Hrmmmm...

I said I was going to be more thorough in my movie reviews and then I write a couple little reviews that go into no real detail at all. Now I'm going to try to rectify that.

However, I'm not going to touch on the Maddin films. Because they are too dense, too visual and abstract. Too out of my league, is what I'm trying to say.

Harry Potter is a different story, because it's a story. It's based on a book so at the very least I can talk about the differences.

The problem with the first two Potter movies is that they were too faithful to the books. They crammed in as much as they could for no reason other than it was in the book so it should be in the movie. Columbus was so busy making sure he played all the notes that he lost track of the music.

The problem with Azkaban is the opposite. It loses too much good stuff from the book. The origin of the Marauder's Map and the relationship between Harry's parents and Lupin and Sirius and Snape and... the guy. These revelations helped Harry learn a lot more about his parents and the situation he finds himself in.

I have no idea how well the film works, story wise, for those who have not read the book. I can only say that I noticed the absence of the above and fervently hope that the scenes were cut for time and will appear on the DVD.

Luckily the film has many other things going for it. This is the best looking film of the series by far. And its not because its the latest film and has the newest effects. It's because the effects are better integrated into the film. A lot more effort has been put into making this world seem "real". And the effects follow suit. Compare Fluffy from the first film with Buckbeak from this one. The first was much too cartoony and played more for laughs than menace. Buckbeak is, in actuality, not nearly as imposing a creature the Cerebus. But, in the film, Buckbeak seems more menacing because it seems more "real".

This film is not afraid to be scary. The dementors have a great look to them. They look freakier than the Ring Wraiths from those movies with the rings. The fight between dog and werewolf near the end has a nice bit of brutality to it as well. The werewolf looks fairly fake, but at least it looks different than most other movie werewolves.

And the acting is better in this film as well. The children are much better in each of their roles and the adults are exemplary as always.

Really, when the only real complaint about a film is that I wanted more of it, that not too bad a complaint at all.

There. Way more words. I feel better.