A few brief thoughts about the Prisoner of Azkaban movie

I was cleaning and reorganizing a bit in our bedroom this past weekend, and saw that the Prisoner of Azkaban movie was on. Having seen only bits and pieces of it previously, and having just finished the book, I thought I’d tune in. I ended up catching the last hour or so. I had a few thoughts on it:

• The Dementors looked eerily similar (eery pun intended) to the Ringwraiths from the Lord of the Rings films. They were a bit more wispy, whereas the Ringwraiths were definitely solid beings, but still - the similarities are quite strong. Not to say that Rowling copied the Ringwraiths, however; tall, thin, black hooded creatures seem to be a pretty common thing in the fantasy world. Ringwraiths, Dementors - hell, look at most depictions of the Grim Reaper.
• I thought the werewolf form of Lupin was somehow off. Its hair wasn’t shabby enough or something. It looked too humanoid and not wolfish enough. Then again, I’ve always been one who prefers his werewolves to be men that turn into just an overly large wolf, not some humanoid looking thing.
• I wasn’t very fond of Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Sirius. He seemed too frantic, too nervous. When reading the book, I pictured him as quite smooth and relaxed, sure of himself. Oldman’s version acted a bit like he was going to explode at any moment. Perhaps I perceived this incorrectly though; I was, after all, trying to maintain some bit of cleaning momentum while watching.
• As noted, I only caught the last hour, so perhaps I would have seen the reasoning for the change if I’d seen all of it, but… why did Harry only get the Firebolt broom at the end of the movie? In the book, he got it much, much earlier.
• The Richard Harris Dumbledore from movies 1 and 2 were so much better. I loved the Harris version, and thought Michael Gambon’s version in Azkaban was, for lack of a better word, awful. His speech was off, and he didn’t have the “twinkle” of character that the Harris version had. Harris’ version, while obviously nutty, was funny and enjoyable. Gambon’s version was just weird.

And, worry not, those of you who aren’t fellow Potter fans. I’m halfway through book 4 already. I’d say once I’m done with the series, my Potter mania will pass.