Prisoner of Azkaban

Cafe Society
101

I thought it was a great movie! My favorite of the bunch. Book 3 is also my favorite book of the series, so it works out good that way :D. I think the change of pace by Cuaron was great. Instead of slavishly following the book, he focused squarely on Black story arc and creates a movie with actual magic. I have to say that I LOVED the new castle. This time it actually inspired awe in me. And the Maurader’s Map was very very well done… and it was ingenious to use it for the final credits.

What I wish, though, is 2 or 3 minute explination from Lupin about the significance of the Map to Harry at the end, when Lupin has to leave…

102

I really loved the direction and look of this movie. It’s probably the best done of the three. I liked the way this movie picked up on some subtleties from the book and used them to create visuals to replace some of the wordy internal descriptions. For instance, the dementors. Everyone seems to agree they were well done. When I saw the movie, I thought that the freezing graphics was just a visual way of showing them, since it’s harder on the screen to show the mental state of the characters. I looked in the book, though, and found that they were written as being cold, and physically lowering the temperature. Thing is, in the book, it was a minor point, with the writing space being spent on the emotions of the characters. In the movie, it’s an important visual point, to establish the dementors, and I think they did a fine job on it.

Similarly, the way the camera angles work with panning or zooming back to show Hermione in a scene (where she could well have been sitting all along), along with the students wondering where she had come from, was a good visual way of dealing with that.

I’m of two minds about the castle grounds. On the one hand, I want to know if they just had an earthquake, since everything looks so different. Perhaps for security, they moved the castle from the plains to the mountains? :wink: I don’t like the change in continuity. On the other hand, the look was stunning, and I like it better. The obvious solution is to go back and edit these external visuals into the previous two movies and re-release them. (Heh.)

I’m not surprised they had to cut a lot (and it’s only going to get worse), and for the most part I’m happy with what they chose to cut. However, there were a couple of key things they cut that they shouldn’t have, because they affect or demonstrate the emotions of the characters.

I don’t care that much how many Quidditch games they show, but showing Malfoy and friends dressed as dementors and Harry using his newly learned defense on them is an important moment for him gaining confidence in using the Patronus charm, as well as a funny moment in their ongoing feud.

The movie was way more visual and obvious about the Hermione-Ron attraction than the books have been (even through 5), which is okay. However, they never got into the fact that Ron and Hermione spend most of this year fighting, between the fact she’s stressed, the Crookshanks-Scabbers problem, and so forth.

Finally, I agree with the others here about identifying the makers of the Marauder’s map. Or, at the very least, making it much more clear that the four of them were the closest of friends, and that 3 of them became Animagi, including James, along with the connection to the look of Harry’s Patronus (which went completely unexplained here).

So, overall – good, I liked it, the look, the feel, the script, the visuals. Most of the cut events were fine, but they should have left a few more emotional moments in. Ten more minutes of film would not have killed it.

103

I’m leaving out spoiler tags because 1) I think people are expecting this to be a spoiler thread, 2) I’m talking about things in the book that weren’t in the movie so these don’t spoil the movie anyway, and 3) These are mostly minor points.

Not quite. In the book, he gets the broom at Christmas, and does not know who it’s from. Because of this, it’s looked at with suspicion, and examined closely for traps. (This is another point in the Ron-Hermione feud, which I felt was an important element they omitted.) He gets it back in time to use for another game, though. He finds out it’s from Black at the end of the book.

It’s this book. After the Fat Lady picture gets slashed, they put a new picture here with Sir not-appearing-in-this-movie, who has obscure and frequently changing passwords. Neville can’t keep up, and writes them down, loses the slip, Black finds it, and gets in to the tower. It’s good character moments for Neville and Ron, but I’m happy with the omission from the movie – it’s not a major plot point, and easy to leave out without affecting anything else. (Neville, for example, is an important character in the book series, but is barely an extra in the movie.)

I don’t think it implies Hermione’s a werewolf. I think it’s just showing her to be a know-it-all who has studied all of these different things. She read up on werewolves and figured out Lupin, for example. This is a different way to show it than in the book – more visual, and more compact. Too corny, though. I don’t like the “howl like a werewolf” thing. I’m sure it’s a throwaway, because it’s not in the books. I haven’t seen any evidence that the movie makers are putting anything new in that they plan to keep in future movies – they seem to start from the books new each time.

