Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Aksarben

This one's less good. The first two movies seemed to overflow with creativity and ideas, but this one has a more conservative dispersal (sprinkling) of originality.

Something that's odd about this series of films, and continues with this installment: They're paced like a 90-100 minute movies would be, with fast, rushed music and editing and all, but they're not hour-and-a-half movies, so instead of seeming fast and exciting they end up seeming really, really long. About ten minutes from the end, you start paying more attention to how much your ass hurts (and your neck if you're stuck in the front row as we were) than what's happening onscreen. Someone should tell the makers that there's nothing wrong with pacing a nearly-three-hour movie like a movie that runs nearly three hours.

That's not to give the impression that I disliked the movie. I liked it just fine. It's the weakest of the three - by a significant degree - but it doesn't disappoint (much). It still provides all that's expected of it (Plus: Nazgul!) - or all I expected of it. My complaint is just that some of the glee is missing here. When I saw the first one I was like, "Whoa - I gotta read this book" because it seemed so effing original. This one isn't so original and doesn't make me want to read the books. In fact, the trailer for the first movie of the Lemony Snicket series plays before HP. It - the couple-minute-long trailer - made me want to read more of those books. Whereas, the entire runningtime of Potter 3 merely prevented me from leaving the theater angry. (Some degredation is expected, of course - after all this is the third movie - but it seemed to eclipse that mark. I get the feeling I may not look back on this movie very fondly, which is really too bad.)

I suppose that's something. I was just hoping for more.

I do still want to see subsequent installments, if you're wondering. And soon. I want the series to bounce back from this mild detour (mixaphorically speaking) and be great again.

3 stars; theater; Thursday, June 3rd.