kitty
06-04-2004, 11:40 PM
Azkaban a Thrilling, Magical Joyride
By this point, I've probably earned the dubious reputation of being a 'movie
hater' -- I hardly ever come across a film which I don't criticize at least to
some extent in my reviews. It's partly because I love to bitch, and mostly
because Hollywood hasn't been doing much right, of late.
But, if I were to describe the 'perfect' movie -- well, Harry Potter 3:
Prisoner of Azkaban wouldn't be it, but it would be damn close.
As a self-professed Potter fan, I was of two minds of this film: I was looking
forward to it because of my love of J.K. Rowlings' best selling books, but I
was also worried how a third book would translate to the big screen, especially
with a director who was new to the franchise and because the film had some very
large shoes to fill. Fortunately, Alfonso Cuaron was remniscent of a
masterpiece painter at the helm of this fantastical voyage; the film wasn't
just good, it was phenomenal.
The premise of the movie is transitory -- in my eyes, this was the worst of the
five Potter books that have already been penned, with a lot of stage being set
for Books 4 and 5, and very little actually happening. Harry Potter (Daniel
Radcliffe) returns to his third year at Hogwarts, to find the murderous Sirius
Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and seems to
be gunning for Potter's head. Meanwhile, Hogwarts has gotten a new Defense
Against the Dark Arts professor, Prof. Remus Lupin (David Lewis).
The cast of young wizards, including Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint as Potter's
friend, Ron Weasley, are as good as ever, but Emma Watson, playing the
brilliant but rather mousy Hermione Granger, was astoundingly mature in her
portrayal. Her evolution as an actor has kept pace with the development of
Hermione's character over the past three films, and this movie is as much about
the young Miss Granger as it is about Harry Potter.
The adult actors are a similarly talented group, who are at their best
grounding the younger members of the cast. While I'm not terribly fond of the
direction in which Cuaron took the character of Prof. Albus Dumbledore (Michael
Gambon), it nevertheless fit with the overall schema of the film, and Lewis, as
Prof. Lupin, was wonderfully sorrowful and pensive, capturing the spirit of
Lupin perfectly. Emma Thompson as Prof. Trelawney, the Divination teacher who
makes her first appearance in this film gets a rare opportunity to go all out
and play her batty character to a delightful extreme.
But truly, it is director Cuaron who should be lauded with platitudes. Given an
ambitious project, he needed to not only satisfy Potter fans who would know the
plot by heart, but also enrapture the Potter virgins, who wouldn't have the
benefit of knowing the Potter stories backwards and forwards. Furthermore,
Cuaron had to stuff several hundred pages worth of story into a coherent two
hour film. It's hard to beleive, but he did it -- the film was not only chock
full of easter-egg-like extras to keep die-hard Potter fans like myself
entertained, but was relatively easy enough to follow for those who couldn't
tell a Griffyndor from a Slytherin.
Cuaron also made excellent use of lighting, and directed his cinematography
department beautifully. Sets ranged from stunning, bright, green mountain
vistas, to foggy valleys, to dark foreboding forests, and in each the lighting
and set designs masterfully captured the mood and setting of the scene.
The greater budget allocation for Azkaban was put to excellent use, as visual
transitions to indicate time passing was implemented both in both a creative
and aeshetically pleasing manner. Furthermore, entirely CGI characters were
exceptionally realistic and endearing, such as with Buckbeak, the hypogriff, a
charming creation that was not only so visually detailed that it looked
entirely real standing next to a handful of Hogwarts students (a far cry from
the effects of the first Harry Potter movie), but the designers of this
creature actually managed to capture such a charming, bird-like personality
that Buckbeak takes on a surprising life of his own, a status never quite
reached in the book.
Some critics have complained that Azkaban has cut so much of Rowlings' book in
this film version, and it is thus untrue to the story. While the film has a
necessarily rushed feeling, as characters hurry from one plot point to another,
just to fit it all in, I feel the film doesn't suffer from this fast pace. It
seems more an indication of Cuaron's skill that he was able to weave together
an articulate, well-flowing story out of such choppy snapshots of the Prisoner
of Azkaban story, and while I can point out what has been discarded, you
wouldn't notice it unless you were looking. If the film suffers from this harried storytelling, it would be only in a lack of development in the friendship between Harry and Prof. Lupin -- who go from meeting one another in one scene to sharing deep secrets and emotions in the next, with little context by which to understand this kinship.
Regarldess, if you like the Potter series, you'll be more than satisfied with this third excursion into the world of Hogwarts. Headlines in entertainment magazines everywhere
have proclaimed that this is the best of the Harry Potter movies, and I'm
inclined to agree, though I don't think that's a particularly great
accomplishment. Instead, I'm willing to go one further and say that this is one
of the best blockbuster films I have ever seen -- artistically, technically,
and for pure entertainment value, Prizoner of Azkaban was everything short of
magical.
