More reviews from Down Under -
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From Australia and New Zealand
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Thanks to TLC for following reviews from Down Under
Stuff-Four stars
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Fraught with more danger and emotion, it ratchets up the foreboding mood hinted at in the second film, The Chamber of Secrets, and leaves behind the brighter, innocent spirit of The Philosopher's Stone.
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Cuaron is a moreadventurous director, saving the series from potential creative stagnancy by adding a more considered, visually arresting touch.
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The Prisoner of Azkaban might be a more condensed Harry Potter film, and the narrative slightly choppy, but it's still an enormously enchanting ride. It's leaner, meaner and builds to a climax which effectively combines the swirling splendour of spell-weaving and the angst-ridden turbulence of Harry's growing pains into a deeply resonant whole.
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Radcliffe's acting is noticeably strengthened, making Harry's dedication to avenge his parents' death affectingly felt.
And Watson's Hermione is such a beguiling, assertive presence she sometimes eclipses her co-stars.
The Age-Four stars
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The quality most notably absent from the previous Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PG, 2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PG, 2002), is magic. While there's plenty referred to whenever Harry or any of the other Hogwarts wizards, witches and wannabes wave their Excalibur-like wands, there's none evident in the way the films were made. Chris Columbus, the director of both, seemed to be hamstrung by a perceived need to somehow remain "loyal" to the letter of the stories.
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Making spectacular use of its $US130 million budget, Azkaban is by far the best of the Harry Potter films. There are some lively additions to the Hogwarts staff as well as sundry other visitors: Michael Gambon replaces the late Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore, David Thewlis arrives to take over the school's best subject, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and a boggle-eyed Emma Thompson instructs her class in the art of tea-leaf divination, while Lenny Henry, Dawn French, Gary Oldman and Timothy Spall all turn up in various guises. Shot in Britain, the series has become a bit like a Who's Who of the British film industry.
NZ Herald-Four Stars
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Does Hogwarts do school reports? If so, the one for Harry Potter's third spell on the big screen might be: "His work shows a sound improvement. Pity he didn't apply himself earlier."
For both Daniel Radcliffe as Harry and HP3 itself take some giant steps up on the franchise's earlier instalments
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And as a whole, Azkaban breathes deeper.
It feels less bound to J.K. Rowling's pages but it illuminates her imaginings all the better. It's less the intermediate step between Potter the publishing phenomenon and Potter the theme park which the previous two sometimes resembled.
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Likewise, the special effects are more captivating because they don't draw attention to themselves - the talking paintings look more like paintings now. In a dim light you might mistake the film's Dementors for a Ringwraiths from The Lord of the Rings but they are pleasingly nightmarish
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Potter's young fans are growing up fast but this shows his flicks are keeping up. And Azkaban is the first of the films to really show that movies can be magic too.
TLC 
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