LTTP: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (The Movie)

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I absolutely love the score from PoA. Best Potter movie and easily the best soundtrack. William's score for the first movie is really great stuff too. He phoned it in for Chamber but at least he went out with a bang for PoA. I go back and forth with how I feel about the OST for Goblet of Fire. It's no where near the quality of John Williams stuff, but I think it's still worth a listen. Hooper's first soundtrack for Order of the Phoenix was quite good, but I feel like he got a bit lazy with his work on Half Blood Prince. The two soundtracks for DH P1 and P2 are easily the most forgettable of all of them.

But going back to the HP films themselves, yeah PoA is the highlight. Goblet is my favorite of the HP books, and I tend to like the movie a lot too. I don't really get the outright hate for that one. It's one of the weaker ones, but certainly better than SS and CoS. I found that I actually liked Order of the Phoenix more than I did the book. That book was bloated as hell and Harry was maybe a bit too whiny. I think the core story benefited from the edits and while Harry was still rightfully angry, he certainly wasn't a big baby either. I also enjoyed HBP a lot, and enjoyed it more my second time watching it.

Then there is DH P1. That is without a doubt the worst HP movie. It is almost unbearable to get through. I was actually worried that because that movie was so bad that it was automatically going to make DH P2 bad as well, but thankfully DH P2 benefited from the split. That movie is so damn good, up there with PoA for sure. P1 soured me on HP so much that I almost didn't even want to see P2, but I ended up walking out of that theater blown away. Loved it.
I literally agree with everything you said.
 
Yeah sorry it was part 1.

I thought the adaptation of the 6th book was terrible. It was probably my favorite book. Or close to it. The back-story and the Harry and Dumbledore exchanges were brilliantly told and written. I finished that book the fastest. It was just really engrossing. And the movie doesn't even attempt to really retell those stories outside of 1-2 memories.

I couldn't agree more with this really.
 
The hospital scene was indeed brilliant. The way the actress really hammed it up was perfect, but I really dislike the way HBC hammed up the role of Bellatrix Lestrange. It just didn't come across that way in the books, and she does it in most films I've seen her in. The casting of these movies are by far the best I've ever seen, at least as far as adaptations go, but I thought that HBC was wrong for that role.

My girlfriend absolutely loved HBC as bellatrix. She's read the books and seen the movies probably about 50 times each. She made me read the books lol. I had already seen the movies though since I have a soft spot for young adult fantasy stories.
 
a very good childrens film and great film over all... i havent seen the last one but yeah i was meh about most of the others

the books were getting better until the 4th so i guess its fitting that the movies dipped as well at that point
 
Do people share similar thoughts on the book series?

I've found preferences on the books usually vary. Many agree that the 5th book was too long (even Rowling) but the subject of best book is usually all over the place. I've seen people say Prisoner of Azkaban, for changing the tone of the series. Goblet of Fire for a nice mystery and great climax. Some will say book 6 (myself included) for a nice backstory, story. I also loved the debate that ensued after book 6 about who would live, and who would die, and particularly the debate about one characters loyalty. And I've met people who think the 7th book was a great and fitting finale and it's the best. I find most people see the first two books as simplistic, but necessary set ups for the magical world.
 
I really enjoyed the mythology of wands set-up in book 7 as well as the history and the deathly hallows. I think it would be pretty cool for her to go rewrite the previous books with a similar tone to the later ones, and to build up better to the finale and the lore delved into in the last book. Not a popular opinion I'm aware.
 
I love Prisoner of Azkaban. Definitely my favorite of the series.

After that, I actually really enjoyed Order of the Phoenix, mostly because I thought it did a better job of telling the story than the book. Harry is an insufferable douche in the 5th book, but the movie tempers him a bit, and you can at least feel sorry for the shit he goes through. In the book, I wanted to punch him through the pages.

The Half Blood Prince is not as good as Order, but not as bad as Goblet. Visually, I love the look of it, but there are unforgivable, glaring omissions that really irk me. So many important elements are left out, that I'm afraid you'll have to read the book to really understand what the frack is happening.

Deathly Hallows I also love. I think it has great atmosphere and cinematography. I recommend planning an evening and watching both parts 1 and 2 in one sitting. I say this, because Part 2 doesn't quite work as a stand alone film, because, well, it's the last half of a whole story. DH part 1 is so good to me, because it takes some of the most boring stuff from the entire book series (seriously, the first half of the Deathly Hallows book is so dull), and condenses them in a way that tightens the narrative and speeds up the plot. Part 2 has some glaring omissions as well, but not nearly as bad as Goblet and Half Blood Prince. Still, a few months back, I sat back and watched DH part 1 and 2 together, and enjoyed Part 2 much more.

Also, my wife does not like Harry Potter in the least. I've made her watch all of the films, and she still doesn't like them, but she absolutely loves The Deathly Hallows Part 1, and the last hour of Part 2. So, take from that what you will.

I still think Goblet is the worst of the 8 movies, even compared to the first 2. The first 2 films work because they do capture the innocence and whimsy of the first two books, but the tonal shift in 3 is abrupt, but satisfying. It works so well with the story they have told. I don't own the first 2 (or Goblet), but I own the other 5 films, because I really did enjoy them, even when they sometimes fell short.

Deathly Hallows is the closest the series has come to an almost page for page recreation of the book, which is pretty impressive.
 
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