Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is the third in the Harry Potter film series and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.

Darker tone

The Prisoner of Azkaban gives the Harry Potter saga a much darker tone than the previous film. This change is widely attributed to Alfonso Cuarón, though it must be noted the source material was also darker than its predecessors, though not quite to the extreme of the film. The tone of the third film is actually closer to that of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix than the book on which it was based. There is a also greater degree of physical darkness in the third film than in the first two.

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All the Harry Potter books contain scenes relating to the mystery/adventure aspect of the stories along with emotional scenes designed to explore the characters. The first two films had a tendency to focus mainly on the mystery/adventure aspect, leaving out most of the emotional scenes, which inevitably bred criticisms of a lack of character development and related issues.

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In the third film, the paradigm was reversed with more emphasis on Harry's angst than on the plot. This, likewise, created a troubled plotline (see "murky" plotting below,) but most film critics and many fans were pleased with these changes, believing it made the film stronger and the characters more interesting and believable. Others, however, thought the number of plot points never fully explained was simply unforgivable.

Related Topics:
Angst - "murky" plotting

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