Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Po...
May 25, 2004 12:00 a.m. - KINGBLIND: Music, Art & Entertainment
Edit This Page Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter 3)(World Premier Movie Review) I am either the best person to review this movie, or the worst. I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books, nor do I want or intend to. I have seen the first Harry Potter movie - The Sorcerer’s Stone, and have used the second, The Chamber of Secrets, as the movie to which I fall asleep. I haven’t made it past the first 30 minutes of Chamber of Secrets, by the way. It’s a brilliant soporific. All that aside, I couldn’t resist the invitation to see the world premier of HP3 at Radio City Music Hall. At two hours and 16 minutes, HP3 is a lot more than adolescent fare. That’s a long time to ask a kid to sit still and be quiet. Unlike the previous adventures in this franchise, however, HP3 moves at a well modulated pace -- opens fast and furious and funny. I’ll excuse HP’s 1 & 2 for the responsibility of setting up all the Potter back-story and the development of a huge cast of characters. Still. They’re long movies. Directed this time around not by Chris Columbus, who directed the first two, but by Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien), the Harry Potter franchise has come into its next phase: darkness on the edge of adolescence (sorry boss). Columbus produced. Credit Columbus for bringing a fresh vision to the series; Cuaron’s pacing and ability to venture into the dark side gave this story depth and fantastic grey areas. No clear black and white, good and bad. This movie is, as I must presume the book is, filled with word plays and clues and double entendres and visual sight gags. They all work, and they’re great methods to educate today’s media-focused kids who would rather watch HP3 than read some expository tome. And if you’re the adult taking the kids to the movies, you certainly won’t feel insulted. For example: This installment begins with Harry at his Aunt & Uncle’s house. The Aunt is to Harry, merely his Uncle’s windbag wife. She’s nasty and talks trash about Harry’s parents. He won’t have it. After two years at Hogwarts, his wizard skills are more than adept. Like Bewitched’s Tabitha and her baby magic powers, Harry LITERALLY turns the Aunt into a hot air balloon. She flies off into England’s wild blue yonder. He runs away from home -- for this is a punishable offense. Young wizards aren’t supposed to do magic outside of Hogwarts. (Who knew? those who read the books, I guess.) Stranded on some suburban street, Harry is picked up by the Knight Bus, a phantom purple triple decker bus with a blind driver and a jive talking Rasta shrunken head navigating. The bus can’t be seen by non-wizards and non-witches and flies through traffic narrowly avoiding accidents along the way. All in the first five minutes. Like I said: fast, furious and funny. Back at Hogwarts, its the same old rivalries and new lessons and new professors. Prof. Lupin just happens to be in the same train compartment as Harry, Ron and Hermione en route to Hogwarts. The train stalls along the way, and rain turns to freeze and Harry is accosted and affected by a Dementor, which Prof. Lupin makes go away. This sets up the rest of the adventure. Sirius Black, a serial killer, involved in the death of the elder Potters, has escaped from the Wizard Prison, Azkaban. The Dementors are the soul-sucking guards looking for him. At this point, if you’re an adult and know your general vocabulary and mythology, it won’t take you long to figure out there’s a wolf (a werewolf, in fact --- Prof. Lupin) and a black dog (Sirius Black). Its very exciting when these facts are revealed and you can use that as a lesson for your kids or your nieces/nephews. Maybe I’m becoming a softie in my old age, but I cherished this aspect of the script. The epic offers other lessons for the kids (in the story and in the audience), and textures in the portrayal of characters and the examples of irony, morality, loyalty/betrayal and the language related to these life-elements. What is the meaning of "rat" and why is Ron’s pet so important? We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Who are your friends? Are things always what they seem? Gary Oldman as Sirius Black. I was looking forward to that. Oldman is under-used, but I guess Sirius is coming back. This is one of those great cliff-hanger elements that makes you want the next movie to come out soon. Emma Thompson as the near-sighted Professor Trelawney does a great comic turn. She teaches divination - reading tea leaves and crystal balls. She is blind as a bat and wears coke-bottle thick glasses, but she does have the vision. Michael Gambon replaces the delightful but now deceased Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and plays him with dry English wit. The regulars turn in solid performances. As these type of movies do, HP3 relies heavily on computer generated imagery and special effects. I hate that stuff. I’d rather see a tall Japanese guy in a big lizard suit. But here, the deft artisans that cloak Harry in Invisibility or have rendered a half-horse, half- raptor Hippogryffon (or something like that....) or created the animated Marauder’s Map have completely out-done just about every special effects house in business today. The mattes are seamless and flawless: Harry appears and disappears as if like MAGIC. The beast moves gracefully and without those obvious algebraic vector-calculated movements that say the Jurassic Park dinosaurs had. In a couple words: HP3 is highly entertaining. Fun summer fare, and probably worth the up to $10 it now costs to see a movie. Makes you want to be a wizard.
Celebrity headcount for the film and after party: (c’mon.... you wanted to know!) The cast: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Malfoy, Ron’s brother and sister, Hagrid, Snape, Lupin and their creators: director Alfonso Cuaron, producers Chris Columbus and David Heyman,Local celebs and their kids: Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins, LL Cool J, Christie Brinkley, Chrissie Hynde, Gina Gershon, Michael Imperioli, Steven Van Zandt, Lee Lee Sobieski, plus others I have forgotten, but who you’ll see on Entertainment Tonight. -- Theresa Kereakes (among other things, documentary filmmaker who does things the analog way)
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