Prisoner of Azkaban
As a Movie:
Beautiful. Absoltely beautiful. Dark, bleak, haunting and memorable. Lovely direction with a sense of purpose. Good acting, amaing music and some truly heart stopping moments. The camera work was dizzying and urgent, and the atmosphere was dripping that nice OotP type angst.
As a movie, I would reccomend it without a second thought!
As an Adaption of the Book:
I would have been raving here had they not, y'know, cut one of the most important parts of the plot out. That's right folks, this movie does not explain to us Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. We've got the map, we've got the Mauraders but we ain't got the back story. So anyone who hasn't read the book is going to be wondering why the hell Sirius and Peter are Anamagi; how the hell Remus knows how to work the map; and what exactly Snape has up his ass that makes him hate Lupin, James and Sirius so much.
Oh, but there is some good. The new Dumbledore. Can't say enough about him. You know what he does right- everything. Gone is slow-talking, decrepit old skeletal Dumbledore, in is perky, quirky, OMG-he's-just-too-damn-cool book-Dumbledore. And don't get me started on Daniel Radcliff, he just plays Harry so convincingly. So, so, so convincingly. Ron and Hermione were a little off in this movie... strange, since they were so excellent in the last one.
Draco's characterization continues to, um, suck. I honestly cannot see the Draco Malfoy we know andhate love physically pushing people out of the way. He's too good for that, you know. ^___^ Harry, Hagrid and Snape are the best adapted of all the characters. They are true reflections of their book selves... especially Snape. He wasn't in this movie as much as he should have been (because Snape wasn't important in PoA, not at all!), but his performance was still one of the best out of the entire cast!
Remus Lupin: Looked totally wrong. Sounded totally wrong. Acted totally wrong for the most part, but he had these two or three moments of brilliance that made it somewhat forgivable. And they really drove the whole chocolate thing home. However, the movies fail to do my favorite characters justice. *sigh* Maybe I'm just a bit too critical. But tell me or not if that's Remus Lupin you saw up on screen, or a different character entirely.
Sirius Black: Well played, but I like my mental image of Sirius Black too much to be impressed (look, I quasi based Altair's human-form look off Sirius, okay). But well acted. ^_____^ Gary Oldman's a good actor, so what else should I have expected.
Proffesor Trelawny: Just... there. I didn't notice her enough to form an opinion on her potrayal. o.O
As an adaption of the book, it was deeply flawed.
Though I did like how they cut out unnecessary scenes to make the story more coherent and focused. My major quibbles with how the plot was handled was the aforementioned dropping of the MWPP backstory. Without that, the rest of the story is somewhat irrelevant. o.O
Random Stuff:
Draco sends Harry a paper crane in class. *shakes Draco* You're a ot more masculine in the movies, Draco. Don't ruin it and make all the non-book readers think you're gay too!
Buckbeak is lovely. I want one.
Um, is it just me or are the uniforms randomly different?
Remus, in the text it reads: "Lupin embraced Sirius like a brother", not a lover. Don't give the fans anymore reason to think you two are an item. Um, not that they need it. Really.
*cough* I think Snape made the movie for me when he told Sirius and Remus that they were acting like a married couple. I was like: "Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that."
Um, the end.
Beautiful. Absoltely beautiful. Dark, bleak, haunting and memorable. Lovely direction with a sense of purpose. Good acting, amaing music and some truly heart stopping moments. The camera work was dizzying and urgent, and the atmosphere was dripping that nice OotP type angst.
As a movie, I would reccomend it without a second thought!
As an Adaption of the Book:
I would have been raving here had they not, y'know, cut one of the most important parts of the plot out. That's right folks, this movie does not explain to us Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. We've got the map, we've got the Mauraders but we ain't got the back story. So anyone who hasn't read the book is going to be wondering why the hell Sirius and Peter are Anamagi; how the hell Remus knows how to work the map; and what exactly Snape has up his ass that makes him hate Lupin, James and Sirius so much.
Oh, but there is some good. The new Dumbledore. Can't say enough about him. You know what he does right- everything. Gone is slow-talking, decrepit old skeletal Dumbledore, in is perky, quirky, OMG-he's-just-too-damn-cool book-Dumbledore. And don't get me started on Daniel Radcliff, he just plays Harry so convincingly. So, so, so convincingly. Ron and Hermione were a little off in this movie... strange, since they were so excellent in the last one.
Draco's characterization continues to, um, suck. I honestly cannot see the Draco Malfoy we know and
Remus Lupin: Looked totally wrong. Sounded totally wrong. Acted totally wrong for the most part, but he had these two or three moments of brilliance that made it somewhat forgivable. And they really drove the whole chocolate thing home. However, the movies fail to do my favorite characters justice. *sigh* Maybe I'm just a bit too critical. But tell me or not if that's Remus Lupin you saw up on screen, or a different character entirely.
Sirius Black: Well played, but I like my mental image of Sirius Black too much to be impressed (look, I quasi based Altair's human-form look off Sirius, okay). But well acted. ^_____^ Gary Oldman's a good actor, so what else should I have expected.
Proffesor Trelawny: Just... there. I didn't notice her enough to form an opinion on her potrayal. o.O
As an adaption of the book, it was deeply flawed.
Though I did like how they cut out unnecessary scenes to make the story more coherent and focused. My major quibbles with how the plot was handled was the aforementioned dropping of the MWPP backstory. Without that, the rest of the story is somewhat irrelevant. o.O
Random Stuff:
Draco sends Harry a paper crane in class. *shakes Draco* You're a ot more masculine in the movies, Draco. Don't ruin it and make all the non-book readers think you're gay too!
Buckbeak is lovely. I want one.
Um, is it just me or are the uniforms randomly different?
Remus, in the text it reads: "Lupin embraced Sirius like a brother", not a lover. Don't give the fans anymore reason to think you two are an item. Um, not that they need it. Really.
*cough* I think Snape made the movie for me when he told Sirius and Remus that they were acting like a married couple. I was like: "Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that."
Um, the end.