By this point, I've probably earned the dubious reputation of being a 'movie
hater' -- I hardly ever come across a film which I don't criticize at least to
some extent in my reviews. It's partly because I love to bitch, and mostly
because Hollywood hasn't been doing much right, of late.
But, if I were to describe the 'perfect' movie -- well, Harry Potter 3:
Prisoner of Azkaban wouldn't be it, but it would be damn close.
As a self-professed Potter fan, I was of two minds of this film: I was looking
forward to it because of my love of J.K. Rowlings' best selling books, but I
was also worried how a third book would translate to the big screen, especially
with a director who was new to the franchise and because the film had some very
large shoes to fill. Fortunately, Alfonso Cuaron was remniscent of a
masterpiece painter at the helm of this fantastical voyage; the film wasn't
just good, it was phenomenal.
The premise of the movie is transitory -- in my eyes, this was the worst of the
five Potter books that have already been penned, with a lot of stage being set
for Books 4 and 5, and very little actually happening. Harry Potter (Daniel
Radcliffe) returns to his third year at Hogwarts, to find the murderous Sirius
Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and seems to
be gunning for Potter's head. Meanwhile, Hogwarts has gotten a new Defense
Against the Dark Arts professor, Prof. Remus Lupin (David Lewis).
The cast of young wizards, including Radcliffe, and Rupert Grint as Potter's
friend, Ron Weasley, are as good as ever, but Emma Watson, playing the
brilliant but rather mousy Hermione Granger, was astoundingly mature in her
portrayal. Her evolution as an actor has kept pace with the development of
Hermione's character over the past three films, and this movie is as much about
the young Miss Granger as it is about Harry Potter.
The adult actors are a similarly talented group, who are at their best
grounding the younger members of the cast. While I'm not terribly fond of the
direction in which Cuaron took the character of Prof. Albus Dumbledore (Michael
Gambon), it nevertheless fit with the overall schema of the film, and Lewis, as
Prof. Lupin, was wonderfully sorrowful and pensive, capturing the spirit of
Lupin perfectly. Emma Thompson as Prof. Trelawney, the Divination teacher who
makes her first appearance in this film gets a rare opportunity to go all out
and play her batty character to a delightful extreme.
But truly, it is director Cuaron who should be lauded with platitudes. Given an
ambitious project, he needed to not only satisfy Potter fans who would know the
plot by heart, but also enrapture the Potter virgins, who wouldn't have the
benefit of knowing the Potter stories backwards and forwards. Furthermore,
Cuaron had to stuff several hundred pages worth of story into a coherent two
hour film. It's hard to beleive, but he did it -- the film was not only chock
full of easter-egg-like extras to keep die-hard Potter fans like myself
entertained, but was relatively easy enough to follow for those who couldn't
tell a Griffyndor from a Slytherin.
Cuaron also made excellent use of lighting, and directed his cinematography
department beautifully. Sets ranged from stunning, bright, green mountain
vistas, to foggy valleys, to dark foreboding forests, and in each the lighting
and set designs masterfully captured the mood and setting of the scene.
The greater budget allocation for Azkaban was put to excellent use, as visual
transitions to indicate time passing was implemented both in both a creative
and aeshetically pleasing manner. Furthermore, entirely CGI characters were
exceptionally realistic and endearing, such as with Buckbeak, the hypogriff, a
charming creation that was not only so visually detailed that it looked
entirely real standing next to a handful of Hogwarts students (a far cry from
the effects of the first Harry Potter movie), but the designers of this
creature actually managed to capture such a charming, bird-like personality
that Buckbeak takes on a surprising life of his own, a status never quite
reached in the book.
Some critics have complained that Azkaban has cut so much of Rowlings' book in
this film version, and it is thus untrue to the story. While the film has a
necessarily rushed feeling, as characters hurry from one plot point to another,
just to fit it all in, I feel the film doesn't suffer from this fast pace. It
seems more an indication of Cuaron's skill that he was able to weave together
an articulate, well-flowing story out of such choppy snapshots of the Prisoner
of Azkaban story, and while I can point out what has been discarded, you
wouldn't notice it unless you were looking. If the film suffers from this harried storytelling, it would be only in a lack of development in the friendship between Harry and Prof. Lupin -- who go from meeting one another in one scene to sharing deep secrets and emotions in the next, with little context by which to understand this kinship.
Regarldess, if you like the Potter series, you'll be more than satisfied with this third excursion into the world of Hogwarts. Headlines in entertainment magazines everywhere
have proclaimed that this is the best of the Harry Potter movies, and I'm
inclined to agree, though I don't think that's a particularly great
accomplishment. Instead, I'm willing to go one further and say that this is one
of the best blockbuster films I have ever seen -- artistically, technically,
and for pure entertainment value, Prizoner of Azkaban was everything short of
magical.