Harry doesn’t see it, but during the exposition in the book at the Shrieking Shack, Lupin says that he saw it on the map. This brings it on screen (rather than being told about it later), and has it happening to the main character rather than a supporting character. I think this is one of the better changes made to adapt the book to the screen.

104

Thank you for making me choke on my taco.

“Harry Potter and the Holy Grail of Fire” indeed. (trying to think of a lupin joke.)

105

NE Texas picked up the first point I was going to make–that it was Lupin in the books who noticed Peter Pettigrew’s name on the map. This is why he immediately embraced Black–he knew if Pettigrew was alive, Black was innocent of betrayal.

As far as not mentioning important details about the map, I read an interview with Cuaron and Cloves in which they mentioned that this particular omission was done on purpose because it somehow fit better in the Goblet of Fire script. So the explanation will be forthcoming in the next movie. Obviously, I’ll have to wait till then to see if I agree with their decision, but right now I don’t. I very much wish it had been in this one.

The interview (which was either in Entertainment Weekly or the Fort Worth Star Telegram–I’ll try to find a link if I can) also mentioned the strategy with the story line was to find the primary theme and stick with it. Any moment or plot device which didn’t somehow serve the primary theme was cut. The on-going spat between Ron and Hermione didn’t fit, so was cut. According to Cuaron, there won’t be tons and tons of deleted scenes because he cut things as he was filming. Kind of a shame as I would have loved to see Malfoy get dinged by the Patronus charm.

I also missed Sir Cadogan (the new password painting after the Fat Lady was being restored) but I get the impression the knight who kept poking around all the pictures while the Fat Lady was hiding was supposed to be Sir Cadogan. Could be wrong.

And count me in on the “King of the World” bit. It was an unfortunate choice that totally took me out of the film for a minute.

Overall though–loved it. Think it’s the best of the three so far.

106

One of the things I’ve always liked about the books is how Rowling draws a parallel between real-life racism and the whole pureblood thing the Malfoys are always up in arms about. SO… seeing that she does that, I got a kind of “werewolf = gay” thing from the books, and I thought Thewlis made that analogy slightly more obvious in the film.

I phrased that bit badly, but you know what I mean, yes? Not that werewolves are gay, but just that Rowling has used the way gays are treated by “mainstream” society as a parallel?

107

I didn’t read the book before seeing the movie, and I’m glad. I’ve waited until seeing the movies before reading the books and I think it’s making the movies more enjoyable–I know I would have been bored by the second half if I already knew what was coming. I’m now halfway through the book.

A few comments about previous posts:

Peter Pettigrew looks pretty darned old, older than his yearmates, becase, like Sirius, the last 12 years have been pretty hard on him…

Don’t be embarrassed thinking that the guy playing Neville is going to be pretty darn good-looking in five years or so; there are plenty of guys here who think Hermione is PDGL now…

(mostly a book problem) Hogsmeade is the only all-wizard community in the world. Why, therefore, are wizards such doofuses when it comes to the non-wizarding world? Why does the wizard newspaper have to describe a gun as “a sort of wand that Muggles use to kill each other”? What’s up with not understanding Muggle clothing? It’s not exactly rocket science. I realize it was written as primarily a children’s book, so there are some odd references, but still…

I saw Emma Watson’s battery pack for her body mike in one of the scenes where she’s running around in a pink sweater. Woohoo! Either that, or she’s wearing a pager.

I didn’t get the Shrieking Shack at all–I didn’t hear any references to it when people were heading off to Hogsmeade, they didn’t say what it was when it appeared in the movie for the first time, and then when they did name it, I heard “Shrinking Shack”, which made a certain amount of goofy magical sense except that it didn’t shrink. I did think that they wanted us to think that it was Askaban Prison, and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for it to be right next door to Hogwart’s…

108

Because Wizards lead secluded lives and don’t deal with Muggles that much. Look at the Weasley’s who have their house seperate from Muggle kind.

