Lumos!
To begin: there is nothing like being in a movie theater after you haven't gone out to see a movie in nearly two months. Two months is a horrible length of time without movies, but it makes the return all that more magical. Going away to college and being in a strange place made me regard the movie theater as one of the few consistent fixtures I can depend on. I usually say fuck the chains, but not here; I love the way I can go to any place in continental America and still see the little AMC film dude. The way Frank Rich loves being in the Broadway theaters, I've come to regard Mansell AMC 14 and North Point UA and AMC River East 21 as popcorn-littered altars. All those rolling their eyes right now can plant them firmly back in their sockets, I'm not about to wax The Majestic.
OK, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm not going to gush, because gushing is boring, unless you're reading about someone gushing over you, of course. And none of you readers are Alfonso Cuaron.
Instead, here's a list of everything I loved about this new installment (which is a big misnomer, since this movie felt like the FIRST in something grand).
-The opening: the breathy glow of Harry's window in pitch darkness which, as the camera zooms closer, barely lights the silhouette of the Warner Bros. logo. Then, the way the film title comes on in the middle of this quiet little moment of Harry practicing spells under the covers. It sets this whole precedent of quiet moments.
-The Jamaican shrunken head!
-The Leaky Cauldron. You know how in the first two films, every single magical special effect got its own screen time, which would have to be followed by one of the characters giving an explanation of what it was? In this particular scene, though, the whole room is filled with all these magical things that float and explode and turn little tricks all in the background. Remember when Mr. Weasley is warning Harry about Sirius? and in the background the teapots are floating around pouring tea and the Wanted poster of Sirius is in between Harry and Mr. Weasley. Everything in this shot is so fully integrated into the world, and the fact that none of the characters are paying attention to anything magical makes us want to look at it that much more. We've all seen that Sirius Black poster in all the promotional material, and I always thought it was a little cheesy, but then the character trains on it for a good minute and we see the thing just looping over and over again until it becomes quite creepy.
-The tables in the Great Hall: if you looked, they're aged and scratched all over with names and pictures that Hogwarts kids have, we assume, been carving into the tables for hundreds of years.
-The rain-soaked Quidditch match. The way Neville has half his face painted in Gryffindor colors. The umbrella that keeps flying into the scene for no apparent purpose.
-Buckbeak's flight, and the way that on a whim, he dips his toe into the lake as he flies over.
-The way I want to see a whole movie about The Book of Monsters textbook.
-In the Boggart scene in Lupin's class, how the scene starts and ends with the camera zooming through the mirrored chest, then suddenly becomes a tracking camera in the actual scene.
-Professor Lupin likes jazz. Once again, never addressed. Just there.
-The flowers frosting over when the Dementors fly over.
-The Hogwarts paintings. When I get the DVD, I'm just going to put those on repeat so I can spend my time looking at all the little hidden jokey details. What's with the knight who keeps rushing onto the scene like a spaz?
-The scene between Harry, Snape, and Lupin in the hallway in the middle of the night. What a power play. And how the paintings "sass" Alan Rickman.
-More Snape: "Why don't you go play with your chemistry set??"
-In the Boggart scene, the snake that the little Indian girl conjurs? John Williams plays the asp theme, the trilling reed thing, from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yeah. Watch it, he does.
-PUMPKINS!! I want that!
-When Harry and Hermione are back in time setting Buckbeak free, Dumbledore distracts the Minister of Magic by trying to point out "the strawberries by the lake." For the record, "strawberries" is up there in the Top Ten Funniest Things Said With a British Accent.
-I lift this notion from another review, but the way that Hogwarts looks beautiful not because of the castle itself, but by the way Cuaron lets the surrounding landscape give it its majesty. There's a Scottish loch feel about the place, and it's gorgeous.
-How the Womping Willow is made into a recurring character with a fully-realized personality. It's also one of the funniest things in the movie.
-At the beginning, when Harry is about to be reunited with Ron and Hermione, how he takes a moment for himself on the staircase to just enjoy watching his two friends bicker.
God, I want to see this again. I have a suspicion that this might actually become one of my favorite movies ever. But now I have to stop prematurely and write a paper, but when I get back, I hope everyone who hasn't seen this movie yet gets off their ass and does so.
Mischief Managed!
