It wasn’t even that full at the showing I went to last night. However, some other film had a huge line. I didn’t ask those standing in line but I think they were all there to see Shrek 2. Ugh… I can’t imagine that film coming close to what Harry Potter was…
–Dave
I thought it was just ok; pretty to look at for sure, but my god that plotline was just riddled with incongruous details and convenient sidestepping to the point that I felt this movie was truly built purely for the readership and not the filmgoer far moreso than film 1-2. If not for the darling kids and their quirky antics I would have been bored stiff watching this travesty of a tale completely unfold.
Now I never read Books 3-5(just the first 2), and after this film I doubt I will bother catching up by reading through part 3, but I would like some questions answered. (MASS 'O SPOILERS!!!)
-What in god’s name was the purpose of keeping Gary Oldman locked up for 12+ years if both he and Lupin can equally testify that Pedigree(?) fellow was in fact responsible for the deaths of Harry’s parents and knew of his transformation into a rat? What exactly was Lupin doing while Sirius was rotting away? The bloody fool even knew the rat was in the hands of the Weasley family all that damned time! Big 'ol WTF???
-Barring that, why did Pedigree suddenly transform back into a rat conveniently when the full moon came out. I don’t especially recall that bit of info being laid out earlier on for us to digest. A missing detail from the book? Chalk it up to a weak revert spell?
-My mind could have been wandering, but why were the Spectre things so intent on attacking Harry versus everyone else so much? I’m sure they may have touched on that in the film, but yea my brain shut off when it was explained possibly.
-Hermione with a time travel device? Dumbledore must have been insane giving such a powerful tool to some 12 year old frosh chick. Lest not forget that it is mentioned the bloody thing is practically illegal. Then again we are talking about Hermione who I suppose can be trusted…but still WTF?
2 stars from me, as mentioned the darker tone and screen presence of the acting troupe saved this befuddled mess of a story. Thumbs up for less Quidditch from em also! (Can’t stand that part of this universe myself) My least fav of the 3 films, but I do plan to pick up the books again and get through 4/5 before those films release though.
Spoilers below
In the book, and also in the movie, it’s established that Lupin didn’t know Black (Gary Oldman) was innocent. Pettigrew is the one who really betrayed Harry’s parents, but he framed Black and faked his own death. It’s only when Harry tells Lupin that he saw Pettigrew on the map, that Lupin begins to suspect the truth.
-Barring that, why did Pedigree suddenly transform back into a rat conveniently when the full moon came out.
It had nothing to do with the full moon. Pettigrew, like Black and Harry’s father, was an “animagus” and could turn himself into a rat with a spell. Lupin used a spell to force Pettigrew back into human form, but once Lupin changed into a werewolf, nothing was stopping Pettigrew from changing back into a rat again.
-My mind could have been wandering, but why were the Spectre things so intent on attacking Harry versus everyone else so much? I’m sure they may have touched on that in the film, but yea my brain shut off when it was explained possibly.
I think it’s explained in the book, although I don’t remember the explanation given; in the movie, Lupin says that the Dementors affect Harry more than others because Harry has more dark memories for them to use against him.
-Hermione with a time travel device? Dumbledore must have been insane giving such a powerful tool to some 12 year old frosh chick. Lest not forget that it is mentioned the bloody thing is practically illegal. Then again we are talking about Hermione who I suppose can be trusted…but still WTF?
I think it was actually McGonagall who gave her that, but I don’t remember any explanation as to why. Maybe we’re supposed to assume that it’s because Hermione is like a witch prodigy, so they’re trying to help her learn everything she can. If you could give Einstein a time-travel device during college, wouldn’t you do it?
I thought the plot definitely moved a lot faster than the other movies, but I didn’t mind that at all.
Ah ok, I definately missed a few of those impertinent details somewhere along the way. I had my suspicions that Lupin was tied greatly into the Sirius Black plot from the getgo, just seemed so bloody obvious. When it was mentioned early on that a professor may have been involved in letting Sirius get back into Hogwarts undetected, I was not at all surprised.
