Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban took a new, questionable approach compared to the first two Harry Potter movies. In my opinion, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was not the best movie in terms of how the plot was portrayed. In comparison to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the magical aspect of the third film was lost. Throughout the third movie, you do not see much of the wizarding world that was described in the books as you did in the first two movies. This leads the movie to have more of suspenseful aspect overall, rather than a magical one. In addition, the movie lacked some important scenes from the book, leaving some blanks in the full storyline.

This third movie was shot by Alfonso Cuarón, a new director, who specifically only paid attention to major details which primarily affected the main character. This leads to some of the plot details from the book that help connect the story together to be left out. Causing some misunderstanding with the full storyline, such as who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are and how they play into the story. However, only focusing on details that primarily affect Harry made the movie more viewer-friendly because it was not dragging on for an excessive amount of time. This was unlike Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the prior movie, which dragged on for nearly three hours, leaving the general audience less interested by the final scene. In my opinion, having the movie slightly longer is more effective. Even though a longer movie would not appeal as much to a general audience. It would insure there is no gaps in the storyline. Even with an extra 15-20 minutes added onto this movie it would have been enough time to explain the backstory of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs and fill that gap in the storyline.

The plot is based on the escape of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) from a prison known as Azkaban. Sirius was convicted of helping Voldemort with the murder of Harry’s parents years ago. With Sirius now on the loose, it is suspected he is going to finish what he started years ago and kill Harry too. For safety reasons, Hogwarts is surrounded by Dementors, soulless creatures who guard Azkaban, to ensure Sirius does not make his way into the castle.

As summer draws to an end, Harry returns back to Hogwarts for his third year. This year, Harry along with his best friends: Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) face many adventures. These adventures include trying to save a hippogriff—a half-horse half-eagle creature—who has been wrongly accused of being dangerous, dealing with their Divination teacher who predicted Harry is going to face his death soon, and finding out the truth about Sirius Black. On multiple occasions, Harry has found himself face-to-face with a Dementor as it sucks the happiness out of his body. To defend himself, Harry seeks help from Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who seems to have a secret of his own.

Even with a new approach to the movie, the special effects are still impeccable. One of the most impressive special effects in the movie is the Whomping Willow tree that is located on the Hogwarts ground. The tree is seen multiple times in the film as it attacks anything that comes into close range of it, including Harry’s Nimbus 2000 that fell into the tree during a Quidditch game. Later in the movie, we see the tree again in the winter as the snow slowly melts off the branches, and the tree flings the melting snow off its branches toward the direction of the camera. It was an incredible use of CGI and really made the tree come to life for the viewers.

While watching the movie, it is inevitable to notice the character roles have had significant development. For example, Harry’s character is starting to realize he is no longer the victim who is being mistreated by his aunt and uncle, but rather a force to be reckoned with. This is shown in the movie when he casts a spell on a rude dinner guest causing her to inflate like a balloon, which proves to the Dursleys not to mess with him. Furthermore, the actors playing the roles have grown with the part. It seems they have become more comfortable with the roles they are playing as they portray the characters with more ease. In the first film some of the acting seemed forced and a little awkward at some points. However, in the third film the acting seemed to be more mature, and there were not any scenes that seemed awkward for the actors. Which made the acting seem more natural and less forced throughout the whole movie. As the next movies continue to be filmed and released, the actors will continue to grow into their roles, thus improving the acting in the movies even more.

Overall, I would give this movie a 3/5 stars. The acting and special effects in the movie were incredible and made up for the lack of some of the important plot details. I would recommend this movie to people who are interested in the Harry Potter series and who have read the books. If you do not have an interest in Harry Potter, the movie may seem confusing at certain parts or even still dragged on too long, even though the movie is significantly shorter.