12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Entertaining for most but not for tykes
Date of Review: Jun 13, 2004
The Bottom Line: Get a baby sitter for the kids and come to this movie without them.
I'll try to be brief because there are so many other Epinions already logged on HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN.
This is a Harry Potter movie, the third in the series (which may eventually extend to seven). If you haven't seen the first and second films, rent them first; otherwise a good deal of AZKABAN is incomprehensible and wasted (e.g., Harry's presence at a school for wizards, his classmates, the murder of his parents, and the incredibly evil Lord Vortemort).
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is back at Hogwarts Academy, after a meeting with the Minister of Magic (Robert Hardy) over a very serious rules violation. Notwithstanding his offense, it is essential that Harry have another year of his wizard training. But there is a secret reason for this official solicitude. The wizard prison of Azkaban has experienced its first escape - Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who is implicated in the murder of Harry's parents and is expected to try to kill Harry.
This time Harry gets an assist from Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), the new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts who has a couple of dark secrets of his own, and Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson), who teaches second sight even though her primary form of sight is seriously impaired. Harry also gets a magical map of the campus from the brothers of his buddy Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). This time the story is resolved by something related to the fact that Hermione (Emma Watson) has a scheduling conflict in her class assignments. As always, there are incredible special effects.
But this time the entire atmosphere of the movie is grimmer and more menacing. While the first and second Harry Potter films were giddy adventures, AZKABAN is a frightening roller coaster ride. This is almost literal; a quidditch game, which had been great fun in the first and second film, becomes terrifying when played in a thunderstorm. There are hideous demons called Dementers - staff from Azkaban out to find the escaped prisoner - which resemble the Angels of Death seen at the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harry gets thumped around repeatedly and there is physical violence with his classmate Malfoy. At one point an animal, even though imaginery and computer-generated, is supposed to be slaughtered. Etc. This movie is not for small children, by which I mean under ten (and maybe a bit older); the Dementers alone are enough to give a nine-year-old nightmares.
Reviewers have emphasized that in this movie the characters, or at least the actors, have entered puberty (Ron Weasley's character seems to be on the slow track), and have related the darker atmosphere to that fact. There is some teenage angst -- Harry loses his temper in an explosive way with his abusive aunt and uncle, Hermione slugs Malfoy (contrary to the Saturday Night Live skit, Hermione does not show any cleavage but it is obvious that the actress has, um, grown since the previous film), then Harry beats up Malfoy, etc. -- but the storyline would have generally worked the same if the actors were still eleven years old.
This movie should not be your first experience of Harry Potter and it shouldn't be experienced by a small child at all. Having said that, I recommend this film to everyone else. It promotes, as did the previous two films, the noble virtues. It has an interesting story and very good acting and special effects.
