movie.

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Yeah, the relations between the animagi being cut out was irritatingI think the director took the “shorter playig time” a bit too far to heart. But who knows, mayb there’ll be an extended vesion on DVD.

Oh yeah, and was anybody else thinking Buck Rogers with the rain gear for the Quidditch costumes? Dig Harry’s goggles.

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Parts of the movie were kinda grainy, that quidditch scene where Harry is chasing the snitch above the stadium and when Lupin changed into a werewolf - the screen suddenly got really grainy looking. It was a cool effect, but I can’t really figure out why they did that.

9

So it’s good and not good at the same time?

10

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but one of my friends (who really likes the books) saw it yesterday and told me that it wasn’t like the book that much at all…

11

Yeah, basically. It’s a decent movie without having read the book, but having read the book sort of deteriorates the movie quite a bit.

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I watched the movie yesterday with my mom - I enjoyed it for its darker feel, but I was very disappointed at the amount of content left out. My opinion would be very much in line with Sorcerer’s (God, does that ever happen really? lol), even down to the specifics. We can leave out the Halle Berry part and the track star kids, though.

I have the first two on DVD, but I’m not sure if I’ll get this one too.

Oh, and I don’t know exactly why, but I just like Professor Snape. Maybe it’s the Alan Rickman part of it, but I just like that character.

13

Wow. There does seem to be a lot going on with this movie. If this thread isn’t dead by the time I’ve seen it, I’ll post my 2 cents.

14

I don’t really like the movies. They seem kind of… stale. Maybe its the British accents :P. I also thought that Tom Riddle over-acted in the last movie.

They did a good job casting the parts for the first two movies, though.

15

Well, I haven’t seen the movie yet. And from all these reviews, I might just wait till it comes out on DVD, and rent it then.

But if they have cometly screwed this one up (when comparing it to the book), I’ll be really disappointed, because this is my favourite one of the series. And I was really looking forward to a good adaptation,

16

Good movie. The book was better. However, I’d like to say that this observation is the same with any movie based on a book. The book is always better. You can’t make a perfect movie adaptation of a book. No way, no how.

17

This is true. And as the HP books get longer, they’re going to have to cut more unnecessary things out. For someone who hasn’t read the book, this won’t matter much (they won’t know what’s missing and what’s not), but it is irritating to those of us who have read the books. At least nothing really essential was cut out, with the exception of the backstory to the Marauders and Snape.

I personally liked the movie. It managed to stay somewhat close to the source, which is all I ask. I liked Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, as well. He puts in a good performance as a younger, more spry Dumbledore. Richard Harris was good, but it seemed like he was never really in on the action. I never watched the second movie, but that’s what I had gathered from the first one. I liked David Thewlis and Gary Oldman as Remus and Sirius, and hate the way they’re portraying Draco. He’s too whiny and simpering this time around. :\ I agree with the feeling that it’s a good movie and isn’t at the same time, but I think it’s worth seeing at the theatre if you can.

As a final note, when Sirius was standing next to Harry and they were watching the castle, Gary Oldman totally looked like Jesus to me. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

I just saw it today (I usually don’t see movies in the theater, but we had essentially free tickets). It’s been a while since I read the book, so I don’t remember exactly what was cut out and what wasn’t, but it was definitely more of a departure than the fan-directed first two movies. :sunglasses: [SPOILERS]

One thing I noticed was that the wizards looked far more Muggle-like. People wore normal clothes for part of the time (like Mr. Weasley, and the three protagonists in one scene); Lupin used a phonograph, and Snape used a slide projector. Not quite sure what the director was trying to prove with that.

I also thought his trick with having Hermione suddenly show up in the middle of class was silly, since they spend so much time saying how you can’t have anyone see you when you use the time turner; it doesn’t teleport you anywhere. 8p

I also noticed that Malfoy was portrayed differently… for one thing, he didn’t do anything really nasty this time round (he was pretty pathetic), and the loss of his greased-back look made him less odious. Although I guess Cuaron wanted to focus more on the Dementors than Malfoy.

As the series progresses, I think the movies will become less and less like the books (I have no idea how they plan on cramming a 600-page novel into a 2.5-hour movie, let alone an 800-page one). Either they’re going to have to ultra-simplify or it’ll just be a mess.

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I just saw the movie, and it was far superior to the first two before it. Keep in mind I haven’t read any of the books, but the third movie did a much better job making me care about what was going on than its predecessors.

20

I’d prefer to see them do a Titanic thing rather than keep omitting too many things.

((Titanic thing = Splitting it up into two (or maybe 3 at this rate).))