Now I know some kid is going to google the title of this blog post and read this post instead of seeing the actual movie. But I warn you, this is only a review and not a plot summary of the movie. Still, if you want to find spoilers on the harry potter 3 movie on the internet, be my guest!
Since Colin is too much of a wuss to write the spoiler (and he almost jumped out of his seat in the scene where Prof. Trelawney goes all psychotic on Potter) , I guess I will :D
Well, first off, the movie was half good, half bad. As Katan points out, the cinematography was the BEST out of all the previous HP's. Alfonso Cuarón is an AWESOME director! But due to the length and detail of the book, they had to cut out LOTS of bits and pieces from the book. But I'll explain that part later. Rants first:
Observation 1. Dumbledore
OMG Who is *that* new old guy and what happened to the old Dumbledore?? Oh yeah, he died. But still, this new Dumbledore, played by Michael Gambon, will NEVER fill the old Dumbledore's shoes! Ever! Where the old Dumbledore was kind, all-powerful, and grandfatherly, the new Dumbledore was too sharp, too quick, and dresses like a retired hippie painter. Overall, I don't like him, but I guess I'll have to put up with him throughout the next 4 HP movies.
Secondly, I'd like to discuss the book/movie discrepancies (something that colin could not possibly write about because he never read the book!)
Dude, Prof. Lupin's class was supposed to be *awesome*. From what I remember of the book, they fought a lot more evil monsters and what not in Lupin's class. And their final exam was to go through some sort of obstacle course fighting monsters right? To me, it seems as though they just glossed over the book, picking out only the most crucial parts of the story to maintain a logical plot. I mean, the Harry Potter books are not just all about Harry going to school, Harry fighting evil Voldemort, Harry triumphing and moving on to the next book. Rowling actually creates a whole wizarding world. I think we as the movie-going audience should get to see what it's like to go to a school of witchcraft and wizardry. I know you get to see Prof. Trelawney's class some and Lupin's class, but come on, they had more classes than that!
And their clothes. The first two HP movies were more traditional in the fact that they pretty much stick to the book. All the students wore their little Hogwarts uniforms. But how much uniform did you see in this movie besides the bit they wore on the train?
Speaking of clothes, what's up with Hermione and wearing these bust-enhancing, butt-hugging clothes? We know she's growing up and becoming more "feminine" but there's no need to market her body to the general public. She's too young for that. Another thing she's too young for is all this hitting on Harry the second Ron's back is turned. I don't recall Hermione's character being all lovey-dovey towards Harry in the books. In fact, if any of you have read Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, ***SPOILER AHEAD*** you would know that Ron and Hermione had relationship issues in GoF and she ends up going out with that Viktor Krum guy while Harry goes for miss priss Cho Chang as evidenced in the 4th and 5th books. ***END SPOILER***
Also, WHAT WAS UP WITH MALFOY??? He's the big boss of Slytherin! He's Mr. Tough Stuff #1 Bully of the whole series! He's not some wimpy pansy-pants okay? So why was he backed up against the tree being beaten up by a girl? I could understand his running away after Harry uses the invisibility cloak and starts throwing snowballs at Malfoy and his two stooges, but his wimping out to Hermione is either really bad, fake acting, or else it demands some justification!
Lastly, they never explained how Lupin knew that the Maurader's Map (sp?) was a map! I guess they cut that scene out and are putting it in the DVD. ***SPOILER*** Lupin = Mooney, Sirius = Padfoot, Harry's Dad = Prongs, Peter Pettigrew = Wormtail ***END SPOILER***
Don't you love how all traitors have the word 'worm' in their name? (Grima Wormtongue from LOTR)
Okay I do have some good things to say about the movie, I promise.
Like how the dementors in this movie could be distinguished from ring wraiths. Dementors have a very round, oval-shaped head, which makes me wonder if their heads are just really one large rubber balloon filled with helium and covered with black cloth. The movie really gives you the sense that these black hooded phantoms sends darkness and despair into everyone's hearts. Whereas the ring wraiths from LOTR just sat on their various beasts-of-transportation and looked scary.
I don't know if it's just me, but Ron is starting to look like the big Pete from that old Nickelodeon show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
The songs in this movie are wonderful! I definetly want a copy of this movie's sountrack.
Finally, there's Buckbeak the hypogriff.
The hypogriff is an AMAZING creature! And I didn't mean to steal that line from the nightelf in warcraft. They did a great job in the CG of that hypogriff. It looked much more realistic than the incredibly fake unicorn in the first book. You could actually *see* the blue feathers rustling in the wind during the flight scenes.
And that concludes Cindy's movie review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!
