Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [movie]

I was a bit harsh at first, so I editted my post to reflect two points of view.

Review [Disregarding the Book]
This is my favorite story yet mostly because the story has matured and is getting darker.  An esacped convict from an inescapable prison, dementors who can suck the very life from a person, werewolves.  

The mood of the third book is captured perfectly as the new director shifts to a somewhat washed out and gritty look.  It works brilliantly along with some of the most interesting camera work I\'ve seen lately.

Using the whomping willow to change seasons, showing the effect of dementors, the hippogriff, this movie certainly has its\' charm.

I do have some problems with the film though, mostly questions that the film raises but doesn\'t bother to answer:

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Why is the whomping willow over the passage way to the shriek shack?

Why is it that Lupin knew how to use the Marauder\'s Map?

Why did Harry summon that deer?
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They don\'t ruin the movie by any means but they should have been answered in this film.

Review [Considering the book]
The director needs to be hunted down and beaten, then forced to remake the movie from his own personal funds.
Well, it\'s not that bad but...

The third book, IMO, is the most frightening of the series. It\'s certainly the most suspenseful, mysterious, and intense. The book conveyed a strong feeling that Harry was in danger every step he took. It plays out perfectly to give this huge shock and twisted ending.

This movie takes out all of that and chunks it out focusing instead on the absolute basics with some nice camera work and special effects.  The story is still intriguing but hardly as intense as the book.  I never once felt frightened for Harry or anyone else for that matter. The director also went and rearranged the sequence of events in the movie not to mention cutting out some major details further expanding the knowledge of Harry\'s dad...WHY?

People who have read the book, expect the following details to be completely gone:

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The origins of the Whomping Willow
That\'s right, the film does not inform you as to why there is an angry tree on Hogwart\'s grounds.

I\'ll remind you...the whomping willow was placed on top of a passage to a house, later known as the shriek shack. Remus Lupin(werewolf) would go there during the full moon.

Why the Shriek Shack is "haunted"
Why bother mentioning, several times mind you, that the place is haunted then never explain?

This is were they kept Remus during the full moon. Lupin\'s transformations back then were painful so he howled and screamed while in the shack. Villagers at Hogsmeade thought it was violent spirits so it became known as the shriek shack.

The origins of the Marauder\'s Map
The names are on the map, but it never gets mentioned as to who made the map and why those funny names are on it. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. This would have been an opportunity to dive into James Potter\'s past...but I guess that\'s not important!!

James Potter(Prongs), Remus Lupin(Moony), Peter Pettigrew(Wormtail), and Sirius Black(Padfoot) were unregistered Animagus. Wizards who can turn into animals, except for Lupin who had no choice during the full moon. All of which who were friends.

This would have helped explain the stag when Harry summoned the patronous.

Why Crookshanks was after Scabbers
Another detail put in the movie but hardly enough to take notice, I guess that\'s why they didn\'t bother explaining it.

Crookshanks had become friends with Padfoot(Sirius) and was asked to get scabbers(Peter).

Why Snape was mad at Sirius
This confusion could have been avoided had the director bothered to get into James Potter\'s past.

James Potter and his friends picked on Sirius back in school. This is also why Sirius had a disliking for Remus...which wasn\'t portrayed in the movie.

Peter Pettrigrew and his betrayal
It would have been nice to get an insight as to how/why Peter pulled off his fake death. You get a half assed explanation instead.

Peter Pettrigew had known the where abouts of James and Lily Potter. He sold them out to Voldemort. He had been a spy for Voldemort.

Other details that were left out:
-They didn\'t explain that third year students can go to Hogsmeade.

-Didn\'t show Azkaban Prison...not once!

-How Sirius escaped from Azkaban.

-Who the dementors were once loyal to.

-Harry actually gets the Firebolt as a mysterious gift halfway through the book. (The movie has him get it at the VERY END)
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I read the book almost two years ago so I could be forgetting some of the finer details. The details I bothered to mention should have been in the movie, no questions asked, especially considering there was time to do it in.

I\'m glad they have another director for the fourth movie but I can\'t help but be worried for it. Goblet of Fire is a huge book and there is no way they could squeeze in all the details into one movie. It\'s been suggested that it will be two movies, I certainly hope so.



Overall, still my favorite of the books and my favorite of the movie\'s even though it left some unanswered questions.
4/5

I didn\'t read all that because I\'m not a Harry Potter nerd.  Also, maybe you should have used the spoiler tag a little in that message.

In any case, I can understand why people have an urge to get upset when their favorite book is adapted to a movie.  Just remember that novels and movies are different, and NO BOOK can be flawlessly transferred to the screen.  If so, it would become boring as hell.

PS:  The movie has an 89% approval rating on rotten tomatoes, so I doubt that it\'s a terrible as you\'re saying.  I will see it in due course.

Sorry to spoil it, I\'ll edit it.

I had to go through this already and I\'ve considered the fact that there are no direct book to movie translations.  I\'m entitled to my own opinion so it\'ll be as good or bad as I say it is.

I\'ve read the entire series and have seen all three movies now.  The first two movies were extremely close to the books, in fact the second movie comes straight from the book page for page, save for a quidditch match.

The PoA movie fails to answer several questions it raises and that\'s where I just can\'t approve of it.  Given that this is the shortest of the three films I can\'t help but wonder why they skipped out on some rather short but important details.

[sp]At the very least they should have gone into why Lupin knew how to use the map, why Harry summoned that stag, and why the whomping willow is on the grounds and why they showed it so much.

This could have been explained in less than a minute while everything else was getting dropped at the Shriek Shack.
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Cuaron is already expected to return for the fifth film and possibly the sixth.  He made a gorgeous movie that really captured the mood of the third book.  I just can\'t get past the idea he left out two crucial details that could have been added in a minute!