I've seen it!

[katia]

Hello! Long time no see. I have just returned from seeing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! I feel a bit weird now, I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited about seeing anything or the last time I’ve waited for so long. And now that it’s over I feel a bit deflated, a bit like after OotP. No, don’t get me wrong, I did like it, it is so much better than the first two, and a really great piece of filmmaking. Before I begin my very, very Spoilery review let me just say that I’d read all reviews and spoilers and seen all pictures that I could get my hands on. So I knew about most line changes, different things etc. That was good, for me at least as I was able to enjoy this simply as a film rather than getting frustrated about the little things. Ok, that is a bit of a lie, since I made the mistake of starting to reread the book, only got half way through, which was good, as I didn’t remember the details so well, and therefore less of “Hey, that’s so not canon” ensued. Also, it needed to be longer!

 

 

Still here? Ok then, I did warn you! Starting off with just some first impressions.

It starts off with Harry muttering Lumos under his sheets, with Vernon coming in at frequent intervals. You’ve all seen the pictures, yes it can be used as a parallel to wanking, what bugged me a bit is that it didn’t count as underage magic use,  yes I know the reason for ignoring the whole blowing up aunt Marge thing, but why was he doing magic before that? (Told you I’m like that, so if you don’t want to read anymore, don’t, I did like it, I am not going to talk only about the things I loved though.)

The whole beginning part, before Harry went off to Hogwarts was a bit rushed, and I’d really been looking forward to the him spending a week amongst wizards.

 

His birthday was missed, he didn’t get presents, however despite Fudge buying him the books (?) the scene with the Monster book of monsters was really funny, and well handled.

 

Aunt Marge was truly brilliant, most of her lines were exactly from the book, (I loved in particularly the Bitch-pup argument). Harry’s response and facial expression to the question of whether he is often beaten killed me. From then on I absolutely loved Harry, (Yes his voice too Ani) He’s grown up very Harry like, is in fact a bit too pretty at moments, and you can see how comfortable he is in his role, and he can act now. I go all shivery when he says “Expecto Patronus!” and “Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?”

 

The Knight bus was cool, especially when it squeezes through things, I am not so sure about the head thing (there were more of it in The Three Broomsticks, where for some reason children weren’t allowed (!) So no butterbeer, in fact there was less Hogsmeade than I wanted, not nearly enough scenes in places like Honeydukes and (there was the blood flavoured lollypop!)  In fact everything prior to the final smack down was a bit rushed, only a couple major lessons (Not a single potions one) Poor Professor Flitwick wasn’t even there. The Shrieking Shack scenes were brilliant as were the Time Turner, I just think a couple of more thongs at the beginning would have been nice.

 

Changes that I liked:

 

The Dementors were truly frightening and despite my initial annoyance of the fact that they were able to fly. (When I say annoyance, I do in fact mean: WTF? Weren’t they scary enough without flying?)  But it worked, the scene in the train was just Guh, and the final one with Sirius and the Quidditch, all were very creepy and right. Despite obviously knowing what was going to happen, the film managed to pull of suspense, and I didn’t even realise I was holding my breath when Harry was falling at the Quidditch match, until I exhaled.

 

The Ron/Hermione stuff, and I mean this in a completely non-shipy way. In the book they bicker and quarrel all the time, over the smallest of things, and I have to admit it gets tedious after a while. In the film, not so much, enough for the Scabbers thing, but not over the top, and I liked that. That is probably mostly due to the Firebolt thing, which wasn’t there, but it was nice. Which brings me to the

 

Firebolt. The whole Firebolt affair wasn’t my favourite bit in the book, getting rid of all but the one Quidditch match did the film nothing wrong, and adding the broom right at the end was fine by me. I think it might annoy some people, I totally was able to let that go, my brother not so much.

 

The Map, Harry seeing Peter in it and telling Lupin made a hell of a lot more sense and meant less need for exposition in the Shack, and therefore a lot more action. Which was good, the scene there so intense and just completely right. Although dramatic irony near enough killed me. The only thing that annoyed me here is the not mentioning of the Prank, which is important to explain Snape’s hatred, actually Snape’s hatred wasn’t really shown, but more on Snape later.

 

Line changes. Some worked, for example in the book Harry has a talk with Dumbledore about how he thought that he was James, and Dumbledore said his father will always be a part of him, that was turned into a very tender moment between Harry and Sirius. Some more Dumbledore lines about Harry’s frustration were transferred to Lupin, which I liked.

 

Hermione’s punch: He deserved it, it was brilliant, that is all.

 

Changes that I didn’t like. Most of these go in the list of things I wish were in it, but a couple of things make it here.

 

The big thing over the “If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too” going to Hermione instead of Ron, never really bothered me, but I feel that Ron had so little to do that stealing his one big line in the whole film was a bit mean. Poor Ron he had only two facial expressions: Surprised and Horrified. Not his fault, he acted well enough, just not much.

 

The ending was Harry flying on the newly received Firebolt and well, I miss the old endings in the train and therefore there was no arrival of Sirius’s note allowing Harry permission to Hogsmeade, no Pig for Ron and no House win. Also no Oliver Wood, but I never really saw the big deal with Sean, so no big deal.

 

To introduce suspicion about the Time Turner, they made Hermione appear out of thin air, so she constantly wasn’t there and then was and nobody saw how. Well, I am sorry but that is just wrong. I know it’s small but it is one of those little details that bug me. So, the time turner brings you to the past, so you disappear, not appear! It just doesn’t work like that.

 

There was absolutely no mention of Sirius, James, Peter and Remus being Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, so the fact that Harry recognised his father from the Patronus or even knew that his father is an animagus was not there. Therefore there was no explanation of Lupin’s ability to read the map.

