Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Fire

With the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there was somewhat of a shake up when it came to the making of these movies. Chris Columbus decided to bow out as director of the third film and the search began for a replacement to take over the next film. Loads of names were tossed around, but with a big project such as this, there is always names that come and go.

In the end, they settled on Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, know for such films as the critcially acclaimed Y Tu Mama Tambien, which is known for its extreme sexual content, and the film adaptions of A Little Princess and, afterwards,  Children of Men. To me, he didn't really seem to fit the expected mold. There was just something about the way he adapted A Little Princess that never sat well with me. It always felt like it went way to far away from the source material, but not in a terrible way, just enough hat it felt like it was only giving slight nods to the book. I was more than a bit worried.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an interesting film. It shows that sometimes the established and expected norm can change, and with it comes a big breath of fresh air. Except for the fact that there is a huge budget behind this thing, this could amost be a fanasty indepant film, as it has that sort of sensabilty to it. 

Chris and his films felt a bit tired after the second film. Chamber still had too much presentation in it, it still had that weird paint by numbers feel, it still has very little in the area of surprise. In some ways, it was getting dull. This was apparently an assessment shared by others. 


After the second movie, somebody felt the need to want to re-launch the series, even taking it as far as redesigning parts of the established school buildings and designs. Alfonso's Hogworts, while still very similar to its earlier versions, have changed just enough to be quite noticeable which is both frustrating and interesting. Still, they are good changes, some welcomed, in fact.  An example of this being Hagrid's hut is further away from the school and down a hill. Such a simple change that makes the grounds, and therefore the castle, feel that much more spread out. Hogwarts isn't just a little place for students to go and study. Hogwarts is now a huge and spread out compound where people go to learn magic.