Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J. K. Rowling
Director: Alfonso Cuaròn
Publisher: Warner Home Video


Media Format: Movie
Genre: Fantasy
Selection Source: It's Harry Potter!
Recommended Audience: All YAs
Recommendation: 4 ****


Summary
I arrived at the Harry Potter universe quite late. Most people had read the last book before I had read the first one. I finally read the first two, and enjoyed them. Like most people, I didn't want to set them down. Unfortunately (not really) I have so many things to read that I cannot justify spending a month (probably more) reading nothing but Harry Potter, so I thought I would cheat a little bit, and watch HPATPOA rather than read it.


This movie is often cited as the best of the Harry Potter movies, and I can see why. As most people who are readers know, recreating a novel on the big screen is a serious challenge. It's so often a poor facsimile of the novel. This is not the case with HPATPOA.


In this movie, Harry runs away from home after a fight with the Dursley's and he's picked up by a magical bus for stranded witches and wizards. He soon finds out that an escaped convict is on the loose, and that convict is in all likelihood trying to find and kill Harry. After learning some new spells from Hogwarts' new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, Harry along with his two friends figure out that the convict isn't the person people think he is, and he can shed some light on the death of Harry's parents.


Evaluation
The best thing this movie does is create a great atmosphere. It's often said that movies cannot compete with the imagination, but I'll be the first to say that the Hogwarts of this movie kicks my imagination's ass. It also works as a workable replacement to the novel. I feel confident moving onto the fourth novel without reading the third (some other time we can debate whether or not that is a good thing). I think the most important thing about the Harry Potter books is that they make being an elite student a cool thing. It's not going to inspire everyone who watches it to dedicate themselves to scholarship, but there is something to be said about a movie that can make knowledge look powerful, and Harry Potter does indeed do that.