Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkahban

[Sheherezade]

Enjoyed the movie, but don't believe the hype. A lot of material was cut or altered from the original book. Additionally, the film still adds in some scary fight/flight type scenes to increase the Hollywood summer movie experience. The werewolf is very freaky and the dementors are scary. Even the Monster book of Monsters was a bit frightening. My 8 year old loved it, but he is very familiar with the tale and knew what to expect. Also, scary stuff is his hobby. My 5 year old would have had nightmares if she'd seen anything past the first 30 minutes or so. I was hoping the artsy director meant the movie was less mainstream, but that was not my take. Still looked like a HP movie . I missed the original HP soundtrack too. Now I have to wait another 2 years to see what Mike Nichols does with HP4.

Angie

I was pretty disappointed with the movie. Seemed to me the director tried to cut and paste a bunch of stuff into a two hour time slot. If I hadn't read the book I would have been lost.

This was the first movie in a LONG time that my husband and I actually went to the theater to see. I wish we would have seen Shrek 2, I've heard much better reviews for it than HP.

[Flynn]

I enjoyed the move and re-read the book right before we saw it.

The director did make some changes and has a different style than the first director BUT I think that is consistent with the third book. This book has dark themes and really builds on the "good vs. evil" thread that becomes more intense in #4 and #5. I think the third book is the most interesting out of 1, 2 and 3 for these reasons.

I wasn't lost at all and kind of got a kick out of the changes that were made and also by the way, inevitable when you transfer several hundred pages from a novel into a screenplay.

I've always thought that Harry Potter was not for young children (with that said, it depends on the individual child of course) and I think anyone under 6 -- it will probably be a stretch for them because it is scary.

I liked it and will see it again!

I thought it was great--my favorite of the three movies so far. What I liked best was that the director didn't do a word for word translation of the book--to have some of the things explained in detail you'd actually have to read the book. Yes, it's a bit too dark and scary for the little ones, but half the time I go to "R" rated movies and find them full of kids...don't know what some people are thinking.

I just finished writing a teleplay for the Sci-Fi channel based on a short story for young adults. It was very tough to do, and it gave me a tremendous respect for anyone who can condense a 300+ page book down into a 120 page script and still keep some of the spirit of the original intact.