  Disgusted with my urlLink trip to the movies on Saturday (I must reiterate that The Day after Tomorrow is not worth seeing, so just don't - EVER), and throughly unenchanted with my Administrative Law reading, on Sunday I braved the lines to go and see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban . The good news is the film was playing right around the corner, so I didn't go too far out of my way. Also, I've been to this theater often, but never seen a movie on the particular screen the film was showing on and I had no idea that they had a theater that big - the other ones are much smaller - and the movie was not sold out, so I had the comfort of having an empty seat on either side of me (go ahead and feel sorry for me if you will, having to see the movie all by myself) in case I got restless, which indeed I did.
After all of that, I must say that I was more than a little disappointed with what I saw. And I'm conflicted about exactly why I was so disappointed. Part of me wants to say that it was a good film in its own right, but not a very good adaptation. But then I start to second guess that because even I was a little confused by what was going on in parts (because it moves so quickly and skips over things) and that's saying something as I've read the book twice in the past six months. Then I start to wonder if I'm turning into a Potter purist, and that I just wanted to see everything from the book in the movie and when it wasn't all there, I became disgruntled. It is my favorite book of the series after all, but I'm not sure I can (quite) say it's my favorite film of the series.
I'm not sure it bothers me so much that things were left out. I am a realist and it is just not possible to include everything, and even if everything could be included time-wise, some things just don't translate well from the page to the screen. It didn't bother me that many of the things depicted were basically the same as they were in the book, but changed just slightly - almost nothing in the film is exactly as it was in the book - by adding a character who isn't supposed to be there, or placing it in a different part of the timeline.
This is what adaptation is all about, and I think that - for the most part - it captured the spirit of the book nicely. But there were ways in which it did not live up to this task. Many things were left out completely, some of them vital (in my opinion) to the advancement of the story.
And many of them I feel were also unecessarily left out because they would have taken maybe a second or two to explain and wouldn't have added that much to the total running time. Then there were some rather odd additions. I will not go into detail, because those fans who might be reading this and haven't seen the movie yet will not be appreciative of having me spoil it all, and the rest of you couldn't care less and wouldn't know what I was talking about anyway. Mostly, I think the pace was just too fast. I think this was an overcompensation from the first two films, where the opposite problem arose. I guess I'd just rather have a slower pace, especially for this film, because there was some wonderful cinematography and not nearly enough time to enjoy it, for fear that any turning of attention away from the action might lead to missing sometthing vital.
Perhaps I will have to see it again to see if it improves any. It strikes me as odd that as the children get older, and as the content of the films gets more mature (as do the audiences), that the pace would actually speed up. One would think the opposite would be the case. That said, there is much here to love, especially by way of the performances. Though again, one wonders why some of the juciest acting material was cut from the thing entirely.
Gary Oldman realized, and even surpassed, my expectations of him. And David Thewlis, though he is not what I pictured the character to be when reading the book (oddly enough, since I knew he was going to be in it before I started reading), was pitch perfect. As for Alan Rickman...nothing more needs to be said, though I could have stood with a sight more of him. And all of them. I think the child actors continue to improve, despite the pigeon-holing and one-note writing of their parts at times. Anyway, while there was much to love, in the end, I left wanting more. But I guess if I want more, I'll just have to suck it up and read the book again. Or direct my own version using stick figures and cardboard backgrounds. That'll get me to appreciate the original. 
