Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

my rating: Nathan's rating:

I considered giving this four stars, because there's really nothing wrong with it, but it's not quite outstanding enough to get my maximum rating. It's what one has come to expect from a Harry Potter movie, which is praise... but a little lukewarm. It's well worth seeing, just don't expect it to dazzle quite as much as the first one did. Once you've seen animated paintings, boys on broomsticks, and a roomful of floating candles, seeing it again isn't as exciting. Which is more of a comment on the challenge the producers of the series face, than a criticism of them.

One thing I couldn't help noticing is how much the actors - especially Daniel Radcliffe - have aged since the first movie. According to a line of dialog in the movie, Harry and his classmates are 13 years old now, but Radcliffe is about to turn 15, and he looks it. Rupert Grint (Ron) is closing in on 16, Emma Watson (Hermione) is 14, and Tom Felton (Draco) turns 17 this Fall. It took me a couple seconds before I even recognised Draco. At the current rate of filming (and assuming the books themselves are finished soon enough... no small assumption) the actors playing the principal student parts will all be able to go out on a legal drinking binge at the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Five O'Clock Shadow (the seventh and final installment of the series).

In the context of the actors' adolescence, the opening scene of the movie is ripe for parody. Harry is hiding under the bedsheets at home with his muggle relatives, reciting the spell "luxus maximus" (or similarly fractured Latin), producing increasing bursts of light. His uncle keeps barging in on him, and Harry has to hurriedly conceal what he's doing. Change the incantation to "penis maximus" and... you get the picure. {grin}

But enough of my admittedly perverse Daniel Radcliffe Age Of Consent Watch report. I remarked to Nathan before the movie that it was opening without any competition this weekend, in part because it's the sort of movie you can't easily do the "counter-programming" thing with (e.g. opening a "chick flick" the same weekend as a blockbuster "dick flick", hoping to attract those not interested in a fights-and-explosions movie). It has some horror, some comedy, some special effects, some action, some mystery, and even some hints of romance.

Some of it went over the head of the fairly talkative kid directly behind me, requiring her to ask Dad for explanations, but she was well below the age of the actors, and seemed to be enjoying the film immensely regardless of her confusion. The movie does require the viewer to pay attention to seemingly insignificant bits of business (which becomes significant later), and does a bit of the same futzing with our expectations of how the mystery will turn out (like the first movie, especially). The "things are not as they appear to be" twist is in danger of becoming a cliché for the series, but it beats the hell out of the "obviously predictable plot" approach.