Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004

Harry Potter was a pretty great hangover cure, I didn’t log chamber of secrets because for half of it I was curled up in a ball with my eyes closed, but by the end of this one I was fine.  Alfonso cuaron kinda fucked the series with this one. Sure it’s a great film, well made, probably includes the best cinematography throughout the whole series. But as a kid I never liked it, I found it boring and too dark. It’s very different to the masterpieces that are philosophers stone and chamber of secrets, and as my friend who only watched films for the soundtracks kept telling me (and has been telling me since I met him) it doesn’t use John Williams original scores from the first films, which though I usually don’t give a shit about soundtracks and even though the soundtrack in this is still amazing, it kind of takes away from the way the series was set up. It went from a vibrant and beautiful world to a dark and scary one and though I can appreciate how incredibly well made it is now it’s always made it my least favourite.  Great film just like all of them, the time travel stuff, though it makes no sense, is entertaining, buckbeak was cool and the casting as always was incredible. Gary oldman as sirius is sooo good and so is David Thewlis as Remus Lupin. Opening scene with aunt Marge is pretty cool and Michael Gambon was pretty good as Dumbledore, he’s more calm and similar to Richard Harris, where in later films I didn’t like him as much.  Great film, not my favourite of the franchise but if it wasn’t good i wouldn’t have watched it near to 100 times.  8.5/10