"Turn to Page Three Hundred and Ninety Four..."

My manager brought a DVD player with him when he came back from Manila last week.  Last Tuesday we watched "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", and I remembered I haven't really commented on it when I watched it last June.  I actually already checked out the website at www.harrypotter.com.  Signed in using the student name Rob Thomas.  I've been sorted into the Gryffindor House though I was hoping to go into Slytherin.  I even re-potted my own Blast Skrewt in Herbology class.  I even picked out my wand from Ollivanders, though I can't remember what it was made of.  I just swished and swished until I knocked some books off the shelves.  Haven't tried out for the Quidditch team yet though.  Probably try next time for Keeper, or Beater.  I think I won't be that good at chasing snitches.

Actually, I don't have that much comments.  The Time-Turner twist of the story was really the highlight for me.  I admit, I really skimmed through the ending part of the book so I really don't remember a Time Turner and its effect in the story, especially the part where Harry conjuring up a Patronus to save his other self and Sirius on the opposite side of the lake.  Buckbeak was pretty cute.  I never pictured Remus Lupin to look like that.  I've always thought he'd look like Dennis (from Ghostfighter fame) in spiritual form.  He didn't look that ragged to me.  Peter Pettigrew almost matched what I had in mind.  Emma Thompson, although very good, didn't really look like Professor Trelawney to me.  I always pictured the professor to have glasses bigger than her face, with thin arms and shawls.  Gary Oldman, though acting only near the end of the movie, was very good as Sirius.  Sirius' animagus form though, didn't match what I had in mind -- I pictured him as a bull dog.  Same goes for Lupin's werewolf form.  I thought he was pretty skinny.  Quidditch was not that exciting here, unlike in the first movie.  Now Snape, I think, is becoming one of my favorite characters.  The most memorable line for me during the movie, aside from Dumbledore's words of wisdoms, were his repeated instructions to turn to page 394 when he took over the Defense Against The Dark Arts class.  The kids seems to have grown too fast for their characters and I kept thinking that the creators should start filming books 4 and 5 already so they don't end up with 20-year old Harry, Ron, and Hermione playing teenagers (in Beverly Hill 90210 fashion).

The scenes didn't really blow me away. . . .  Could be because of the lighting.  Then again, it is (in terms of theme) dark.  Alisa was right when she told me that the movie are not for those who did not read the book.  It never even mentioned the connection between the Marauders' Map with the four friends (James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius).  You also had to find out on your own why there was a Patronus that looked like a stag.  Anyway, there's still the Time Turner effect to make up for all of it, and that preview of things to come in the future installments: Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney, Hermione "developing" more into a woman, Hermione and Ron's growing fondness, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort(?), Rowan Atkinson as Mad-Eye Moody(?), and all the other powerhouse cast who will play Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum, Rita Skeeter and the rest.