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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Movie Review
By Armalene

    I can explain how Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was like in four words… IT WAS WICKED AWESOME!

    On Saturday, June 5, 2004, 12 noon, I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!!! It's one of the proudest moments of my life.

    PoA started hilariously, had a mix of funny, adventurous and dramatic kind of thing during the movie and ended hilariously. You can't imagine how brilliant it was. They missed out on a lot of scenes in the book but it was great either way!

    The main reason why I liked the third movie and why it is by far the best in my opinion was because Alfonso Cuarón did a brilliant job with the film. He made the true world of Harry Potter come to life. There are more and better visual effects, which were really cool. The actors, especially the trio, grew a lot while making the film. (Tidbit: Dan was 14, Emma was 13, and Rupert was 15 when they did this movie.) In this film, Hermione's more involved and has a lot of things to do. In the last two movies, it would mainly be Harry and Ron who's doing most of the dangerous stuff, but in this movie, Ron breaks his leg and Hermione is like a substitute Ron. Also in the movie, Ron was really confused. He was a bit like a comedian in this movie. One of the parts that were funny took place in Care of Magical Creatures class. Hagrid asked for any volunteers to ride Buckbeak and everyone stepped back except Harry. Ron just pushes him forward when Hagrid called him up. Chris Columbus didn't add much comedy in the last two films.

    Some great special effects were the Dementors, the Whomping Willow and the Werewolf transformation. The Dementors scared a lot of kids that were in the theatre I was in. They were absolutely creepy but in someway cool! The Whomping Willow was a cool effect too because, erm, Harry and Hermione ride it… Lol… Anyway, Harry and Hermione kind of do ride the Whomping Willow because Hermione gets caught in it. The Whomping Willow flails its branches like mad and Hermione grabs Harry by the rim of his clothes and throws him inside the Whomping Willow, where Ron was brought in, and a few seconds later, Hermione lands on top of Harry.

    The Time Turner scenes were really cool. Harry and Hermione saw themselves doing what they did three hours ago. And they saved their own lives somehow by throwing rocks and howling like a wolf. There was a really sweet scene where Hermione hugs Ron and Harry hugs Hermione… IT WAS REALLY SWEET!

    Well, with the werewolf transformation, it was a bit extraordinary. I didn't expect a werewolf to walk on hind legs. It was really cool though. Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf real fast and they showed how. Sirius turned into a dog and got loads of scars, and so did Lupin, and Sirius fought werewolf Lupin so he won't bite them. Really cool!

    There were a few things I didn't like the movie such as it really didn't make sense to people who hadn't read the books. The person who I was with (my godmother, yes I know, this is strange but my mom wanted an adult to come with me) kept asking questions afterwards because she had trouble understanding what was going on in the movie at times. When I came to school the next day, loads of people asked me loads of questions because they all knew I was a Harry Potter freak. They kept asking the same questions! But either way, PoA was still cool!

Well, as a conclusion: like I've said before, POA WAS WICKED AWESOME!

Here's some quotes from the third movie…

"How'd you get there - you were just there!" - Ron Weasley

"Is that really how my hair looks from the back?" - Hermione Granger

"Sirius Black is the reason the Potters are dead…" - Professor McGonagall

"It killed me!" - Draco Malfoy

"It is not the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving…Happiness could be found in even the most darkest places…" - Albus Dumbledore

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" - Professor Lupin/Harry Potter

"You have…the Grim!" - Professor Trelawney

"Did you know the Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats?"… - Hermione Granger "Yeah, along with the dung beetle." - Ron Weasley

"It was him! He's in the castle! SIRIUS BLACK!" - the Fat Lady

"Swear to me, you won't go looking for Black." - Mr. Weasley

"This is ridiculous." - Draco Malfoy

"Have some chocolate, it'll make you feel better." - Professor Lupin

"I know you're tired of hearing this, but you look just like your dad except - " - Sirius Black "-You've got your mother's eyes." - Harry Potter

"Hermione, I think I saw my dad." - Harry Potter

"You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"- Hermione Granger

"When did you get here?!" - Ron Weasley