There is a world that is never seen, this world is full of magic and Wizard’s. These Sorcerer’s and Sorceress’ coexist without most of us ever knowing in a world full of magic and wonder. The most famous of these Wizards is only a boy of thirteen who has already lead a pretty heroic life. When the evil Lord Voldermort tried to enslave the entire magical community it was this boy Harry Potter who only a baby stopped him. Growing up in obscurity in the world of non-magic he finds out on his eleventh birthday about his heritage and the death of his parents at the hands of Voldermort. His birthright has gained him admittance to Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where for the first time in his life he makes friends in two unlikely people Hermione Granger a miss know it all and Ron Weasley a boy from an all wizard family. For his first two years in school he has learned a lot about magic and even more about mischief. Now starting during the summer before Harry's third year at Hogwart’s, this is the adventure that happens when he has to go on the run after an incident where he was unable to control his anger which leads him to get on a bus, where he hears about Sirius Black, a renegade wizard who was a Prisoner at Azkaban, the all wizard prison patrolled by evil creatures called Dementor’s. What Harry doesn't suspect is that Black escaped to come looking for him to murder him for his imprisonment after Voldermort’s fall from power.

Ok, first of I simply loved the movie; it has an entirely different feel and tone than the first two movies as well as being more Hollywoodish. It is just hard for me to get my feelings settled about the movie as it so different from the first two movies as well as it veers quite a bit from the books. Alfonso Cuaron definitely took more liberties with the text than Chris Columbus ever dreamed of making and it might have to be how the movies are handled from this point on out. As the story progresses they are so chalk full of information and sub plots that there is no way that they could have ever been fit into a movie of any considerable length. So what Alfonso Cuaron has done is rather invested all his energy in the major points of the movie as well as the overall meaning and left out a lot of the minor sub plots. What this did for the movie was to make it more compact, more streamlined and more of an action packed movie that keeps you glued to your seat. I know there will be a lot of Potter fanatics out there that will take umbrage to the changes that were made for the betterment of the film adaptation but in no way do they distract from what the books are and what the movies should be and that’s a world of fun, magic and wonder. One of my few complaints about the movie was I would have liked to seen more of Gary Oldman who plays Black and less of David Thewlis who played Lupin. Oldman is the better actor and would have made an excellent Lupin as well, while I could never totally accept Thewlis in the role. Also, I truly missed Richard Harris as he is and will always be Dumbeldore. The movie is fun, it is funny, it is action packed and it is full of magic and wonder exactly what you would expect from the Harry Potter universe.
4.5 stars out of 5