 

Individual Characters

 

Harry was good I am not going to say much more but I liked him, from the beginning till the end, all I wanted to do was give him a big hug and some more chocolate. He somehow managed to master the Patronus in his second try which was a bit odd.

 

Hermione was better than before, still a bit forced and slightly over the top, but she is learning and I am a huge Hermione fan, and was able to look through the complete lack of bushiness and the rainbow belt and I liked her. It was a Hermione film, and I have no complaints. Well, maybe just one “Does my hair really look like that from the back?” No. Just no. That’s something Emma might say, not Hermione

 

Ron, well not much of a Ron film, the roaring though was priceless as was the spider dream, there were a lot of laugh out loud moments, and it was good. I just wish he’s shown more than just the *scared* and *shocked* facial expressions, it was part of his role, but well a bit too much. His bravery after Sirius bit his leg was wonderfully sweet.

 

Lupin was completely different from the one in my head but was very good in his role, as he portrayed a very different man. When you look past the moustache from doom, you see someone’s excellent interpretation of Remus Lupin, with his music and chocolate and ‘condition’. The one time that I burst out laughing very inappropriately was, when Lupin suddenly awoke and did the Patronus thing on the train, it was just so abrupt. The Werewolf transformation looked very real, excruciatingly painful and I have no complaints on the non wolf looking werewolf, he was very creepy. 

 

Sirius, not much to say on him apart from the fact I liked him, he was very scary at first and his madness made him seem like a person that has spend twelve years in Azkaban. The only thing missing was the complete lack of explanation as to how exactly he escaped prison, so no mention of the fact that he is less affected by the Dementors as a dog. And a truly grim looking dog he was.

 

Snape was very background here and I understand this as there were so many other characters and simply not enough time, however most key Snape scenes were cut and I think the Wolfsbane potion one is key to showing a lot of things, the Lupin/Severus relationship (hate), the beginning of Harry’s believe that Snape is trying to poison him. The late at night map incident and the Snape teaching them on Werewolves were there, as well as the Boggart scene. How can I forget the Boggart, it was very cool, apart from Harry facing the Dementor-turned-Boggart, which was odd.

 

Draco was very, very gay (That picture he drew of Harry and his broomstick was priceless) and a complete and utter coward and yet it somehow worked. At least his portrayal wasn’t flat and certainly wasn’t boring. His screams and shrieks and running aways were kind of adorable actually. Tom is still very undraco like, especially his voice, but you get used after awhile.

 

I like Dumbledore, he was very good, his voice is the only thing a bit jarring about him.

 

I did like the better inclusion of the minor characters, you get a good sense of being in a crowded school.

Not nearly enough Pansy, I guess she is only briefly introduced so we know her for the next film.

Only one Ginny appearance.

Loved the Weasley twins, priceless giving away of map.

Parvati! Dean! Seamus! Neville! (poor boy puberty is no agreeing with him)

 

Overall.

As a film, completely separate from the book it was really good, some very beautiful views, good use of music and time/clocks elements. The Hogwarts grounds are completely different from the first two films and the way the books describe them but absolutely gorgeous. Harry’s first flight on Buckbeak took him over a huge lake and Hogwarts and was really in the same league as the LotR. The season changes were smoothly indicated, the film flowed very well, it wasn’t as if someone shopped it into little parts and didn’t quite have the time to put it back together (Yes I am talking about the Philosopher’s stone, in case I didn’t say earlier not a fan of the first two films). My one complain is that they could have made it longer, I actually have no idea how long it was, maybe slightly longer than two hours, but not once I was bored, so sitting over a longer film would have been no problem.

 

I can't believe how long this turned out and I really need to revise, so I'll stop here don't think I;ve finished though. Soon there will be a post on shipping in the film, for it is a subject I can say a lot on.

Comments

[angeline-dark.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous! I have to wait at least until friday until I'll be able to see it. I didn't read much spoilers because I still want to be surprised when I see for the first time.

[kuteki.livejournal.com]

Well done to you, for resisting the urge of the spoilers! And don't worry, friday will come faster than you think, in some way the expectations are even better than seeing it. Well, not really. :)

[superhot.livejournal.com]

Oh great, I have to wait at least until next Wednesday (because in case I haven't mentioned it 500 times before, I'm going on holiday tommorow). It sounds really good though, but the flying Dementors reeeeeeeeeally would get on my nerves. I really want to see this Harry and broomstick drawing now...

[kuteki.livejournal.com]

Have fun on your holiday and I can't believe you read all my spoilers! Oh well, I suppose I would have too. The Dementors are actually really good, very scary, bordering on disgusting. Draweing is priceless and it moves!

[orangexpumpkin.livejournal.com]

which reminds me of how my dad surprised me with buying the third lord of the rings movie on dvd last night. =) now i have all 3!! XD

[xvoltronx.livejournal.com]

harry potter? gay

[kuteki.livejournal.com]

Yes he is. Didn't you know? He likes getting it up the ass from Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape and a lot of others. He isn't fussy really. I write and read stories about how gay Harry Potter really is. If you are interested I can give you some links. :P
And using gay as some sort of insult is so incredibly pathetic, I feel a bit sorry for you, try to think of something new next time.

[anna-bonita.livejournal.com]

Hey! What was that place where you upload pics to. I wanted to post something but my yahoo is refusing to co-operate, again. Bucket something or other?

[kuteki.livejournal.com]

www.photobucket.com

LUW is out, and I have no time to read it!

Weird people keep commenting on my journal, perhaps I should change that sidebar message saying all comments on topic are welcome. :(