Grade: 🏆

“For in dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own.”

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the first knock out movie in the Harry Potter franchise. They brought on a new director for the third entry and he is easily better than Christoper Columbus. While Christopher was great for the first two more fun films, the series was ready to move into a more mature direction. Alfonso Cuarón is easily the best director to direct a Harry Potter film. He’s directed classics such as Children of Men and Gravity and he brings his signature style to this film while letting it still feel like a Harry Potter movie. The writing is also better here. There’s a better mystery and so many more moving pieces to this film that all comes together perfectly. 

The inclusion of time travel was brilliant and executed effectively, and the Shrieking Shack gives us some great reveals. That whole sequence is one of the best so far. Besides the crew behind the scenes the cast is also really good. Our main three are growing into these roles nicely and it’s great that they were able to find three child actors that could consistently act through most of their childhood. Sirius Black is also a great addition as his looming threat and the dementors brings a new sense of danger we haven’t seen before. This is truly a great example of a fantastic Harry Potter movie. I understand the love for this movie as it brings fans everything they could want while moving the story along nicely. Definitely my favorite so far.