109

When and where in the world would they bring it up?!? As it stands, GoF could be a 7 hour movie *without * having to backtrack and cover material from the 3rd book. Bad bet.

110

I really enjoyed the movie. I loved the sets, and Ron’s the spiders want me to tap dance! moment. The dementors wern’t how I had pictured them, but I still feel that it worked.

However, I feel the film was too fast paced. They seemed to rush some things. Another thing was that Emma Watson seemed to scream a lot. This began to get on my nerves. However, I still really enjoyed the film.

111

In issue #769 June 11, 2004 of Entertainment Weekly, the following is offered (page 36, Box) in an article written by Jeff Jensen:

“…The most provocative deletion for fans: the backstory of the Marauder’s Map, Harry’s magical guide to Hogwarts. The filmmakers belived the details would work better in a future film.”

(If I didn’t reference this correctly, I apologize–please let me know and I will avoid the error in the future.) Anyway, it appears that they plan to put the details in a later film–doesn’t state specifically, but I assume it would be GoF. I’d imagine the next film will be formatted the same way: find one major theme, stick to it and cut the rest.

112

This was my favorite of the three movies. I just LOVED it. What was cool for me is that the dementors looked exactly as I expected. My five year old loved it because there was a werewolf. He’s all about the werewolves.

113

I was a member of the “Less Quidditch, Please” camp for the first two books. In this movie, though, I thought Cuarón made a huge mistake cutting so much of it out. The spine of this movie is supposed to be Harry entering adolescence. In the match against Ravenclaw, Harry produces something like a Patronus while he’s racing Cho to the snitch (and shortly after she’s smiled at him for the first time). It’s in keeping with the nudge-nudge opening of the movie: “Something silvery-white, something enormous, shot from the end of his wand.” Also, I thought the end of the first match, where Cedric Diggory tries to call off the match because he didn’t win fairly, was important for the fourth installment.
I also think they could have shown Malfoy mouthing off to Hagrid in class, at some point. If Harry’s reaching the age where he’s less docile before adult authority, his schoolmates ought to be, as well.

114

Interesting. But if they put it in a future movie, I’d bet on OftP, specifically in the beginning when Harry meets the bulk of the Order’s members. Lupin was there, making the introductions - it would make for an excellent flashback scene. (Actually, there’ll be a lot of flashback scenes, won’t there? That’s the book with a lot of the James/Lily/Severus backstory.)

115

I can’t think of very much that’s less important.

De-emphasizing quidditch is a good thing. The sport doesn’t make much sense to begin with.

By far the best movie of the three. I wish Cuaron was doing the rest of the films.

116

Just saw it today, save for the three times I had to take my little brother to the toilet (grrrrr :mad: )

It was an excellent film, much moodier and darker scenes if that makes sense. The camera angles were brilliant. It might have just been where I haven’t been to the cinema in, oh, 2 years but it felt quite 3-dimensional, like it was coming out at you. I hate the fact that it didn’t follow the book though. But what can you expect when it goes Hollywood I guess. I love the look of the castle but it does appear smaller to me, especially the Great Hall, I mean where were all the kids?? I don’t know why but that damn crooked bridge was fabulous to me. Very funhouse.

What was with the kids in damn mugglewear? Gap has invaded Hogwarts! I can understand the scenes outside of Hogwarts but I don’t think I saw any of the main characters where a damn robe all the time. Did I miss that part in Book 3? I did like Ron’s outift though, very grunge!! :cool:

Buckbeak flying scene: I did whisper “King of the World” to myself but in actual fact I was actually thinking of “The Snowman” with that squeaky voiced kid singing We’re walking in the air…

Marauder’s map: Like I said, I missed some of the movie but did I miss the part where they explained why Lupin knew how to work the map, or that he knew it was a map to begin with?

