stupendous! marvelous! amazing! there are just too many positive words that i can use to describe the third installment of the harry potter films. hmm, how can you tell that i really loved it?

after watching the first two movies, i finally got my ass into gear and read the entire written works last summer at my sisters’ behest. ‘lo and behold, i loved them! i actually did not fully enjoy the philosopher’s stone and the chamber of secrets, mostly because i hadn’t read the books yet and i found there to be a lot of plot holes and confuzzling parts. i also didn’t like the childish cheesiness of the first two films, which i can blame on chris columbus, from whom corny movies like home alone spawned. but i guess it was sort of fitting because harry was supposed to be young and naive in those first films.

with the third movie, i can finally see the darkening plot of the story. audiences can really witness the maturing of both the plotline and the characters, under the direction of alfonso cuarón. i loved a little princess and i’m glad that cuarón was able to achieve the perfect mix of innocence and darkness in the prisoner of azkaban, as well. daniel radcliffe, rupert grint, and emma watson have definitely been taking acting lessons and it really shows in this movie. the new characters (remus lupin, sirius black, sybil trelawney, etc.) were also perfectly casted.

while i loved the adorable ron/hermione scenes, i couldn’t help but start becoming a harry/hermoine ‘shipper midway throughout the movie. it was nice to see the two of them paired up for the action and resolution at the end, when, in the chamber of secrets, hermoine had been a no-show for the climax of the film. and, jeez, daniel radcliffe just keeps getting better looking… this isn’t good.