My Azkabanian review
Jun. 14th, 2004 04:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jere7myWho knew? The director of Y Tu Mama Tambien made a better movie than the director of Home Alone. Wacky.
Three words: Sense. Uh. Wundah. There was more sense of wonder in Harry's first flight on Buckbeak than in all the Quidditch in the first two films. That fantastic pendulum sailing through the background, the menhirs leading to Hagrid's hut, the bottle that rolled off the trapdoor in the basement of Honeyduke's—all those little touches, things that someone had to think of and choose to do, made Harry's world feel more real than it had before. Compare Cuarón's animated paintings to Columbus's—the ones in HP3 are vivid, expressive, each a little world unto itself. Columbus, it seems to me, saw them and said "We have to put something in each one"; Cuarón asked "What can I put in each one?"
More importantly, I felt that Cuarón, like Peter Jackson, had the cojones to pick out what was essential to the story and focus our attention on that, instead of tacking each page, in succession, to the screen. Even so, the movie was a little cramped; I felt, sometimes, like I had to grab the plot points as they flew past on little railroad tracks. (Vis. Hermione's early time-traveling.) I'd've been happy with another twenty minutes, but I'm willing to lay the blame on the studio's doorstep.
Lupin and Black, both fabulous. Pettigrew, not so much; I'll be interested to see how he handles his much darker role in Goblet. Rupert Grint (Ron) continues to make me laugh out loud whenever he's incredulous or wounded, and hooray for fumbling romance. Michael Gambon's Dumbledore was fine, though not as twinkly as Richard Harris's; on the other hand, there are entire galaxies that aren't as twinkly as Richard Harris, so we can't blame Gambon. His closing "Did what?" was perfectly delivered, anyway, and reduced twinkle fits with a darker film.
The credits, incidentally, were loads of fun. Lots of little footprints running about on the Marauders' Map, telling little stories (like the ones that run into the Grindylow Pond and disappear, or the ones that run into the Stink Bomb Store and send everyone else running out). I am convinced that I saw two sets of footprints snogging—one set standing between another, somewhat splayed, set, backed into a little cubbyhole. They're very nearly at the end, over on the left side of the screen.
Unanswered question: how, if werewolves only respond to their own kind, was Hermione able to distract Lupin? And why did they not use the extremely tidy solution of eating one of those animal-noises candies the boys were playing with earlier?
In the Underage Lust Department, Kendra was apparently finding the 15-year-old Daniel Radcliffe quite yummy. I, personally, was surprised by how cute Pansy Parkinson (Genevieve Gaunt) was. Evil, but cute.
Three words: Sense. Uh. Wundah. There was more sense of wonder in Harry's first flight on Buckbeak than in all the Quidditch in the first two films. That fantastic pendulum sailing through the background, the menhirs leading to Hagrid's hut, the bottle that rolled off the trapdoor in the basement of Honeyduke's—all those little touches, things that someone had to think of and choose to do, made Harry's world feel more real than it had before. Compare Cuarón's animated paintings to Columbus's—the ones in HP3 are vivid, expressive, each a little world unto itself. Columbus, it seems to me, saw them and said "We have to put something in each one"; Cuarón asked "What can I put in each one?"
More importantly, I felt that Cuarón, like Peter Jackson, had the cojones to pick out what was essential to the story and focus our attention on that, instead of tacking each page, in succession, to the screen. Even so, the movie was a little cramped; I felt, sometimes, like I had to grab the plot points as they flew past on little railroad tracks. (Vis. Hermione's early time-traveling.) I'd've been happy with another twenty minutes, but I'm willing to lay the blame on the studio's doorstep.
Lupin and Black, both fabulous. Pettigrew, not so much; I'll be interested to see how he handles his much darker role in Goblet. Rupert Grint (Ron) continues to make me laugh out loud whenever he's incredulous or wounded, and hooray for fumbling romance. Michael Gambon's Dumbledore was fine, though not as twinkly as Richard Harris's; on the other hand, there are entire galaxies that aren't as twinkly as Richard Harris, so we can't blame Gambon. His closing "Did what?" was perfectly delivered, anyway, and reduced twinkle fits with a darker film.
The credits, incidentally, were loads of fun. Lots of little footprints running about on the Marauders' Map, telling little stories (like the ones that run into the Grindylow Pond and disappear, or the ones that run into the Stink Bomb Store and send everyone else running out). I am convinced that I saw two sets of footprints snogging—one set standing between another, somewhat splayed, set, backed into a little cubbyhole. They're very nearly at the end, over on the left side of the screen.
Unanswered question: how, if werewolves only respond to their own kind, was Hermione able to distract Lupin? And why did they not use the extremely tidy solution of eating one of those animal-noises candies the boys were playing with earlier?
In the Underage Lust Department, Kendra was apparently finding the 15-year-old Daniel Radcliffe quite yummy. I, personally, was surprised by how cute Pansy Parkinson (Genevieve Gaunt) was. Evil, but cute.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-14 01:33 pm (UTC)Yay!
Re: Yeah
Date: 2004-06-14 02:00 pm (UTC)