Prisoner of Azkaban (many spoiler warnings)

[helenic]

Like most people, I was excited about this film far more than either of the previous two; PoA remains my favourite of the five books (closely followed by GoF) and I was particularly looking forward to what Cuaran would do with it. It's a good place to change director; the point at which the books stop being adventures for primary schools and start unfolding plot and characterisation in new and complex ways.

The film is fast-paced, adult, moody, and powerfully evocative. From the opening sequence, the first thing that struck me was the cinematography. It's not Bresson, but it is imaginative, subtle and very effective, from the use of the Whomping Willow to express the passing of the seasons to the recurrent thematic shots of clocks (I loved the great glass clock which Harry is shown watching the world out of, and which the camera actually passes through during the time-turner sequence), and the way each shot was framed. Cuaron has a great eye for aesthetics and there was some exceptional photography in this film - memorably, the shot from above of the spiral staircase leading up to Trelawney's room; Harry reading in bed with the moonlight shining through the frosty, leaded windows; the reflection of the moon in Lupin's eye as he starts to change; Lupin and Harry on the long, wooden Bridge-of-Sighs-esque walkway with the lochs and the mountains in the distance.

I really loved both David Thewlis as Lupin and Gary Oldman as Sirius. Thewlis' Lupin was lively, trustworthy, perceptive, humourous, adorable with his scars and little moustache and grandad cardigans, and - I'm sorry to say it - undeniably gay. Sirius was terrifying in his posters, wonderfully unpredictable in the Shrieking Shack and made the transition from bad-guy to good-guy effortlessly, joking with Harry as they carried Ron between them out of the Whomping Willow.

And the amount of Sirius/Remus in this film....!! My god! The embrace in the shack, with wand-y kill-y sexual tension! And Sirius clinging to Remus as he changes, battling with him, and the violence and tears and angst but it was beautiful, and then wolf and dog fighting and Sirius attacking werewolf!Lupin to save Harry... and of course the best line in the film, Snape's "stop bickering, you're like an old married couple." Yes. Yes they are.

As far as the werewolf goes: I really liked the horror and sorrow of Cuaran's wolf-man hybrid, terrifying and ugly and alien, although I realise it contradicts the bit in the books where they have to answer an exam question on how to spot the difference between a werewolf and a real wolf, thereby implying that Rowling's werewolves are normally more furry and mammalian. But I have a theory. I reckon werewolf!Lupin was only half wolflike not because that's what all werewolves look like, but because he was only half-changed - he'd only missed one dose of potion, but the wolfsbane in his bloodstream inhibited the transformation somewhat and he didn't go through to full wolf. The potion was one of the things that was only alluded to and should have been explained - the fact that Lupin is dependent on Snape for the potion is a really important aspect of that relationship, and I was sorry to see it omitted - although the tension between them during the map scene is very well portrayed.

Although I really liked the scene where Lupin told Harry off - Thewlis was excellent in it - it seemed inconsistent; if Remus knows that Sirius was innocent, and was not trying to kill Harry, what was he so het up about? (no pun intended...) In fact, I never have worked out why, since Sirius is innocent, he slashed up the door of the Griffindor common room - I mean, yeah, he was looking for Wormtail, but surely he realised that it wouldn't do much good to his reputation. Another thing that bothered me was the shot of the carriages going up towards Hogwarts - there's no way there was room for thestrals inbetween those things, invisible or no.

I loved Snape in this film. I found a lot of the actor's portrayals altered from the first two films, in very effective ways. McGonagall was more distant and her strictness easier to take - you didn't find yourself expecting her to be kind, only decent. Snape came across as weaker, more desperate - the scene in the Shrieking Shack was the most Snapelike Alan Rickman has ever been - not evil, just left-out, bitter, resentful.

In fact, all the teachers were characterised such that they were a far more realistic mixture of good and bad. I particularly liked Gambon's Dumbledore - one of the reasons I found OotP so hard to take, as far as Dumbledore's ineffectiveness and emotional distance was concerned, was that I had been influenced by Richard Harris' Dumbledore, who was so wise and kindly and all-knowing it was impossible to imagine him as anything other than the Ultimate Force for Good, someone who could always be trusted to put things right, to know exactly what was going on. When he failed Harry in OoTP, I felt betrayed. But Dumbledore in the books isn't the omniscient, all-good Gandalf figure Harris made him; he's inconsistent, odd, mischeivous, well-meaning but ineffable, and Gambon's portrayal really got that across. Dumbledore in PoA has wisdom and goodness and humour in him, as is evidenced by the scene at Hagrid's hut, but he is also fickle, incomprehensible, and not entirely reliable; a Dumbledore I can easily imagine - and forgive - behaving as he does to Harry in OoTP. My expectations of this Dumbledore are no longer so high as Harris inappropriately made them, and that is far more in keeping with the character presented in the books.

