heidi | PoA Review

Behind the cut is my review of PoA, which I originally wrote on May 26 after one viewing - it was embargoed because of WB rules until June 4, and since I posted a sort of parent-themed one on TLC, I didn't have a chance to make it public until today; I just re-dated it instead of recreating it.

So, as I said back then...

Sorry it took a few extra days - and of course,

Five years ago this July, I was very pregnant, and I was waiting - not just for my first baby, but also, for the release of Prisoner of Azkaban, which was set to come out in the UK in mid-July. It was also going to come out in the US in September, but I thought - quite correctly - that if I waited for the US release, I'd never have a chance to read it, as I'd be busy with Baby.

So I ordered it from the UK, and paid twice the cover price to have it sent second day air, and I stayed up for hours reading it, and I fell in love with Sirius Black, and with Remus Lupin and I redsicovered by I adored Harry Potter.

Last Sunday, I brought that baby I'd been waiting for on those hot July days to see the premiere of the movie version of Prisoner of Azkaban, and both of us were blown away by the film.

And that's a pretty stark contrast to how I felt about the first and second films. As the credits rolled after my first viewing of Sorcerer's Stone, I kicked the seat in front of me and pretty much stamped by feet in frustration - not because of the performances or the sets (which I've always liked), but the waste of the source material. Yes, I am a canon-fiend. Yes, I think the books should be adhered to as much as possible. But I realised, as I sat, agog, in Prisoner of Azkaban, that what I was looking for was the spirit and dynamism and fascinating universe of the books.

Alfonso Cuaron has found it, and the cast has played it well. So well that I spent the first hour of the film just shaking in my seat - shivvering so much that my son put his arm around me because he thought I needed to be warmed up. And I spent the last half hour or so - from the start of the Shack scene - shaking, again, from the wonder of it all.

I have to see the film a second time, because I know there were things I didn't notice, like the theme of clocks and time running through the sets - I am now convinced that the set in which Hermione punched Draco is supposed to be an ancient and magical sundial. Now - about that punch - I still think it was an unnecessary change from the book - but it doesn't feel like quite as much of an overreaction, in the context, than I'd feared.

I've also seen some complaints that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs' names weren't mentioned in connection with the map, and the guys - but I think it illustrates a fundamental difference between this film and the first two.

Let's put it this way - nobody could ever accuse Chris Columbus of subtlely. He made his points broadly - even changing from subtletly in the books, like with Quirrel, or that added-in bit from Hermione in PS/SS about Quidditch being in Harry's blood, which still makes me cringe, to Really Obvious Explanations Of Stuff.

Cuaron has a much more subtle touch - Sirius and Remus call Peter "Wormtail", Remus calls Sirius "Padfoot" and when Remus is changing, Sirius calls him "Moony". No, nobody explains that Prongs = James but it's a conjecture that you can make, even if you haven't read the books, given the references in the movie. But it's a sea change from the level of attention-paying one had to do in the previous films, and it's a hard adjustment to make, I think.

I don't know why it bothered me less when this film deviated from the book. Of course, each time, a little buzzer went off in my head, but the only time it really zapped me was in the Shack scene, where the subtlety and subtext were just amazing. Most of you have probably already seen a comment about the [line of snape's that I am not going to put in here, so as not to spoil anyone who hasn't been already]. And yes, it made me squee, and gasp and I was so surprised by it. I'm actually sad that so many people seem to have heard it already, because one of the wonders of it, to me, was the utter surprise of hearing it. (And I'm also wondering if those who aren't familiar with slash, or even with the books, will see the scene the same way I did, and I'm wondering how to do a survey of it. Hmmm. Suggestions welcome.)

I've been thinking about the film a lot, writing and rewriting my official TLC review in my mind (which will be more of a parent-of-young-child perspective) and I think, in the grand pantheon of things, while I didn't love POA as much as I loved Return of the King, I will probably end up watching it more than Two Towers - they're both sort of "bridge" stories in my mind, because they're both the middle of the series (at least, PoA is the middle of what we have so far) and I'm just more of a fangirl of the style of storytelling in PoA than I am of battle-scenes.

The frustrating thing about seeing a film at a preview like this is that I have to wait until June 4 to see it again - I can't just head into another screening to recapture and revisit what I loved so much about this movie. But I can't wait to see it with so many of you in New York early next month. And then, I get to learn what all of you think of it - and experience the magic all over again.

Flashback - my first-impression review of CoS is here.

I was refering to Remus/Sirius, as I think we pretty much all agree with, right? I mean, even my *husband* noticed it (although I think his noticing was prompted by the Really Loud Cheers at PoA IMAX.

And I was also refering to the Trio-shipping.

So now you know!