JoeUser Home Forums Create Blog Most Popular Channels: Art Misc Philosophy Politics ... Review of Harry Potter 3 Yes, I realize it's a little late By Sarah Stoeckl
Posted Thursday, June 10, 2004 on sarah-girl
Discussion: Misc So yeah, the movie came out almost a whole week ago so no doubt almost every interested party in America and Britain has seen the film. I'm going to review it anyway, and hopefully we can compare notes or something. For other movie reviews, including a guest appearance by yours truly, see www.cineplex.blogspot.com.
I have read so many good reviews for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" that I want to round up all those reviewers and give them a good shake, screaming, "DIDN'T YOU READ THE BOOK!!!!" I know this is a cliche' thing to say, and something you're not supposed to say when reviewing a film, but come on, people! Azkaban left out soooo much of the book's plot that if I hadn't read the book I don't think I would have been able to follow it. My biggest beefthey never explained who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are, and if you've read the book this is a pretty interesting and important detail to be leaving out.
Here's the breakdown. This third movie had a new director, "E Tu Mama Tambien's" Alfonso Cuaron," who wanted to treat audiences to a welcome change from Chris Columbus' plodding, minutely detailed recreations of the first two books. I applaud Cuaron in this endeavor because films are not books, books are not films, and this is an important thing to remember when making either one. Cuaron changes the look of the world, Hogwarts in particular, as well as having our three principles running around in jeans much more than wizarding robes. He cast the fantastic Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, who does a great job with the few scenes alloted to him, and Cuaron did well with the existing cast as well. However, he arrogantly presumed that if he made things stylistically cool we would forget all about pesky things like plots that make sense, and instead of having a film that flows like water this one jumps around like a malfunctioning snitch. | |
|