As for the trio: Dan Radcliffe was still embarrassingly wooden in places, and the crying scene was just appalling, especially since crying!Harry is somewhat out of character for our repressed angsty little protagonist, but still, he was better than I'd expected him to be. I was much less impressed with Rupert Grint than I'd expected to be (he's easily been the best actor of the three in the first two films), although that might just be because his part was severely cut down and Hermione's was beefed up. I don't know what to make of Emma Watson. I actually thought, in this film, she was by far the best actress of the three, but then she practically had the biggest/most challenging part, so it's not a fair judgment. Also, she's too pretty for Hermione. And I am extremely biased because I have highly inappropriate desires for her, especially while decking Draco, and the pink top, and the breasts. Yeah. And she's fourteen. FOURTEEN! *hits self repeatedly* Actually it was fantastic to see them in muggle clothes - I mean they get given jumpers and things in the books so they obviously aren't supposed to live in their robes they way they do in the first two films. And I liked the way their wardrobes were done - Ron and Harry's hand-me-downs, and the fact they wear the same hoodies throughout, because fourteen-year-olds do tend to wear the same things all the time.

There were several Ron/Hermione moments in this - the hand-holding, and Hermione burying her face in Ron's shoulder when Buckbeak is "killed", and Ron manfully playing up his injury Draco-style while she considerately humours him. (However, I was intrigued by the shot where Harry is yelling about Peter betraying his parents, in which Hermione is holding him and Ron is standing at a distance - just emotional awkwardness, because his best mate's crying and it was his rat, or a rather more subtle subtext in the context of what's being said?)

The special effects throughout were absolutely stunning, particularly Buckbeak (whom it was possibly to really take seriously as a character, which was exactly right), and the Dementors, who were perfect in every way - the robes, and the faces, and the kiss - chilling, and the slow build-up of terror until suddenly there are hundreds of the things by the lake, and you're just like, OH SHIT. I also loved the Knight Bus sequence - everything about it was fantastic; the light, the frenetic jazz music, the highly skilled variation of pace, the comedy, the weirdness. Stan was suitably unnerving and I can't remember whether there was a talking voodoo head in the books, but making it rasta was genius.

Other things I liked: Fred and George, whom we finally meet properly and who are WONDERFUL and slightly scouse and good-looking in a ginger, seventies-BBC sort of way; the Marauder's Map, which was just beautifully executed; Dawn French as the Fat Lady (in fact, I loved the way they did all the paintings - it was far more richly detailled as a whole), whose opening scene was a hilarious and highly appropriate addition to the book and made her fear later on far more effective. Emma Thompson as Trelawney was wonderful, particularly her prophesy scene, although it wasn't made quite clear enough how unusual an occurrence that was - mind you, I suppose it isnt clear in the books whether she's a big fraud or not either; she clearly takes her ability more seriously than she should, but she does know about the Grim. Peter Pettigrew was extremely effective - pathetic and distasteful and better-looking as a rat, although it was a little surprising that speech came to him so easily after being transformed for twelve years. It was also very convenient that he was clothed, although I'm not complaining - it was definitely within the bounds of artistic licence, in the circumstances.

The best thing about this film, though, as well as the cinematography (which I've mentioned) were the locations - Hogwarts itself wasn't changed too much, but the grounds were very different to what we've seen so far, and much more appropriate. It was believably in Scotland for the first time - especially the truly stunning scenes where Harry flies out over the loch - and I liked the long bridge, and the standing stones, and the mountains in the distance, and the Whomping Willow (and the running joke of the bird getting twatted by it!), and the rain (the Quidditch scene was very well done). The other thing was the music. It was far more varied - the theme only appeared a couple of times, as far as I noticed, and there was far fewer boomy Dreamworks orchestral bits and more instrumental solos; I liked the school choir, and the medieval instruments, and the recurring Elizabethan "Great Hall" theme, and the celtic/folky theme when they were outside and in the forest. In fact it was a genuinely evocative, powerful, varied soundtrack, so much that I'm tempted to buy it, and really contributed to the effect of the film as something more richly complex than the previous two, deeper and more beautiful and more mature.

