Prisoner of Azkaban

So, Kathy & I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban this afternoon. And I have to say, it’s probably my favorite of the movies so far. There’s less fretting over inconsequential stuff like which group has the most points, or Quidditch (say what you will about Quidditch, but when someone’s trying to kill you, sports should take a backseat). Even Harry’s tormentor, Draco Malfoy, gets put on the back-burner this time – there are a few confrontations, but in each, he’s revealed to be a spineless coward. It’s a wonder even his Slytherin chums hang out with him anymore – their self-images must be in the toilet.

I liked that the students were in more naturalistic clothes rather than their school uniforms for most of the action – it made them seem more like real kids. It also helps that as the three friends get older, they’re becoming better actors. I hope they give Ron more to do next time than look terrified or freaked out, but I have to admit he does a pretty convincing job at it.

There’s apparently one big scene (a flashback to the days when the adults were kids) that didn’t make it into this film. I’ve read that it was decided that it would work better in a future installment, and it may. I haven’t read beyond the second book, so I was coming to this movie with fresh eyes, and I have to say I didn’t miss the flashback one bit. Whether it helps a future movie remains to be seen, but its absence didn’t hurt this one.

I don’t know how to write about this without spoilers, so consider yourself warned before reading further.

My one problem with the film is that the last half-hour is pretty predictable. It goes with the territory, I guess, since it deals with time travel into the recent past. It was good to see it all play out, and I don’t know what I would have cut, but the film lost all of its tension for me once the jaunt back in time began.

Also, I have a question: When Harry sees the mysterious figure across the lake defend him against the dementors, the figure is bathed in light. It might have been a trick of the light, but it looked to me like the figure, for a moment, was a large, antlered figure – like a big whitetail buck or a bull elk -- glowing white. Now, I read about these critters just about every day at work, so my mind may be playing tricks on me. But for a second, it looked like an allusion to the spirit of the wood from an animated film I saw a few years ago. I think it was Princess Mononoke, but it may have been the Phoenix sequence of Fantasia 2000. Anyone remember this character, and did anyone see this same thing in HP3?

Oh, and by the way, writer Peter David has an amusing anecdote of his experience watching the film here:


Rob