Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

And so, Harry Potter, that famous wizard from Privet Drive, known all around the world in god knows how many languages, is back. But this time there's a catch - and not a rubbish catch like 'this time there's a giant snake'. No, for once, a film has a tagline that you can really believe - 'Everything Will Change'. Because even though Prisoner of Azkaban has mostly the same cast and mostly the same crew as the first two in the series, it's a completely different movie, and that is thanks to one man - Alfonso Cuaron, who has taken over the reins from Chris Columbus as director of Harry's third adventure. So, for once, everything will change.

First off, it's far better than the first two, for many reasons. Both Radcliffe and Watson have grown as actors and made the roles their own - unlike Grint, who feels like more of a spectator to the other two's big adventures. I would have preffered it if he'd just put a paper bag over his head and hid behind Hagrid for the whole movie. All the new additions to the cast - Emma Thompson, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon - make themselves at home immediately, particuraly Gambon, who brings a much needed spark to Dumbeldore's character. Meanwhile Gary Oldman waits impatiently in the wings, appearing for most of the film only on newspaper covers and 'Wanted' posters, before making his grand entrance near the end and showing up everyone else on screen with his disturbingly perfect portrayel of Sirius Black. Even his voice feels right, somehow.

Cuaron brings a darker feel to the movies, but also a much needed dose of humour. Columbus' movies were too consistently light for most of the comedic lines to really be noticed - but in Cuaron's movie, they provide a laugh and a smile even in the darkest of scenes.


Visually, everything seems more illuminated somehow - like the scenery was always there, but you never properly noticed it before. The darker tone is complemented by creepier music and much improved visual effects, the dementors being an especially strong point, but perhaps more important are the smaller, magical touches that Cuaron has not only kept on, but added to, and made to look better than ever. Finally, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson's new costumes and more realistic vocabularies emphasise their transformations from children to teenagers, just as many of the fans turn from children to teenagers.

Overall, this is a much needed spicing up for the Harry Potter franchise (mostly thanks to Cuaron) and a fantastic, truly magical film. Bring on the fourth - though I
have no idea how Newell is going to improve on Cuaron's effort.

**** out of 5.

From Page to Screen: 'Scorpia' by Anthony Horowitz

It's amazing no-one thought of it before. A normal, fourteen year-old schoolboy is dragged into a world of spies and espionage when his uncle dies in a mysterious car accident. The boy I speak of is Alex Rider, the star of Anthony Horowitz's miniature James Bond tale that has now spanned over five books - Scorpia being the fifth and final installment. The twist in Alex's life comes when he discovers his uncle was in fact murdered - and not only that, but Alex's late relative was also a spy who worked for MI6. It's kids stuff, obviously, but I was very young when the first and best book of the series, Stormbreaker, was first realeased, so I've read ever since just to see where Alex goes next, because, as you'd guess, he's recruited by MI6 to 'replace' his uncle.


Alex's latest adventure takes him to Venice, among other places, and as usual, Howoritz shamelessly steals set-pieces from the Bond movies and ruins the better parts of the book with stupid and childish language - for example, an evil organization's leader would not say "basically, we just kick MI6's butt". But luckily, this is the final book of the series, so the plot is finally tied up and all the unanswered questions are no longer unanswered. Some of the final twists are pathetic, but you could never accuse them of not being surprising. Horowitz has crafted a fine children's tale that will translate well onto the big screen when the movie version of the original, Stormbreaker, is realeased in a few years - Horowitz has reportedly already completed the script and hopes casting will get underway soon.

Van Helsing

Stephen Sommers, director of the fantastic sleeper hit The Mummy and not so great cash-in hit The Mummy Returns, clearly loves his monsters. But while the original was mostly seen as a hilarious redirection for the famous monster, the second was just a typical summer blockbuster, relying on the fame of the first movie to help it turn in a profit. With Van Helsing, Sommers has pulled a similiar the same trick, except this time he's hired Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man to help sell his latest. On paper, it sounds foolproof - but on the big screen, the trick hasn't worked so well.

Despite a fun and visually impressive opening, and the presence of X-Men's breakout star Hugh Jackman, Van Helsing is nothing more than the usual summer trash with a supposed 'twist' that makes little difference to the film's content. Kate Beckinsale sports a laughable accent as the doomed Anna, but is watchable, wheras Richard Roxburgh (as Dracula) hams it up shamelessly and spoils a character who, despite the bad dialouge, could have been the best thing in the movie. The best performance has to be David Wenham's, who uses the cliches to his advantage and shows great potential as a rising star.


Overall, Van Helsing has some decent action sequences, and Jackman is on good form as usual, but to assure a profit was turned in, and to justify the big budget visual effects, what could have been a great story was turned into a boring blockbuster fiasco. Very disappointing.
**1/2 out of 5.

My new blog!

Welcome, and thank you for dropping in on my new blog. Here I'll mostly be pouring my heart out on the latest films and film news to an audience of film snobs and crazy hobos from the realms of Oscarwatch. Enjoy!