Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I will repeat myself again, I know that as an ordinary Muggle I have no say in this, but fire Radcliffe for God's sake! Although there are slight signs of improvement, he is still very weak and unconvincing especially in details, for example his acting while crying is a tragedy in itself. Moreover, his awful acting stands out in comparison with, say, the talented Emma Watson. But now to the better bits. I'm not going to join the rest with the notorious opinion of what a loser Columbus is (I wouldn't see him as that bad, just an honest craftsman) and how Cuarón, on the other hand, is amazing; they are just two different concepts. Cuarón strikes a darker chord (also thanks to an increasingly dense source material?), the dementors bring a needed light touch of horror and some scenes can give little kids a case of the creeps (keep it up). The Whomping Willow is awesome, Michael Gambon is an excellent replacement for Richard Harris, the visual effects are fine, the werewolf is sad. That’s it. Well, there’s something else. My desire for the Nimbus 2000 has passed, now I'm lusting after a hypogryph, model Klofan. (15/01/2005)

That is how things end up when fantasy material gets into the hands of a playful director with fantasy and his own vision. A crying shame that these movies weren’t like this from the very beginning. The change of environment and costumes improved the result. In the same way that part three was a turning point on its journey away from kids’ books to “more", this picture was crucial for the movie adaptations. It is a blessing that Chris Columbus’ boring and uninventive directing is a thing of the past. The only two downsides are the rendition of the werewolf and a certain absence of any link with past episodes. If somebody really liked the first ones, they might not get over the fundamental change in style and rendition. Even though it was a change for the better from all points of view. Thank god. P.S.: Every time we watched this again (lots), we were convinced again and again that SUCH GOOD, inventive and unique family movies come into being once in a blue moon. Proof of this is that now, more than a decade after the premiere I have still not come across any competition in the field of family movies. And by the way, this is the movie with the best and most tightly knotted time travel I have ever seen. (21/11/2010)

In the third Harry Potter film, Alfonso Cuarón shed the fairytale guise and served us a pretty grim and audiovisually perfect piece of filmmaking, which proudly stands at the top of the entire wizarding series. Compared to the previous two instalments, The Prisoner of Azkaban has seen a number of innovations (the look of Hogwarts and the grounds, the entrance to Gryffindor, etc), none of which have harmed the film in any significant way. The fencing match was handled wonderfully, the dementors were truly terrifying, and the appearance of the werewolf was the icing on the cake for me. The final third of the film is as good as it could have been, and the best (and least logical) scene was the one with the willow beater. The music, cinematography and visual effects were once again good. Three is a lucky number, and that is also true for Harry Potter. (21/06/2011)

The third Harry Potter didn't charm me either... But it was close. From a filmmaking point of view, it is definitely the best contribution to the trilogy so far – Cuarón works very well with the characters, has less cheesy color compositions and is more attached to the suggestiveness and impressiveness of the environment. From my point of view, however, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is brought down by an overly sparse and flimsy plot that somewhat dissolves in a number of episodes and bon mots. From this point of view, I considered The Chamber of Secrets a much more impressive piece. On the other hand, it is necessary to praise the excellent and variable music of John Williams, the acting of everyone except Michael Gabon (Dumbledore) and to highlight the fact that Harry Potter has ceased to be a shaggy child apprentice and is becoming quite a solid and interesting character. The literal and pandering children's film is turning into something quite impressive and dark... Cuarón did excellent job, but for me, The Prisoner of Azkaban is just a "solid" fantasy film that I would give 70%. (14/06/2004)

Harry Potter has always been a bit of a light rip-off of Peter Jackson's opus. It cleverly borrows various details, not very conspicuously, but I’ve found several very similar scenes or specific things in all three parts. In the third part, it is clearly the Dementors, who annoyingly resemble the breathtakingly executed Nazgûl. However, the truth is that this part is the darkest and least childish in the whole series. For the first time, there are horror elements, which will probably escalate further in later parts. It's not significantly better than the previous two parts, maybe just a little bit. (13/08/2006)