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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Previewed by Joshua Tyler
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is shaping up to be something special. The series has a
new director (Alexander Cuauron), a new look, and hopefully a newer,
smarter style. At the same time, all the actors are back (except
Richard Harris who has since
passed on) and the story, according to Potter fans, is supposed to be
the best
of the series.
Personally, I'm most cheered by the departure of
HP1 &
HP2 director
Christopher Columbus, whose record of mediocrity has made the previous
two Potter outings mildly amusing kiddy fodder, instead of the
dreamstuff that they might have been.. Yeah, Columbus is great at
working with kids, but he has no vision. Rather than adapting the story
to fit the very different medium of film, Columbus just threw things up
on screen exactly as they were in the book. Look, I suppose that's
great for the purists out there, but books and movies are very different
things. Director Peter Jackson has proven what you can do when you have
the vision and creativity to take existing material and truly translate
it to work in a different medium, while staying true to the original
story. So far, the
Harry Potter series hasn't been able to do that and
so mucks about making a ton of money off the sweat of parents and kids,
but does little else to make it all that memorable.
I blame Chris Columbus. The kids are great, the stories COULD be
interesting, the effects and cinematography have been stunning. But
Columbus has failed to give his stories any life. Cuauron on the other
hand has style, flair, and from the looks of the most recent
Harry
Potter 3 trailers, is willing to go that extra mile to make HIS Harry
Potter film unique. For the first time, I'm actually excited about a
Harry Potter movie... and to get there I didn't have to read the book.