Yet I didn’t catch the fact that Lupin wasn’t onto the whole rat affair. Thinking back I suppose I should have given how curious Lupin found the info of Petigrew’s wanderings by Potter when returning the map, he did seem somewhat surprised at that time.
Didn’t know Petigrew was an animus. That went over my head completely I guess.
Oh and it was mentioned that the spectres were after Potter because of his dark memories. Lupin told him in some scene now that you mention that. I just found it a little far-fetched at the time and assumed that whole mystery would tie in more closely with Sirius Black later on. Didn’t happen obviously hence my curiosity as to why there presence with Potter was highlighted so heavilly.
Thanks though, I feel a bit better about the movie now those missing details are cleared up.
Also wanted to add that the pussifying of Draco was NOT cool. The maturity and confidence of Hermione was however. I also dug the more brooding presence of Snape even compared to the earlier films, even if it seemed a bit over the top.
I just finished a review of the movie for GamerDad. Should be up there tomorrow or so… the more I think about it, this one really had some memorable scenes unlike the first two. Nothing really stuck with me from those outside of the spider and the Quidditch. This one though… lots of things still running through my head. I really enjoyed it.
–Dave
(Still more spoilers)
Yeah. One of the biggest problems from this film installment is that it totally brushed over the fact that Lupin, James Potter (Harry’s father), Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black were a group of very close friends.
They were actually the ones that created the Marauder’s Map, using the names of their animal forms – Moony (Lupin’s werewolf), Padfoot (Sirius’ dog), Wormtail (Pettigrew’s rat), and Prongs (James’ Stag – which also the form of Harry’s Patronus).
I liked it, but I liked the first two movies also.
I did miss some of the regulars not getting much screen time – Snapes, that giant fellow who is the animal handler, and even the custodian guy who carries around the cat. Haven’t read the books so I don’t know the names offhand. Maggie Smith was barely in it too. Did these all get crowded out because the plot was so thick?
I dunno if I liked this one better. The kid playing Harry did some awful acting turns in this one. That Ron guy is lucky he isn’t black, because if he was his scared routine would have people crying racism. He’s hard to take. That evil blond haird kid is just a waste of screen time now. He’s supposed to be a bully, not a wimp. The new Dumbledore was not good either.
And yeah, the pace was a bit too fast to be comfortable.
i was actually a bit disappointed. i enjoyed it, but was expecting to love it. my girlfriend, who hasn’t read the book, absolutely loved the movie.
i thought the best thing about azkaban (the book) was all it revealed about harry’s history and the history of his parents. the movie glossed over a lot of that. the shreaking shack, prongs, james attacking snape, lupin almost killing snape.
the scene at the end, with the patronus, was kinda spiritual in the book because the patronus took the stag form even though harry didn’t know that his dad was an animagus stag. that was totally skipped in the movie.
Wow, a lot of details were really left out based on this info you guys keep laying out. Sounds like there is much more meat to this story and 3rd book than I had thought. Quite a change even from the first two books seemingly which only brazenly danced around the whole ‘Potter’ mythos and rather just focusing on easilly digestible mystery adventures in the world of magic and wonder. I very well may go back and read book 3 afterall now.
Or not. I actually don’t care that much, still interesting details though, the film could have really used an extra 10-15 minutes to flesh that stuff out.
Still what exactly was the Rat’s motivation for betraying Potter’s parents to Voldemort again(and framing Sirius), I mean since they were all such good friends at Hogwarts…?
Oh and just tell me now, does Draco still remain a total witless pussy in Books 4 and 5? I rather liked his character for being near Potter’s equal nemesis, but after this film it’s hard to really fear/respect any motivation the spoiled nitwit can bring to the table…the mighty have fallen.
In the book, its explained that the charm Harry’s parents used to conceal themselves required one person known as the Secret Keeper, who knows the whereabouts of the couple in hiding. It was widely believed by everyone that Sirius was the Secret Keeper, as he was also the closest to James and lIly and Harry’s godfather.
In order to fool everyone, Pettigrew was actually the Secret Keeper, but became an agent of Voldemort. He was likely motivated by fear and taking any chances to save himself – including betraying his friends.
