Review of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004)

"Something Wicked This Way Comes!" promises the tagline to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. First of all, I wonder if Ray Bradbury gets a kickback for that. Secondly, I have to say the movie does deliver  on this tagline. However, the movie is not as dark as the book.

Everyone from the director to the set designer to the studio promised a "much darker" Harry Potter movie this time around. I didn't think they meant that literally. But apparently, that's exactly what they meant: oftentimes, the picture is so inky you can barely see what's going on. There is a right way to show dark scenes onscreen, and an easy way. The right way is the way iconic DP Gordon Willis did it in The Godfather films; while the scenes are very dark, you still see all the necessary details because the scenes were lit  that way. The "easy" way out is to light it normally and then print the film down to make it look dark. The former preservers the neccesary plot information, while the latter just makes you squint.

That minor annoyance aside, I am pleased to report that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a good film in the series, and that while director Alfonso Cuaron's does differ quite markedly from Chris Columbus (Harry Potters I and II), he puts on a bloody good show.

Well, OK. There isn't any blood. It is a PG rated film, after all. But there are plenty of horror elements bound to please the whole family: there are witches, wizards, werewolves, soul-sucking Dementors, a dangerous escaped convict, and lots of narrow escapes from certain death.

When I saw the first Harry Potter film in 2001, I had not yet joined the bazillion muggles worldwide who'd read the thick volumes from cover to cover. I have since read the first four books, but couldn't quite make it through number five. Book number three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, just happened to be my favorite so I was eager to see how the movie would turn out. As is usually the case when turning several hundred pages into hours, some things are lost. You won't see Dobby this time around, or even hear a mention of a house elf this time around. However, the important, broad strokes are there and they're very well-drawn indeed. Buckbeak the Hippogriff (half-horse, half-eagle, all CGI) is magnificent, as are the Dementors (Grim-Reaper type creatures who guard the prison of Azkaban).

Fledgling wizard Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is now 13 years old and has grudgingly spent yet another summer break with the Dursleys, his dismal relatives. When someone provokes him, Harry practices magic in the world of muggles -- a thing strictly forbidden -- and fearing repercussions from Hogwarts School and the Ministry of Magic, he escapes into the dark (dark, dark!) night. He is picked up by the Knight Bus, a fantastical purple triple-decker that whisks him off to the Leaky Cauldron Pub. Upon arrival, Harry is met by the Minister of Magic who not only doesn't punish him for his wayward wizardry but insists Harry spend the night at the pub before heading back to Hogwarts for his third year of study. Meanwhile, a dangerous and mysterious wizard, Sirius Black (a delightfully gritty Gary Oldman), has escaped Azkaban prison and is thought to be searching for Harry. Legend has it that Black was responsible for leading Lord Voldemort to Harry's parents and ultimately to their untimely deaths… it is also thought that he is determined to kill Harry, too! There's more to the plot, but to say anything else would give away several key points.

Our old favorites are back, plus some new folks (an avuncular Richard Gambon as Dumbledore, taking the mantle from the late Richard Harris; a solicitous David Thewlis as Professor Lupin; and a hilarious, hippie-dippy Emma Thompson as Professor Sybil Trelawney). Alan Rickman is superb as the slithery Severus Snape, and of course Robbie Coltrane is Hagrid. In the first two films, I always felt that Emma Watson ("Hermoine") and Rupert Grint ("Ron") overshadowed Radcliffe because their characters were so much more colorful. This time, Harry Potter comes into his own, and so does the actor who portrays him. Radcliffe takes control of the scary situations here, and he makes the whole thing believable.

While the film does shy away from some of the scarier, more chilling aspects of the book, it does deliver on the mystery and the adventure. And there are a few genuine chills -- when the Dementors are near, everything becomes covered in an effective killing frost. The Whomping Willow is as mean as ever, and the gaggle of ghosts still fill Hogwarts' halls (unfortunately, the amusing storyline from the book involving Nearly Headless Nick and the club he wanted to join was deleted from the film).

All things considered, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is pretty faithful to the book yet stands alone well enough to entertain those who haven't read it.

Review by Staci Layne Wilson for Horror.com