To begin: there is nothing like being in a movie theater after you haven't gone out to see a movie in nearly two months. Two months is a horrible length of time without movies, but it makes the return all that more magical. Going away to college and being in a strange place made me regard the movie theater as one of the few consistent fixtures I can depend on. I usually say fuck the chains, but not here; I love the way I can go to any place in continental America and still see the little AMC film dude. The way Frank Rich loves being in the Broadway theaters, I've come to regard Mansell AMC 14 and North Point UA and AMC River East 21 as popcorn-littered altars. All those rolling their eyes right now can plant them firmly back in their sockets, I'm not about to wax The Majestic.
OK, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm not going to gush, because gushing is boring, unless you're reading about someone gushing over you, of course. And none of you readers are Alfonso Cuaron.
Instead, here's a list of everything I loved about this new installment (which is a big misnomer, since this movie felt like the FIRST in something grand).
-The opening: the breathy glow of Harry's window in pitch darkness which, as the camera zooms closer, barely lights the silhouette of the Warner Bros. logo. Then, the way the film title comes on in the middle of this quiet little moment of Harry practicing spells under the covers. It sets this whole precedent of quiet moments.
-The Jamaican shrunken head!
-The Leaky Cauldron. You know how in the first two films, every single magical special effect got its own screen time, which would have to be followed by one of the characters giving an explanation of what it was? In this particular scene, though, the whole room is filled with all these magical things that float and explode and turn little tricks all in the background. Remember when Mr. Weasley is warning Harry about Sirius? and in the background the teapots are floating around pouring tea and the Wanted poster of Sirius is in between Harry and Mr. Weasley. Everything in this shot is so fully integrated into the world, and the fact that none of the characters are paying attention to anything magical makes us want to look at it that much more. We've all seen that Sirius Black poster in all the promotional material, and I always thought it was a little cheesy, but then the character trains on it for a good minute and we see the thing just looping over and over again until it becomes quite creepy.
-The tables in the Great Hall: if you looked, they're aged and scratched all over with names and pictures that Hogwarts kids have, we assume, been carving into the tables for hundreds of years.
-The rain-soaked Quidditch match. The way Neville has half his face painted in Gryffindor colors. The umbrella that keeps flying into the scene for no apparent purpose.
-Buckbeak's flight, and the way that on a whim, he dips his toe into the lake as he flies over.
-The way I want to see a whole movie about The Book of Monsters textbook.
-In the Boggart scene in Lupin's class, how the scene starts and ends with the camera zooming through the mirrored chest, then suddenly becomes a tracking camera in the actual scene.
-Professor Lupin likes jazz. Once again, never addressed. Just there.
-The flowers frosting over when the Dementors fly over.
-The Hogwarts paintings. When I get the DVD, I'm just going to put those on repeat so I can spend my time looking at all the little hidden jokey details. What's with the knight who keeps rushing onto the scene like a spaz?
-The scene between Harry, Snape, and Lupin in the hallway in the middle of the night. What a power play. And how the paintings "sass" Alan Rickman.
-More Snape: "Why don't you go play with your chemistry set??"
-In the Boggart scene, the snake that the little Indian girl conjurs? John Williams plays the asp theme, the trilling reed thing, from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yeah. Watch it, he does.
-PUMPKINS!! I want that!
-When Harry and Hermione are back in time setting Buckbeak free, Dumbledore distracts the Minister of Magic by trying to point out "the strawberries by the lake." For the record, "strawberries" is up there in the Top Ten Funniest Things Said With a British Accent.
-I lift this notion from another review, but the way that Hogwarts looks beautiful not because of the castle itself, but by the way Cuaron lets the surrounding landscape give it its majesty. There's a Scottish loch feel about the place, and it's gorgeous.
-How the Womping Willow is made into a recurring character with a fully-realized personality. It's also one of the funniest things in the movie.
-At the beginning, when Harry is about to be reunited with Ron and Hermione, how he takes a moment for himself on the staircase to just enjoy watching his two friends bicker.
God, I want to see this again. I have a suspicion that this might actually become one of my favorite movies ever. But now I have to stop prematurely and write a paper, but when I get back, I hope everyone who hasn't seen this movie yet gets off their ass and does so.
Mischief Managed!
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