Lupin: Lovely chap, just as I imagined him, although I did get a pedophilic vibe from him, just becuase of the hanging around with Harry a lot and the always giving him chocolate. I know, warped mind. I only got the “gay” idea at the very end, with him talking about “his kind”. He isn’t gay, I don’t think, other than Rowling is using him to demonstrate the prejudices of real life. Also the werewolf did look quite cool, the whole swapping from four legs to two was a nice touch. I don’t believe Hermione is a werewolf, just a know-it-all. Her call was frankly just crap. Mind you if Herm is a werewolf and werewolves = gay. Hmmmmmm… :eek: Yes I am a naughty boy for thinking that girl is getting hot. But it’s not wrong if I like her in about book 8 is it? :stuck_out_tongue:

Protronus spell: I think you had to have read the book to fully appreciate this. As far as we know Harry had had one lesson and all of a sudden he’s an expert. It seemed a bit too easy from a moviegoer’s perspective. And as for the stag, how did he know it was his father? Or did he see future Harry faintly in the background? I would have liked to see the Stag charge but oh well.

I didn’t think it was rushed at all, although the scenes in the Shrieking Shack and the, oh the pub in the place where the kids go on weekends (damn brain freeze) were just plain short. I did expect a lot more to be said but it was just like. Sirius is evil, he does bad things, he is Harry’s godfather. ------> Sirius wants to kill Harry, Lupin is friends with Sirius, Sirius good, Scabbers bad. But then wasn’t the Shrieking Shack a bit fast paced in the book, or was that just my reading of it.

Sirius looked like I imagined him, only I did want someone a bit stockier than Oldman, but I wasn’t thinking about being tortured in Azkaban. Dementors were spot on how I imagined them, as was Buckbeak. Was it Ludo Bagman that Harry met in the Leaky Cauldron? I don’t know what to think of him yet. He started to show his political side in Book 3 if I remember rightly, and he certainly had a dislike for Harry then, but in the film it was quite cheerful and he just let Harry off the hook, especially strange with the “Egor” helper providing the comedy. I need to reread the books because that part doesn’t sit right with me. I like the look of Dumbledore 2.0 but he has this new age thinking way about him that the original didn’t have. Dumbledore 1.0 was quietly onmiscient it seemed whereas new-Dumbledore is just eerily knowledgable.

BTW, Quidditch rocks! The game they showed was awesome, but as far as the audience is concerned Gryffindor didn’t even win the Cup. Rotten shame on the part of no having Wood cheering his heart out. Should have had more. Snape was pretty cool. Why did expelliarmus (sp?) shoot him across the room when it only shot the wand away from Pettigrew? He totally defended the kids when he needed to, unarmed and everything. I think they’re starting to show his good side, after all he didn’t do anyting when he caught Harry snooping around.

Picky points: Aren’t the carriages that carry the students drawn by invisible skeleton horses? If so, thems are small horses because the carriages are way too close. Harry just dismissed Lupin’s knowledge of the map. huh? The Patronus charm. The Harry being pardoned for inflating aunts bit.

Still most excellent, it’s just a shame I smashed the front of my car up driving to see it. D’oh :smack:

117

No, it wasn’t addressed at all. I thought it definetly should be. A few more minutes discussing that wouldn’t have hurt.

118

The point wasn’t made in the movie, but was in the book: chocolate is used for medicinal purposes, and is particularly effective in treating exposure to dementors.

I think too many of you are reading too much into the movie Lupin regarding the gay/pedophile angle.

119

Yes.

I read the book for the first time on Thursday night and saw the movie on Sunday - so I had it very fresh in my mind…and while I liked it, it seemed rushed, there were a few too many quick edits, a few too many scenes that should have been there and weren’t (already mentioned are the explanation of where the map came from and why they all became animagi, also the book made it much more clear that Hermione was scheduled to be in two places at once - the movie, she did a few “where did she come from” moments, but unless you were paying close attention, you may not have realized that she had two classes at the same time and was obviously going to both…somehow…). It felt like I was watching the “not quite full movie, but good enough. The real movie will be on DVD in 7 months.”

It was too rushed - but it was still quite good.

120

Yeah I forgot to mention the misplaced Hermione scenes, great camera angle so the audience is misdirected but the book focused on the two places at once rather than the now she’s here now she’s not.
I don’t think Lupin was gay or pedophilic it’s just the moustache for a start, and the handing out sweeties.