I have tremendous hopes that this will be an amazing movie, due to the new director Alfonso Cuaron. Here are a few early reviews found over on Rotten Tomatoes.com and a story from Newsweek ---
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5040564 /
Lightning Strikes
The 'Harry Potter' books have finally gotten the wondrous movie they deserve. 'The Prisoner of Azkaban' boasts a brand-new director and a bold new vision.
By Sean Smith
NewsweekMay 31 issue - The first scene of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" removes any doubt that the famous child wizard is growing up fast. The camera glides toward a light pulsing in the night, then through an open bedroom window, where Harry is hiding under his covers, playing with his wand and hoping to God he doesn't get caught. Wait a minute. Has new director Alfonso Cuaron inserted a sneaky allusion to the private habits of teenage boys into the family-friendly franchise? Cuaron's a warm, chatty guy and not one to dodge controversy—his last film, "Y Tu Mama Tambien," was so graphic that it was released unrated—but there's no way on earth he's going anywhere near this topic. "This is NEWSWEEK, man!" he says, then laughs for a very long time.
Intentional or not, it's a pitch-perfect bit of subtext, and only the first of many reasons "Azkaban" rocks. Sure, there's a werewolf and a hippogriff and a bunch of other magical stuff, but the real reason this third film in the series outshines the others is that it's about something far more frightening than failing your Potions final or facing Lord Voldemort. It's about being 13. "It's such an archetypal age—the bar mitzvah, the communion," says Cuaron, who replaced Chris Columbus, the director of the first two movies. "It's the moment in which fear is no longer the bogeyman under your bed. It resides inside you. In this story, Harry has to come to terms with his male energy."
..snip
Adapting it wasn't easy. "Potter" fans are fanatical about seeing every sentence of the book on the screen, but Cuaron made a bold decision. He scrapped everything that didn't relate to the central theme or didn't keep the plot flying. He ditched the rich, golden tones of the previous films, replacing them with icy silvers and inky blacks. And he re-envisioned Hogwarts as a grittier, less Disney-fied place, so that the magical moments would be even more transporting. In "Azkaban," Cuaron keeps the camera moving, using very few close-ups, which adds to the eerie sense that Harry is being stalked. The result is a film that's really moving—and really moves. "Alfonso's a soulful person, and that emanates through every frame of his films," says Heyman. "We realized, frankly, that we needed to develop the franchise, to improve. What's so brilliant is that he changed so much, but in a way he changed nothing. It's still within the spirit of what came before it."
...snip
Of course, all of Cuaron's efforts would have been for naught if the three stars—Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron)—weren't up to the task. But their performances, Radcliffe's in particular, are far more impressive this time around. They're all 14 or 15 now, and have two films under their belts. During rehearsals, Cuaron had long conversations with them about the pains and fears of being 13, and then had them write essays, connecting the lives of their characters to their own. "The essays were so beautiful, and so personal," Cuaron says.
More on the site...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/HarryPotterandthePrisonerofAzkaban-113... Ain't It Cool News:
...snip
That’s my way of leading into the first genuinely great Summer 2004 film.
Alfonso Cuaron’s HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN.
In a magic world of real magic, it’s the little things that could be done that terrify, dazzle and enchant. Combining the magic of the really real, the nearly real and power of pixels, Cuaron brings to life J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter in a way we have yet to see fully before.
...snip
This opening creates a genuine tone shift from the absurd, to the oh so real. This is an element that is continued with regular clothing and more honest emotional moments. There’s a scene between David Thewlis’ Professor Lupin and Harry on this gabled bridge at Hogwart’s, that really touched me. It wasn’t played broadly, but sweetly. In Thewlis’ face you saw such affection for Harry’s parents, while Potter had his back to Lupin, we could see the sadness upon his… Hearing about his parents, hearing how loved they were is so wonderful, yet painful at the same time. He can only know them through the words of others… cryptic descriptions about eyes and faces… of natures and laughs. He’s truly an orphan in this world where everyone knows his story, but him. There’s such a haunt about Harry… I love it. Daniel Radcliffe is fantastic in this edition!
...snip
Cuaron really has such a light touch to this story, in the end it all feels so easy, so elegant and so effortless that I was left with a goofy smile and a dream as I heard the final incantation before the light last left the projector and I was returned to my theater. He understands magic more purely than anyone I’m watching make films today. The misdirection, the naughty nature of it and finally the pure joy of magic… it’s all here, thanks to the greatest wizard to help Harry along his quest for whatever it may eventually be.
From The Hot Button:
I am not a Harry Potter fan. I haven't read the books. I couldn't stand the first movie. I didn't much like the second one.
So why am I so taken with Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban? There is one central reason… Alfonso Cuaron. He makes this episode of the ongoing series into an actual movie, not just another children's toy in shiny cellophane.
...snip
And Hogwarts itself has gone through a remarkable transformation. For the first time, it feels like a boarding school and not just like a series of remarkable sets, one after another. Cuaron's Hogwarts has dirt… it has hillsides that students use as apparent shortcuts… it has more realistic encounters between students. But best of all, it has context for the first time. Michael Gambon, who has no trouble handling the bittersweet task of filling Richard Harris' robes, is no longer just a wise old man who runs a school. He is a hippie with a kofi, newly purple robes and little rubber bands in his beard, running a commune for other freaks like himself. He is joined in this reflectivity by Emma Thompson's Professor Trelawney, a master of fortune telling whose classroom décor may well come out of her VW van each semester.
...snip
But it is Gary Oldman who makes the greatest impression, in two different ways. First, he manages to steal a couple of scenes before he even gets in a word of dialogue. And then, when he starts to speak, he is almost unrecognizable. For whatever reasons, he decided not to rely on any of the magical tricks that we all know as Oldman's and instead voices his Sirius Black without being showy, but without any Oldman landmarks. Not many people will appreciate how much Oldman becomes an actor in this role (he's always brilliant, no matter the role) and not a movie star. I'm sure that it was Oldman's idea for the character, but again, the choice is part of Cuaron's signature on this film.
...snip
Not only is this the best Harry Potter movie, it is the first Harry Potter movie that actually qualifies as cinema. I'll be going to see it again before it opens… not because the kids will drag me, but because I want to.
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