However, having said that, there were a number of things about it that really bothered me. The amount of cutting necessary to fit it into a 100-minute film obviously meant a lot of scenes were removed (which I was prepared for), and a lot of things were alluded to, rather than explained - such as why Fudge forgave him so readily, which wasn't linked up later on to the amount of danger he was in and how glad the Ministry were to see him safe (and while we're on that scene, Tom was wonderful) - such that people who hadn't read the book wouldn't have understood them (which I don't think is an entirely bad thing, to be honest), but there were a couple of omissions that just grated. The first one was the Patronus. I can see sort of why they changed the visual description of the Patronus charm itself, so that it just looks like a shield rather than an animal leaping from the end of one's wand - but in that case, what role was the stag, when it appeared, meant to be playing? It didn't seem to be a normal part of the charm so much as a mystical extra bit that happened to be made of the same white light stuff, and then the second time we saw that scene, from the PoV of Harry who cast the successful Patronus, the stag didn't appear at all. It was almost as if the stag, rather than being Harry's Patronus, was actually being used to represent the ghost of James - and when it was clear that James wasn't, in fact, there, there was no use for it. That bothered me.

But the most important and unforgivable omission was the fact that they didn't explain about the Marauders. Okay, so we saw the names of Mooney (sic), Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, but Lupin did not explain the connection between Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail and himself, Snuffles and Scabbers, and it was not even alluded to that James was an animagus. The power and significance of the stag as Harry's Patronus was completely ignored. And seeing as Sirius and Lupin are barely present in GoF, and Peter only at the end and in no state to explain anything, it looks like the films are intending not to explain that bit at all. Which, frankly, is bloody annoying, because the Marauders are my favourite bit of canon and missing them out when they are so crucial to the significance of the plot, the characterisation of three of the characters, and Harry's identity, seems ridiculous. At the end of PoA all we've been told is that Lupin, Sirius and Peter all knew James and Lily - there is no mention of how close the four of them were, or the fact they were all animagi, or the nature of their connection to each other, and I was sorry to see it left out.

Comments

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

Yep, soooo much guilt over fancying Emma Watson (although when your girlfriend agrees, it's not quite as bad!) And I want a score for that song - I know so many choirs who'd like to do it...

I was also annoyed over the Marauders being left out. Gggrr. We could do with extended DVD bits where they actually film the whole plot rather than half of it.

The rasta head was voiced by Lenny Henry!

P.S. Isn't it Fudge, not Finch?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

We could do with extended DVD bits where they actually film the whole plot rather than half of it.

Yes ... I was thinking that! It should be a standard feature of over-ambitious book adaptations :)

I did indeed mean Fudge. Thanks for pointing that out.

talk about guilt!

[lanthanum.livejournal.com]

imagine how i feel, at my age, having dirty little thoughts about tom felton AND emma watson? as in, i wouldn't mind kidnapping the both of them and ....

*cough*

well, anyway!

Re: talk about guilt!

[glass-world.livejournal.com]

I've always had slightly innappropriate feelings towards the both of them. Yup. Since the very first film. Someone is possibly going to turn up and arrest me now...

Re: talk about guilt!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I don't get this at all ... but that's probably at least a bit to do with my absolute antipathy towards everything Draco/Hermione. The only people I'll slash Draco with are Ginny, Harry and Lucius. And if I ever wrote a Hermione fic, it'd be more than likely to be a Mary Sue ... which is one of the reasions I refuse to :)

Re: talk about guilt!

[glass-world.livejournal.com]

What's a Mary Sue? And also I don't mean Hermione/Draco, I just mean them in general... *ahem* Draco/Harry is the obvious pairing. Or Draco/Lucius... And the only person Hermione is ever going to be slashed with is Snape. Which just seems to wrong now I write it. Um, you know, talking about slashy things on livejournal just makes the whole thing seem abnormal *gasp*
xx

Re: talk about guilt!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

erm, a Mary Sue is where you write a fic and introduce a new character who is blatantly yourself, only badly disguised. e.g. "There is a new American exchange student at Hogwarts who is a Slytherin and whom Draco falls violently in love with and of whom Hermione is secretly jealous!!!11" ... you get the idea.

ah. it was the idea of kidnapping both of them at once that made me a bit squicked. But then that is probably the result of my being repelled by any man under the age of about 30 at the moment. c'est la vie.

