Island of the Lone Sane Thought

Went to see the lovely Prisoner of Azkaban last night.

My thoughts? Some of it was lovely...some of it jarring...some of it downright inexplicable.

***SPOILER ALERT***

I loved the artistic touches...the closed form look of the beginning half of the movie...the restraining look of the frame...the repeated time motif...the little touches that really said "wizarding world" to me. I am certain that it will take repeated viewings to catch all of the little magicked things that were in each scene. I loved that the movie did not feel it had to spend hours explaining how the wizarding world worked, or have the characters pointlessly introduce themselves to each other so that it would be overly accessible to everyone. I loved Thewlis as Lupin. I cannot picture him any other way now. I loved Oldman as Sirius. Not only does he encapsulate "cracked up" but he will be perfect for the next films when he must act vibrant and wonderfully Sirius-like. I LOVED the Marauder's Map. It was not at all how I pictured it, but it was PERFECT.

I was jarred by several things. I am incredibly Snape-biased, so I felt very strongly about the cutting and mangling of three of my favorite Snape lines ever. The first was his absolutely cruel put down of Hermione's teeth (I see no difference). The second was much worse. When Lupin is trying to cover for Harry about the Marauder's Map, Snape turns to Lupin and says what has to be one of my most favorite lines, "Don't you think it much more likely that he got it directly from the manufacturers?" It is a PERFECT line because he is not revealing anything to Harry or the audience, but Lupin, of course, knows exactly what it means because Lupin knows that Snape knows that the Map was created in part by Lupin. Yet the scene's tone was changed. The audience was laughing because they were pulling the wool over Snape's eyes in this version. But he actually had the upper hand...he knew who really made the map...and this really angered me. They need to have more Snape-time logged because he becomes so important in Book 5. Oh, and the entire subplot of Malfoy informing Snape about Harry being in Hogsmeade...they omitted the whole scene where Snape says "Your head was seen in Hogsmeade. No part of you has permission to be in Hogsmeade." or something like that. And the third...er, fourth was his beautiful line to Sirius in the Shrieking Shack..."Give me a reason and I swear I'll do it." "I am not as upset over this one because they only rearranged it a little...however, I still don't understand why it was changed. Also, it was very odd that in the book all three of them cast the Disarming Charm on Snape and in the movie it was only Harry. We also lost a lot of Snape's crazy tirade against the Trio. He seems completely in control of himself at all times in the movies, when we know that he gets a little nuts occasionally. Also jarring: Hermione and Ron. Hermione does not have any of the nervousness or bossiness; Ron does not seem to be anything more than comic relief. He is missing his bravery and some of his pigheadedness and his bizarre intuition. (He guessed that Tom Riddle killed Moaning Myrtle in CoS, after all!) Also, Harry does NOT confront the boggart during the DADA class...I really hoped to see a bit more of that scene done on film.

Inexplicable...The Minister of Magic and the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts explaining Sirius Black secrets to Rosmerta, a tavern-owner. Odd, odd, odd. Also Harry's haphazard method of walking while wearing an invisibility cloak. And THOSE FREAKY SHRUNKEN HEADS!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT?! It gave me flashbacks of those awful horrrible Pygmy Mummies from the Mummy Returns. ARGH! Who decided that they should be in the movie?! And why on earth would the Three Broomsticks EVER bar children from drinking there?! Insane. Plus unnecessary. After all, you've taken McGonagall and Fudge into a private room with Rosmerta. Ron & Hermione could have sat out front, and we could have kept some of the book's precious atmosphere.

But overall, I really liked it. Four stars out of five. Really, I had moments where I was near-giggling with happiness. And I hope that Cuaron, in his mercy, will take pity on true fans everywhere and do a LotR style extended director's cut version, and then I will be extremely happy beyond belief.