PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 6/3/04)


Among the criticisms leveled at Chris Columbus's Harry Potter films (2001’s Sorcerer’s Stone and 2002’s Chamber of Secrets) were repeated attacks on Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves’s slavish allegiance to the letter and law of J.K. Rowling’s brilliantly sprawling wizard universe. The faithful cheered the literary exploits of Harry, Ron, and Hermione brought to Technicolor life, but critics bemoaned the sometimes stiflingly verbatim "no detail left behind" doctrine. This time around, neither camp has room to complain, as Alfonso Cuarón’s adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soars gloriously into fluency and magic.

Kloves’s third attempt to rein in the kaleidoscopic fantasies on the page fares far better than previous, Dobby-demented efforts. He and Cuarón adhere more to the spirit of the narrative—Harry’s increasingly difficult and dangerous, not entirely metaphorical trek toward adulthood—than its specifics, rearranging and condensing events so that Azkaban comes in nearly a half hour shorter than Chamber of Secrets but doesn’t shortchange the drama. The young actors playing the central trio (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson) have come into their own since Sorcerer’s Stone, with both a visible affection for the material and a welcome intuition for their characters. The adults around them, most especially Alan Rickman as the dependably, deliciously evil Professor Snape, and newcomers David Thewlis as Professor Lupin, Emma Thompson as myopic Professor Trelawney, and Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, bring their roles to life with relish and precision. Rickman’s sour enunciation alone is nearly worth the price of admission, along with the spine-tingling magic of the soaring hippogriff Buckbeak and the chilling Dementors, realized with terrifying CGI menace.

Michael Gambon slips on the musty robes of headmaster Albus Dumbledore, succeeding the late Richard Harris with a touching homage and enough individuality to forestall simple mimicry. Cuarón handles multiple story lines with agility and grace, eschewing the leaden exposition that bogged down previous films. (In Columbus’s defense, Cuarón has the luxury of an audience now versed in Hogwarts-ese, even if they haven’t cracked a single Potter tome.) Meticulously designed by Oscar winner Stuart Craig and gloriously scored by John Williams, Azkaban is an adaptation worthy of Rowling's marvelous creation—a chapter that spins the story to ever more thrillingly dark, treacherous heights.

—Sara Brady

Paperback novel
CD soundtrack

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