Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)/YMMV
These things about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: Many Gary Oldman fans love him as Sirius, because he's still Crazy Awesome.
- David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, who arguably emerges as Harry's most genuinely lovable teacher (and among the more lovable adults) in the whole series.
- Continuity Lock Out:
- The simple fact that Sirius is innocent and was framed by Pettigrew is explained in the most confusing manner possible. This sentence probably just explained it more clearly than any line in the entire movie.
- They also cut out Dumbledore's argument with Cornelius Fudge, which greatly foreshadowed the events of The Order of the Phoenix.
- The film never explains who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are. Then, Harry calls Pettigrew "Wormtail" in the Goblet of Fire movie without explanation, and Sirius is called "Padfoot" in Order of the Phoenix.
- Neither an explanation for how Lupin instantly recognizes the Marauder's Map for what it is nor for how Sirius knows that "The Map never lies" is given as well.
- Broken Base: Half the fanbase considers this one of the best (if not the best) Harry Potter film in the franchise, or at least when the Harry Potter films started getting good. The other half considers this movie to be one of the worst (if not the worst) Harry Potter film in the franchise. The film was mostly better received by critics than the first two, although it was the first HP film not to get four stars from Roger Ebert. Also, this is J.K. Rowling's favorite film.
- Growing the Beard: According to most professional critics, along with about half of the fans. At the very least, people agreed that the younger actors and actresses were finally fitting snugly into their roles (aside from the Narm mentioned below).
- Internet Backdraft: Best movie in the series? Worst movie in the series? Middlingest movie in the series? Whatever your opinion, a huge chunk of the Fan Dumb will loathe you for it.
- Memetic Mutation:
- SIRIUS DID HIS WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!!!
- HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!
- "Turn to page 394." It's due mostly to Snape fangirls finding Alan Rickman's delivery of this very random line extremely sexy. The fact that he repeats "page 394" a couple times later in the scene pushed it to full-blown meme status.
- Memetic Outfit: Hermione's pink hooded sweater.
- Narm: The movie is full of it, most notably Harry's crying scene in Hogsmeade (blame Daniel Radcliffe), Draco getting attacked by Buckbeak (blame Tom Felton), and the punching scene (blame Emma Watson, Tom Felton, and Steve Kloves).
- Malfoy being attacked by Buckbeak, which was deliberately Narm-y; in the book, it was stated that he over-played how bad the injury really was. Why? Because he's Draco Malfoy and he's a whiny brat. And because he wanted to get Hagrid fired.
- Non Sequitur Scene:
- After everyone arrives at Hogwarts to start the new year, the Fat Lady won't let them into Gryffindor Tower because she's too busy trying to shatter a glass with her voice. That scene has never made any sense. And they left so many important bits out...
- The talking shrunken head on the Knight Bus.
- The School Choir replacing the Sorting Hat, although that did allow for the Crowning Music of Awesome "Double Double", the witches' poem from Macbeth.
- A long shot of a blue bird flying through the castle and getting killed by the Whomping Willow.
- The long shots of the Whomping Willow were often used to show the changing of the seasons, but the one with the bird could be Foreshadowing the importance the Willow has later in the book.
- A shot of the ghost of a knight crashing through the window and running through the Great Hall being chased by another ghost which the characters completely ignore.
- For the random knight-through-the-window and the blue bird, see Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny, respectively.
- Once in Griffyindor's Boy's Room in the middle of the night, Ron bolts up, shaking and whimpering something incoherently.
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Harry: Ron! What is it? |
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- Straw Man Has a Point: See above
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Alfonso's complete redesigning of Hogwarts geography, coupled with the overall more comedic tone the film has compared to the previous two.
- Not to mention the forced comedy of the shrunken heads added to the Knight Bus.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer with Harry shouting "expecto patronum" very loudly likely makes obvious what is going to happen for those far enough into the movie to have already heard Harry's quieter "expecto patronum" shouts.