“I’m off to catch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban one last time on the big screen before it dons its celluloid invisibility cape and disappears for good.” So declared the extremely bright, super-knowledgable L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas in last week’s issue. Whew….whatever. As intriguing as Alfonso Cuaron’s influences were upon Azkaban, it’s still a friggin’ Harry Potter film, and that means you’re in a kind of jail as you watch it. I felt hopeful when I saw it in Paris last June. I said to myself at one point, “This is is the best Potter ever, and so nicely composed…and best of all, it’ll be over in less than an hour.”