To follow up on what Duality is saying, during the time the Potters went into hiding Voldemort was very much out in the open and had a very large power base. Pettigrew recognizes that he is likely on the losing team so he defects.
The extent of Voldemort’s supporters comes much more to the forefront in Books 4 & 5.
Spoiler!
In books 4 and 5, Potter has more to worry about than his schoolyard bully. Draco is overshadowed by Harry’s real nemeses, including Draco’s father Lucius. The kid stirs up some minor trouble, but is little more than an example of bad wizard parenting. Harry is just too far out of Draco’s league in these books.
By the end of book 5, though, I think Draco finally has the motivation to become a real threat.
While I don’t think Draco will go away, I also don’t think he’ll become a real threat. At least not magically. Maybe politically or otherwise. The last two books (at least the last one) will deal with Voldemort. Malfoy has always been portrayed as nothing special academically, who had his father pull strings to get what other people have earned. He doesn’t care about classes, his dad will set him up when he’s done.
I went with my family to see this, and everyone rushed in while I was picking up the tickets except for my brother. I was looking at the tickets and he was like “come on, man, it’s this one!” So I followed him, and it had just started, but we found seats. I liked the movie a lot, but I was a little confused because they didn’t explain what the dementors were, or go into detail about Azkaban, or explain what the deal was with that Griffon that was being executed… it was really weird. But it was enjoyable and it went by quickly for being over two hours long.
I was also confused as to how we got out of our 8:30 showing at 10:00. So I checked the runtime at two different sites when we got home… yeah, 2:15 alright. Turns out we went to the wrong theater and missed the whole first hour.
True story.
I always sort of assumed Draco would become the successor to Voldemort in some form. Granted Potter has these still yet ‘unknown gifts’ that the non-readership of Books 3-5 are still in the dark about. But Draco always seemed to me as this smarmy prodigy wizard in the first two adventures that is just raised under the tutelage of the darker Slitheran troupe. Competent and cunning, not overtly bumbling and spoiled, se la vie…
I liked the movie a lot, but was actually mildly disappointed with the fact that there WASN’T that much magic in it. The reason I really enjoyed the first two was that I was always in awe of how cool the magic was.
That said, I think Azkaban was damn good… I haven’t read any of the books yet, but I just might.
Ouch. That just sucks. I would imagine the movie would seem really confusing :P
I’ve never had the impression that Draco was a prodigy, having read all the books myself and then reading the first two to my daughter.
He’s always come off to me as competent, sure. But he bullies people around because he has people to back up his talk for him. Crabbe ad Goyle at school, or his father everywhere else.
He hates Potter because he “beat” Voldemort and his dad is a huge Voldemort supporter, and takes every opportunity to smack him down when there’s little risk. He knows Potter is better than him, but would never admit it.
I do think that the snivelling Draco is an awful change, because it abandons the reasons why he’s such a prick.
The pace of this film was just a mess… I don’t really think I would have liked to see it longer, but if they weren’t going to have time to fill in a lot of plot holes that are dealt with in the books, they should have just done what is usually done with film adapatations of books: adapt them already. The end scene with Lupin, Pettigrew, Snape and Black in the Shrieking Shrack is a good example: one after another, characters come stumbling into the room, wild-eyed and with absolutely no explanation on the part of the film of what the hell they are doing there. Snape comes stumbling in like he got lost back stage or something… of course, in the books there is a reason he’s there, but that isn’t explained in the movie.
Love the new Bumbledore, though. Richard Attenborough was absolutely terrible in the role. This new guy is great, doing a really good job delivering some painfully embarassing lines without sounding like a wizard from a toy commercial.
It was so Hermione could take twice the number of classes… the idea is that she’s sitting in two different classes at the same time by using it. It is actually explained in the film by about half a sentence.
To be fair, the book explains the Time Turner in about a paragraph. Of course, throughout the book, there’s tons of references to Hermoine’s remarkable class attendance despite time conflicts, so you’re kind of expecting something like the Time Turner to explain everything.