Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?

[Spoiler Warning]

I was quite busy this weekend, so I'm playing catch up now. On Friday night I went with some friends to catch an opening night show of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I thought this third Harry Potter movie was easily the best one yet. Curon, the new director, did a fabulous job. The cinematography is amazing and the movie is just beautiful.

My favorite part is this is where the story starts getting dark. The first two books were essentially exposition about the world, and setting things up for events in later books. The best way to think about them is as Act One. But now we're starting to delve into the thick of it. The themes in this movie are darker and the feel of it is darker.

I was happy with the story conversion from book to film with one notable exception. My favorite part about the third story is the details about the mauraders. How the three friends became Animagi to support their warewolf friend. How they made that map. And most importantly more detail about why Harry thinks he sees his father and why his petronis takes the form of a stag. The movie hinted at that stuff, and winked at people who know the story, but doesn't explain it for others. In all honestly, they hit a pretty good balance here since I think it would have been hard to explain all of that in film - but they still let those of us who know what's going on see deeper in the story.

In all the movies just exist as good visualizations of the great stories in the books. I don't think they really add to the story - they just show a great realization of them.

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