As for Hermione/Snape ... seen it done sexily, never seen it done convincingly (as opposed to Harry/Snape, which makes for fantastic abusive corporal punishment scenes). Snape's appeal, for me, lies in the fact that he is snide, bullying, and incredibly intelligent, and Hermione would not let herself be bullied; so unless it was a very dark angsty rape fic, I can't see it working. although I do understand why it exists, because a lot of the women who fancy Snape identify quite strongly with Hermione :)

Actually I don't really fancy the character of Snape at all - at leas the book version; OBVIOUSLY I fancy Alan Rickman - I used to think I did, but he's too hurt, too vulnerable, too ruled by his emotions. Deep down, he's the archetypal abuse-victim-becomes-abuser, and it's very pathetic and yeah, you feel for the guy, but I want someone whose arrogance and cruelty isn't just a coverup for his hurt, you know? If you were slashed with Snape you'd end up having to look after him, and to me, that doesn't appeal. He's not strong enough. Although given the chance, he could be an excellent character dominant :)

Re: talk about guilt!

[glass-world.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I don't like when they introduce new characters. For me it kind of defeats the point.

Hermione/Snape not done convincingly... I don't know, I've never really thought about Snape's character that much, since I find a lot of the peripheral characters to be pretty one-dimensiona in a lot of ways (though less so as the books progress)l, I just ignore them and make up their personalities (and all the rest) for myself. Hee.

As for not fancying the actual character of Snape... I think for me it's almost all to do with Alan Rickman. However, the fact that everyone is terrified of him is quite lush. I think as he becomes more and more of an outsider/hurt little boy I find him less attractive as a character and (oh this is so sad) begin to identify with him a little. Bless him.

I'd still do Alan Rickman, though.

Re: talk about guilt!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Oh, but a character from canon can also be Mary Sued (or so I hear), when they're overly revered or blatantly used to stand in for the desires of the author. This happens a lot with Remus and Tonks in HP fic, and (I think) Willow in BtVS fic.

Hope that makes sense - I don't actually write fanfic, so someone might want to correct me!

Re: talk about guilt!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I really don't understand the Tom Felton appeal. I mean, if I were Harry, sure, I'd find Draco sexy, but I'm not a repressed, uncertain, switchy teenage boy and therefore I don't. He's cute in a camp sort of way, but as far as men go, Sirius is way more my type :)

o dear, i love your icon....

[lanthanum.livejournal.com]

well, i feel tom (as draco) looks better when his hair isn't slicked back, ala "spike" from buffy the vampire slayer TV series.

i did decide once, that if eminem and james marsters (who plays spike) were able to have a child somehow, and defy all logic of life as we know it... that child would be tom felton. :P

i never found harry all that cute until this last movie; they ALL are going to be absolutel heartbreakers when they're older -- although, i say that like they aren't, already. ;)

Re: o dear, i love your icon....

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I guess if you like camp, arrogant, mixed-up teenage boys, yeah, I can see the appeal ... but, erm, personally, no.

... and hey, careful what you say about Spike. Ain't his fault he's a blond ;)

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Ok, shouldn't have read spoilers before seeing film, but I can't believe that they left out the stuff you say they left out in the last 2 paragraphs! I mean, that's the *point* of the book (well, one of them...) Sigh. At least now I can be annoyed in advance, rather than getting het up in the cinema :-)

Although I really liked the scene where Lupin told Harry off - Thewlis was excellent in it - it seemed inconsistent; if Remus knows that Sirius was innocent,

Haven't seen film, may have wrong end of stick, but as I read the book, Lupin thought that Sirius had been the Potters secret keeper and killed Peter right up until the point in the Shack where Sirius tells him the truth. So until then he thinks that Sirius is guilty.

Oh, and Emma Thompson was in CULES, you know...

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I read it too - Lupin doesn't know that Sirius is innocent until the shack scene.

I really liked the way they did the werewolf, too - you are the only person who seems to agree!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

do you agree with my theory? I suppose we won't know if it's true until (if!)they make the film of GoF...

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

It's not something that occured to me, though you could be right - though I would have thought that the werewolf would have been weaker if that was the case. (Um, that is the theory that you were talking about, right?)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Lupin thought that Sirius had been the Potters secret keeper and killed Peter right up until the point in the Shack where Sirius tells him the truth.

This is ringing bells ... damnit, I really need to re-read them. One of the annoying things about staying up over the summer is that all my books are at my parents' house. I shall have to look out for them second-hand...

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I reread the end the other night and checked that I was right - Lipin thinks that Sirius really was the spy who betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort right up until the point where Sirius gets Scabbers and forces him to change, at which point Lupin realises the mistake he's made.

