Prisoner of Azkaban

So since I wasn't feeling great this weekend, my hot Halloween date last night was my little brother's "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" DVD. I haven't seen that movie all the way through since I saw it in the theatres last summer and now I sort of remember why.

In case you haven't already figure it out, I am a hug fan of the Harry Potter books. I make the distinction because I have this sort of love/hate relationship with the movies...ie, I get psyched for the movies to come out, then annoyed because there are elements in the movies that get left out and things aren't as I pictured them...you know, the usual. But "Prisoner" is my favorite book of the series (though I love all of them)and the way the movie is, irritates me more because a huge chunk of plot was left out in favor of....well, I'm not sure what. Pretty shots: leaves changing, longer-than-necessary scenes with special effects...oy.

But...no Quidditch cup, no explanation of the just who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were...and Harry doing some things that are blatantly out of character. There was a scene where he was wandering around the corridors of the school at night, which he definitely does in the books, but he did NOT have his Invisibility Cloak. There is no way Harry, as written, would not wear that when he was wandering around...he has been threatened with expulsion so many times that that is something he just...wouldn't do. The other thing was he started crying while they were in Hogsmeade...and it specifically says in the books that he wouldn't cry in fron of people, not even Ron or Hermione. Grr.

And of course, continuity over three movies is difficult to maintain, but when a character has a specific identifying mark, like say...a scar, it should well, always be in the same place. I watched the special features on the DVD and in the first two trailers, Harry's scar was on the left side of his head....and in the third, it was on the right. Seriously. Let's look at the little things, here.