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06/04/2004: "Harry Potter"
Got to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban this morning, as we drove across the bridge to the Cherry Hill Loews. I could talk about how the city movie theatres are impossible, but that's an overdone topic. A three dollar toll is a small price to pay for civility.
So we sit through the eight previews, none of which looked even slightly appetizing, except maybe the Tom Hanks-Catherine Zeta Jones-Stephen Speilberg love-story-in-an-airport, and some of the usual crap and then the movie begins.
It's hard to watch these movies, 'cause like the Lord of the Rings, I know whole passages by heart and if that's the case, you're bound to be disappointed. This movie was different though, as this director has this stunning sense of the visual. Unnecessary close-ups or scenic vistas often come off as cheap film school tricks, but with this movie I thought it helped make some great connections. The simple beauty of the school's setting is magical and the director fully capitalizes on it. The scene where Harry and the hippogriff (Buckbeak) soar over a river valley is absolutely stunning and magical, in a way that suggests that perhaps that muggles do indeed "never see nothing."
And this movie bounced along, with few distractions or unnecessary plot diversions. Novel-to-book conversions often have unnecessarily long face shots as the director and the actor hope that a few eyebrow wiggles communicate extended ideas from the prose. The omissions- the scene in the shack is streamlined as was much of Harry's learning to deal with the dementors- were slight and didn't leave me wondering. (Counterexample- Peter Jackson didn't blow many things, but his representation of Eowyn facing the chief Nazgul was disgraceful, stripping her of the courage her character richly deserved to display.)
Part of the bounce were the special effects. Utterly seemless. The patronus spell near the end was perfect, the stormy quidditch match astounding, and the dementors terrifying.
Great summer fun- here's hoping the rest of the blockbusters can keep up.