My review of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", the film
Okay, today I saw the third Harry Potter film. First the good:
-Buckbeak was awesome
-the casting was again, superb (with one exception)
-the music
-Crookshanks was ADORABLE
-the scenery was gorgeous
-Remus Lupin rocks
-Though they change it so Harry sees Pettigrew on the map, not Lupin, it works better this way, because everyone wonders about how, in the book, "Well, why didn't he see him before?"
The bad:
-Michael Gambon, a good actor, maybe. But he wasn't a good Dumbledore. Oh, he tried, but it's not his fault. The voice-I kept waiting to hear Richard Harris's voice. I know, I know, he died, so it can't be helped. But that soft, whispery voice-that WAS Dumbledore. I REALLY wish Ian McKellen would have wanted to do it. He would have made up for not being Harris.
-They left WAY too much out. For one thing, Harry NEVER asks Lupin how he knows what the Marauder's Map is, or how it works. And it so COULD have been left in. At the end. All he had to do, when he followed Lupin out is say, "Professor? I was wondering-how did you know about the map?" And then Lupin could have told him. And who Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail were. Nor did he ever explain to Harry WHY the Patronus was a stag. So that's an open end.
-Lupin did so NOT attack Sirius. Hello? That's why James, Sirius and Peter became animagi in the first place-so they could hang out with Lupin, because a Werewolf won't attack another animal, just people. And yet he goes all ape shit on Sirius even though the latter is in his animagus form!
-The "potion" mentioned seems to imply that it keeps Lupin from becoming a Werewolf. Nope, it just enables him to keep his mind, so he doesn't attack anyone. And they don't show Snape giving it to him.
-No mention of Sirius signing Harry's permission slip.
-Far too jumpy and cutting. I can understand leaving Quidditch out. No big deal. But they just ripped right through everything.
-Hagrid doesn't seem too upset about Buckbeak being executed. Just mildly bugged. And where the hell was Fang?
-The grounds are too different. There were NEVER that many fucking hills at Hogwarts, the Womping Willow is right in front of the castle, on FLAT ground, and Hagrid's cottage is next to it.
All in all, a disapointment.