Movie Review: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

Synopsis: It's Harry's third year at Hogwarts, and things are definitely crazy.  The notorious murderer Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban, the wizard's prison, and is apparently on the hunt for Harry.  Dementors, ghoulish creatures that guard Azkaban, are surrounding Hogwarts.  On top of that, Harry's sworn enemy Draco Malfoy makes a mistake with Hagrid's pet Hippogriff that leads to Draco getting injured...only for Draco to blame the poor creature, leading to its impending execution! Not sure what to do or where to go, Harry doesn't feel safe anywhere, even in the Hogwarts castle.  Will he be able to escape the clutches of Sirius Black before it's too late?
Based on the bestselling novel by J.K. Rowling.

The Good: The directing of this film earned serious acclaim, and it's not hard to see why; most of the movie has an overall dark mood, and the filming style illustrates that very well.  The young actors have improved here, and do their best job so far.  Of particular note are the special effects, which were really well done, especially the Patronuses.

The Bad: If only it had stayed truer to the book.  Like the previous adaptations, this one leaves a lot out, which I expected...but, what I didn't remember is that some scenes were added that were not in the novel! The shrunken head and the scene with Harry flying off into the distance were unnecessary; why couldn't they have used that time to put more scenes from the book into the film?

Conclusion: So far, this is the best one yet; the filming style is a wonder to behold.  However, for those who have read the original book cover to cover multiple times, you're bound to say, "Hey! That wasn't in there!" more than once while watching this.  Next up is Goblet of Fire, which is when things really get interesting; I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that one.

Score: 4/5