Nah, loads of people in Cambridge have them all, just find someones to borrow. Or there's always Cambridge Library

[libellum.livejournal.com]

if you mean the library in Lion's Yard, then it's fiction section consists of about three shelves. They don't even have the new Pratchett!

[-skyline.livejournal.com]

for some reason, i didn't really care about seeing this movie like i had the others when they came out. but after reading this, i'm dying to go!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

have you read the books? PoA is very different from the first two. I know a lot of people who got bored with CoS and never got any further in the series, which is just a huge shame, because the later books are so different and so much better ...

[-skyline.livejournal.com]

oh yes, I'm a huge fan of the books. I'm not sure why I didn't get as hyped about this 3rd movie as I did the first two, but now after having heard so many rave reviews, I'm beginning to get more excited.

[sicksisters.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see PoA! It wont come here until August :C I guess we must cruise to sweden to see it earlier or something.. I want to see Sirius and Remus together and that scene when Snape says THE line...ooooh ^_______^
And you're not the only naughty one who fancies hermione a bit too much ;)
---leni

[libellum.livejournal.com]

August! shocking! would you see it in English? I don't know what the convention is in european cinemas ... do they subtitle them?

I don't fancy Hermione ... well, I do, a bit, but in a weird identifying-with-her-far-too-much way. If I knew her we'd either have a far too intense, jealous, friendship, or I wouldn't even dare speak to her and she'd think I was about as weird as Luna. But Emma on the other hand ... far too cute to be Hermione. Far too cute in general. Mm.

[sicksisters.livejournal.com]

Here in Finland they subtitle most of the foreign films (thank god!) and I think they won't dub PoA either. It would be the most horrible thing if they dubbed it! Yack :/ It would be ugly not to be able to hear the original voice of the actor/actress but some lame finnish voice. I think they enjoy dubbing in the south Europe more... ;D
PoA comes here in Aug 'cos our cinema thinks people won't go to the movies in the summer time. I can't really understand the logic behind that... (???)

Ohwell, Hermione, Emma, the border between them is swinging. ..But then again I haven't seen Emma being just herself, moving and gesticulating outside the role of Hermione ;)
-len

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

Emma Watson is at my sister's school! A few years below, apparently. Oddly enough Miriam looks extremely similar to her, though of course older. I hadn't noticed before but in this film it suddenly struck me that I was thinking of 'Hermione' as 'Miriam' when I was thinking about the film during the film, if you see what I mean. Eep. Luckily I only ever fancy older women, or else that might have been even more disturbing than it was.

I'm ashamed to be out of your top five commenters, and must quickly rectify this! I'm sure that if thoughtful pauses counted somehow I would be well ahead!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

eeek! she really does look like her! she's very pretty and has a nice nose. I will try not to fancy her, however ...

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

I like commenting back here, almost secretly. It's quite thrilling. This from She Who Reads Novels Recommended By Oprah Because It Is Summer And She Has Bugger All To Do.

That was on her 18th, thus the birthday paraphenalia. I think she's quite fanciable, actually, although of course not personally. She has a podgy little [female] best friend who I suspect is rather in love with her. What was it in the Olden Days? A pash! O girls-only schools...

[nightkitchen.livejournal.com]

what a great (and thorough) review! I just saw the movie last night. we were trying to remember if the marauders were explained in this book or the fourth. too bad they skipped it, 'cause it's interesting, not to mention important.

emma watson was mos def hot. and ... daniel radcliffe was too. I know, I KNOW Hermione and Ron are going to end up together but I can't shake these Harry-Hermione (+me) dreams. ALAS.

the funniest bit was the final shot. that freeze-frame Harry-open-mouthed-and-flying-away shot. HAHA. there was much imitation afterwards.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I don't see the Dan Radcliffe appeal at all! But as I've said elsewhere, as far as men go I tend far more towards the Snape/Sirius end of the spectrum. Either cruel and arrogant or rugged and arrogant. I'd probably have fancied James, but I don't fancy Harry.

