Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban....sucks! It is so really boring and I felt like it was a desperate attempt to make a fusion of Momento, Pulp Fiction and all the other movies which go rewind! I guess they wanted to make the movie interesting by putitng in the time factor, but magic wands, wizards and time rewind kind of do not mix that well!! Overall it is 5 bucks down the drain!
UPDATE: I agree reading the book is definitely better than seeing the movie. I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books (but then one is not supposed to read books and then see a movie). My comments are on making of the movie(not the book) It is just so loosely made, one can guess they dropped out a lot of things. The movie gives out crucial clues at the wrong moments (I guess its not the same in the book) The plot becomes fairly clear when Ron asks Hermoine how she can be in 2 classes at the same time. And then they have this desperate attempt to push the audience to believe that it was Harry's father who reappeared to save him. Also, now we all know that its a movie about magic wands and powers then why do they have to emphasize so much on the teachers waving their wands to do their daily chores..(Snapes waving his wand to close the windows of the class rooms, Lupin waving his wand to open and close the doors of his cabinets!! C'mon everybody knows that a wand can do that!!
Creative/Plus points: Marauders Map, Hermoine's idea of time travel, the Dementors and the Petronas Charm, The Hippogriff, Sirius' wanted poster, and above all the Snitch!! I found Ron's acting better than Harry's!
Let Downs: The 'Scary' Warewolf, Snapes and Lupin confrontation when Harry is with the map, Daniel's acting as Harry, the show-off of wand power.
On the whole I think the length of the movie was not enough to cover the story...something like a travel suitcase packed up in haste and most of the things jutting out from all sides. I saw the first 2 Harry Potter films and enjoyed them thoroughly. But I guess the Law of Diminishing Returns holds true at some stage or the other!!
Also saw The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Speilberg. It is a nice story that has a 'Nukkad' type of touch. Catherine Zeta Jones is charming as always and Tom Hanks' acting as a foreigner who doesn't know English is superb.
Saturday, June 19, 2004