This long-awaited adaptation of the third Harry Potter book is quite different in appearance and tone to the previous two films. There is a change of director, to Alfonso Cuarón. The students are obviously teenagers now and they wear their own clothes (although carefully chosen without branding). The grounds of Hogwarts are more rugged than before and Hagrid’s hut is different. The Fat Lady portrait is now played by Dawn French, and Michael Gambon magnificently stepped up as Dumbledore after the death of Richard Harris. I remember not being quite sure about this new Dumbledore as he seemed to have a complete personality change as well as a fashion makeover.

The filming style is edgier and more creative, culminating in the ending where Harry is captured mid-broomstick flight, almost as if his face is squashed against the screen, which is a contrast to the sentimental panning out from the first and second films. On the subject of broomsticks, there is only one Quidditch match. Moving the mysterious gift of a new broom to the end of the story makes more sense in this context. Rewinding to the beginning, it’s silly that Harry is using his wand to light up his homework (and why does the light keep failing?) instead of a torch, because as we are soon reminded, magic is not allowed outside of school.

More than the previous films, this one is a simplified adaptation which leaves out a lot of background detail. It seemed to be more of an impression of the story, rather than a complete telling. Some things it does very well, such as the Knight Bus scene, where an added shrunken head brings extra craziness. The Aunt Marge scene is good, taking it further by having her float off into the sky. The Dementor scenes are very scary and having everything freeze was a great idea. The werewolf transformation was frightening although we don’t get much background on it. Buckbeak is also very well done (if you go on the WB Studio Tour, you can see the animatronic Buckbeak). The time travel effects were good too. I liked the casting of David Thewlis, Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson. The returning cast were as good as ever.

Sadly the role of Crookshanks, the fluffy ginger cat adopted by Hermione, is very much reduced. In the book, he is very intelligent and plays a significant part in the plot. I suppose it would have been difficult to train the cats enough.

In summary, given that the film was still 2 hours long despite changing the plot, it’s mostly a great adaptation, but the condensed story might possibly confuse anyone who hasn’t read the book.

Image credit https://x.com/rowlinglibrary/status/1798065540923265178/photo/1, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79642140