Now Hermione/Ron ... I used to think that was where it was going, too. It's clear that Harry/Hermione aren't going to get together, because that would just be bad writing. And there were hints of it in GoF, with how jealous Ron was of Krum. The Hermione/Ron moments in this film were important because at this stage of the story there's still that latency there. However, as far as I'm concerned, the Hermione/Ron ship sank once and for all in OoTP. She's grown up too fast for him; and not just in the way that girls do, but in terms of experience, suffering, maturity. From this point on, she's always going to be too old for him. So unless Harry/Ron is your OTP, I doubt the trio is going to yield any couples ... Harry will probably get together with Ginny for a bit, I don't know. I'd like to see Hermione flirt with Bill Weasley, although it could never work. In fact the person I'd really like to see Hermione flirt with is Angelina Johnson, but we all know how likely that is :)

[nicolasix.livejournal.com]

i have no read the books and now i feel i have to because i saw the film last night and i want to know the significance of the fudge and all about this animagus history of harry parents and...... they sound much better than the films now, but i just find it so hard to get into them.

argh! i'm extremely confused and upset now. proud of yourself? :) xx.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

you must read the books. They are, indeed, far better than the films. If you've seen the films of the first two there's no pressing need to subject yourself to the embarrassments of reading the books, which really are childish, but PoA is a good place to start, and the next one is even better.

[inslowmotion.livejournal.com]

I agree with you: the cinematography was great, the main trio have improved their acting a bit (Rupert Grint's performance wasn't as good as the first two films, however), and of course, Lupin and Sirius were excellent, but I thought the script was lacking a bit. The special effects made up for it, though. Much better than the first two films, in my opinion!

The soundtrack is really good - I love the variety (quite a few medieval sounding songs - wonderful stuff!). I don't own the first two, but after watching PoA, I went out and bought it.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Absolutely - glad you agree! I'm not sure I can afford to buy this one, but I may try and get it off the Cambridge file-sharer hub :) and I definitely want the soundtrack! the medievalness! do you know if one is being released?

[inslowmotion.livejournal.com]

A soundtrack? It's been released - I've been listening to it so much these past few days!

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

there's no way there was room for thestrals inbetween those things, invisible or no.

I thought that, too!

I actually found the cinematography a little heavy-handed, likewise Peter's appearance (those teeth!). And I'm also disappointed by how much they've cut down Ron's role in the last two films.

But generally I liked it a lot. As you say, gorgeous locations and a very convincing Buckbeak. And such a heartbreaking Lupin (just as he should be).

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

Peter's appearance was a bit much. He would have been convincing if he had been less visually over-the-top. I can't agree with you about the cinematography, however. Also I find Ron tedious, so the less of him the better.

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

Ron's role in the last two films seems to have been to do little more than pull silly faces, which I agree is tedious and I wouldn't want more of that. I think there's more to him in the books, however, and I'd have liked to see that used.

Great Review

[marrethiel.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to see the movie, but after reading this review it's a must!

I find at times that movie conversions aren't worth the time, mostly because I love reading so much. When I read a book I empathize with the characters and love or hate them as is appropriate. So when having read a book and then seeing the movie, I'm sometimes unhappy with the characters changing in my mind.

Now where was that book? Must read it again before the weekend. :)

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

I've just seen it with meirion. I thought it was tremedous, and, as an adaptation, infinitely superior to The Lord of the Rings. It captured well the different moods of the book, but without the shifts feeling implausible, which they could easily have done, compressed into 2 hours. As you say, it was visually beautiful, but dark in the right places.

I share your feelings about Grainger decking Malfoy, and I gather that I am not the only one. And we got to see it twice too! It is rather disturbing (for instance, I was going to mention it to Diana as we were walking back, but thought perhaps not). Possibly we ought to admit that sexual attraction is not something with which people are imbued on their sixteenth birthday. After all, presumably you fancied your belle when she was fourteen.

As far as the film plotting went, I understood that Lupin believed Black to be guilty (and Potter to be in danger) until Potter told him that he had seen Pettigrew with the map. Presumably Lupin then verified this for himself, and drew the obvious conclusion. As has been said in other comments, this is different from the book plotting, but I think it may be an improvement. The shack scene would have become unwieldy with this additional layer of revelation, and the pace would have been broken.

Black's attacking the picture is easily explained. He is clearly not naturally of an even-tempered disposition, and his time in Azkaban can hardly have improved his mood. He is not behaving entirely rationally, but his loathing for Pettigrew is such that his normal sense is over-ridden, hence Harry's having to prevent him from committing the murder for which he was wrongfully imprisoned.

To be fair, I think there is a change in the portrayal of Dumbledore over the course of the books too, and presumably this is really a matter of Harry's perception.

My theory about the Patronus is that it appears different from the perspective of the caster to that of observers, so that the caster perceives a shield between him and the dementor(s), whereas observers may see it assuming a corporal form.

Buckbeak was gorgeous, especially flying over the loch. I want one!