Harry Potter

Very slick movie. Definitely the best of the three so far. Alfonso Cuaron has got directing style for days. It has the look of an old-timey film with "tunnel"-style dissolves between scenes, and some really gorgeous shots of the Scottish countryside. The kids are much better in their roles than they've ever been.

That said, I am a little disturbed about something - the story editing. I understand that they can't translate every subplot and detail from the book to the screen, but I was quite frankly astonished at a couple of important (IMHO) plot points that were left out, i.e. the identities of the Mischief Makers and why Harry's Patronus is a stag. As someone on EN World explained to me, the base assumption of the filmmakers seem to be that the audience has read the book and that's just the wrong assumption to make (3 out of 4 of the people I saw it with hadn't). A better assumption would be that the audience has seen the previous films and go from there. It doesn't give me a lot of hope for the next few films, given how much story they're going to have to axe to bring it in under 3 hours.

I will hereby abandon the tired "X amount of stars" summary. Instead I will be judging the film against tracks on the Beatles' seminal 1968 release The Beatles (known in these parts as the "White Album").

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban = Dear Prudence. Strong, moody, maybe not lead single-worthy but holds up to multiple listenings/viewings. In the end it'll be everyone's second favorite, except that one guy who dresses in black and thinks Chris Columbus is the Wings-era McCartney next to Cuaron's Plastic Ono Band.