Worth seeing... but the book is much better — 38 weeks ago
Although I’ve read the book three times and thoroughly enjoyed it, I had never seen the film.
Good points – the three main cast are superb. Particularly Rupert Grint as Ron, but they really do carry this story forward, with superb on-screen chemistry as they begin to mature. Hagrid is great too, and Snape spookily nasty. Professor Lupin was a bit of a surprise – not really how I had imagined him – but I liked him very much by the end. Professor Trelawney, played in an over-the-top way by Emma Thompson, is suitably dramatic and unbelievable.
The special effects are excellent too. The hippogriff seemed particularly realistic, and the various flights and other effects were very well done. The dementors were suitably unpleasant, but thankfully not quite the nightmares I had imagined.
So it was worth watching, certainly as part of the series as a whole.
But… it was a much more visual film than the first two. There seemed to be huge swathes of the book left out, and very little dialogue. Yet there were over-long scenes of (for instance) Harry flying on the hippogriff, or Quidditch games, which added nothing to the storyline. Had I not been familiar with the plot, I’m not sure I’d have followed it.
Three and a half stars would be fairer.






















