The queue was long but with a dash of miracle and a modicum of luck, my friends and I managed to get tickets for Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. The burning question: Will it satisfy die hard fans of Potter out there?

Well, there'll be bones to pick as the film isn't exactly true to the book; there are major noticeable differences from the book. Also, things are a tad fast-paced but clever intermittent shots of the Whomping Willow give a semblance of time passing (autumn, winter, spring etc.). Plenty of details are left out as was the case with the two previous movies but since it's an adaptation of a 317-page book, it's a flaw we need to overlook. There are additions to the movie that may not go easy with fans like the fact that Dementors have somehow gained the ability to freeze and fly and that Hermione refers to Ron as Ronald at times, just to cite a few.

Despite the glaring faults, I totally enjoyed watching the film. Unlike the two preceding huge dissapointments, Azkaban is pretty decent if you don't put movie and book side by side and compare them outright as the same thing. Storyline wise, well, we all know what's gonna happen, so I shall dispense with a summary of the plot.

The light moments in the movie include the Boggart scene and scenes in which Ron are in. Safe to say, Azkaban is a visual feast. It was nice seeing a Hippogriff in action and the Marauders' Map was brilliant too (had always wondered how it would look like). The cinematography is great as well; I'm totally into the fly-through-glass effect they employed in the the movie.

No review of Azkaban will be complete without mentioning its casts. Dumbledore; I still prefer the late Richard Harris as the good-natured Headmaster who was exactly I imagine would be like in real life. Prof. Trelawney is played brilliantly by Emma Thompson, though the comic relief she is said to provide in the film is overrated. No comments about the others save for Hermione; this other Emma (Watson, for that matter), as more than a friend of mine have put it, is hot. It's not exactly an appropriate term to be associated with an underaged lady, I agree, but I do have to say that she is easy on the eye, very at that. A couple of quotable quotes from my friends who are obsessed about her include "She's the only thing in the movie that's better than in the book" and "Hermione, Hermione, (punctured by drools), Hermione...".

The movie was totally worth watching, notwithstanding the queues, flaws and all. It's definitely a huge improvement over the previous flops.

The photo above shows a posed photo of my youngest brother reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I was pretty demanding when shooting this particular pic; shot more than 5 pics just to get it right but my brother managed it brilliantly. It was his 10th birthday yesterday, so, a happy belated birthday to you, bro!

I can't sign off without mentioning JK Rowling's official website. It's elegantly done in Flash, so you would need the latest Macromedia Flash Player. Dial-up users may grumble as the site does take some time to load but the content is totally worth it. There's a blog-like news section in which Rowling herself pens. Her wit and humour are apparent throughout the whole site. Do check it out.