This weekend we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was great. It was far better than the first two (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets). It was a much darker film that the first two, and it's nice that the characters are coming into their own.

This one was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, a departure from Chris Columbus who directed the first two. While Columbus did a great job with the first two, the third is a much more engaging film. The characters really start to come alive in Azkaban, with wonderful performances from Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint as Ron, and Emma Watson as Hermione (why can't George Lucas cast child actors like these). The plot is pretty straight forward, Harry is in trouble again and the guys have to do their best to help him out of it. The only real complaint I had with Cuaron's interpretation was the character of Malfoy (played by Tom Felton). In this version Malfoy isn't really the bully from before, it's more of the mean kid that is really just a big baby (which didn't feel right to me). Other than that the story is solid, the characters great (oh, I forgot to mention Gary Oldman as Serious Black - he is great in this role!), and the special effects are great (where I thought the other 2 films really lacked - the effects were very cheesy). Highly recommended, especially if you've seen the first two.