Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with another gushing review of HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. I am dying to see this flick! Every single piece that has leaked out from the early screenings has been passionately positive, not to mention the perfect feel from both of the US trailers... Well, it's got me giddy. Speaking of trailers, I have a couple links for you folks. Over at Apple's Japanese site they have the Japanese trailer for PRISONER OF AZKABAN and it has little bits of footage not in any of the US trailers so far. Nothing big, but a few new bits.
CLICK HERE FOR THE JAPANESE TRAILER!!!
The real super cool trailer is the French trailer. This has a bunch of new stuff, including more Dementor action, more Hippogriff and we get to hear Sirius Black speak! There's even some new Lupin stuff... Oh, and no giggling about Hermione's boobs! I saw SNL, too... OK, you can giggle a little bit. Pervs. This trailer isn't pretty Quicktime, but streaming's better than nothing! Give it a look!
Click here to head on over to the fantastic everything Harry Potter site, The Leaky Cauldron and view the trailer!!!
Here's the review from a lucky so-and-so that got to take a peak at this flick early... If you haven't read the books, I'd advise not going any further. You'll be sorry if you do! For those Potter freaks like me, have at it!
Hey Harry, I've been so lucky to see the new Harry Potter movie, and thought you would like a review, since it's one of the bigger summer flicks this year. Here follows, gonna attach it as a word doc as well:
Hey Harry, Mori and co. I’ve been so fortunate to see the new Harry Potter movie. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban here last week. And I can tell you this movie is great. Getting rid of Columbus was the best idea someone had in years. “Spending more time with my family” my ass, someone high up at WB or maybe Heyman, realized what shit flicks the two first were and fired his ass. Now to the review, spoilers will appear.
A quick recap of the story for those who haven’t read the book. Harry returns to his 3rd year at Hogwarts. Beforehand he finds out from Ron’s dad that Voldemort’s 2nd in charge Sirius Black has escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban placed somewhere in the north sea. And no he’s back to get revenge for the overthrowing of his idol and leader. Later we find out that Sirius Black was Harry’s dads best friend at school, and that he was the one who told of there whereabouts to Voldemort. Now it’s Harry who wants revenge. The bad guy is captured (not who we think it is, how could it be? This is Harry Potter), but when they get outside the full moon screws everything up. Because the new DADA teacher is a werewolf. And Harry and co. are almost killed by the fear creatures that are the dementors.
Well as half the people on the planet I’ve read these books, and I love them to death. Actually I’ve read each of them (except the new one) 5 times. This movie has the right feel of Harry Potter. It got that magical touch that the others lacked. Also this one has no scenes that made you want to vomit (think Hagrid-loving end scene in CoS). And the CGI looked cool, not goofy and out of place (think troll scene in PS/SS). The dementors are the coolest, they’re absolutely terrifying. That Quidditch scene in the rain, storm and thunder, where the dementors come flying after Harry, while he hears the voices of his parents before Voldemort killed them, it’s fantastic. Not a word was uttered during it, no persons moved during it. Everybody was in absolute awe of what was appearing on the screen, completely transfixed by it. This ranks up there on my top 10 all-time movie moments. The introduction of the dementors is amazing as well. When they enter the train in the middle of nowhere, and everything starts freezing, this scene has tension you can’t believe. Luckily our new favourite guy is around to save the day. That’s right the new Defense against the dark arts teacher is for once not a baddie (or just a sucky teacher as was the case with Lockhart). You’ll love the movie-Lupin as much as everyone loves book-Lupin.
The wizard city of Hogsmeade is not like described in the books, but wonderful to look at in the snowy landscape. The candy shop is every sweet-tooth’s wetdream.
Cuaron is so right for this franchise, god I hope he’ll be back for Order of the Phoenix. He gets all the magical and emotional moments just right, it’s never cheesy as in the first two. But I don’t think anyone who has a little princess would doubt that he did this wrong. He even gets a decent performance out of Dan Radcliffe, he isn’t the wooden guy just standing there saying his lines in this one. He is Harry Potter. Rupert Grint gets do more acting in this one, besides just making stupid faces. And Emma Watson (to reawaken an old AICN catchphrase) is the sexiest tomboy beanpole on the planet. And if you’re against people drooling over teenage girls, you can say she will be the future sexiest tomboy beanpole on the planet. Here’s to hoping I’ll be around her when she turns 18. Well she proves she’s the one of the 3 with the biggest acting potential.
Once again the adult acting is superb. Michael Gambon gets Dumbledore right, unlike the old drunk guy who didn’t bother reading the books. Alan Rickman owns everyone as Snape. He’s character is so complex and full of hatred in this one, it’s magnificent. Only downside of the adult actors was Emma Thompson who was a bit to over-the-top for my liking. But she’ll be a sure hit with the 10-12 year olds. Also the Dursley’s are growing a bit tired, good idea with cutting them from the next one. And also the only CGI effect looking slightly bad is the poofed up Aunt Marge.
Now after expressing an insane geek loving for this movie, I’ll come to the more sad parts. The movie still isn’t perfect. I mean how could it be with Steve Kloves still writing? There are still a lot of lame jokes in this one to appeal to the aforementioned 10-12 year olds. He almost, luckily only almost, butchered the shrieking shack scene, my one favourite scene from the entire series. He left out some background information, and the scene didn’t flow as well as in the books. Thank god the acting by David Thewlis, Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman saves the scene. And I’m happy I had read the book, because otherwise I think the time travel scene at the end would have been very hard to follow. Though one of the strongest scenes in the movie is when Harry realizes it was him and not his father who saved them from the dementors. The look on his face as he jumps up and screams the “expecto patronum” to get his anti-dementor thing to handle the situation is powerful. And it’s topped off by the look on Harry’s face when he finds out what shape it has taken.
The movie is great, not fantastic. I would give it 5 out of 6 stars. Cuaron really has made this franchise worth its great name. There was a lot of uproar in the HP community about the teens wearing muggle cloths outside of school, but when you’re watching this movie you barely notice, and it just feels normal. Cuarons cinematography is amazing; the always moving camera gives the movie a feel of action and tension, unlike the standstill close-ups of Columbus. Finally a movie that lives up to the book.
If you use this please call me Pim De Kaysergracht.
