azkaban is my first too!
im a movie potter fan too, my sisters always tell me to read the book but i want to be surprised in the movie, maybe ill read them some time when i dont remeber the movies so well

Prisoner of Azkaban is one of the greatest films I have ever seen. Ever. Really. Ever. Really! What amazes me about Cuaron is how thoroughly complete a filmmaker he is in every aspect. He makes contact with the kids in a way no one else does and is able to suck out the best performance from any actor, period; he is an amazing screenwriter (a la Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien); and he physically structures his films in a way that most other directors would never dream of. In Prisoner of Azkaban, one of the important thematic plot devices is the concept of time, which is an extremely abstract concept to say the least. But Cuaron gives time a physical space within the film to make it (at least subconsciously) easier to identify. He invents an entire clock tower that wasn't in the other films, which is a literal manifestation of the time theme, and which almost becomes another character itself in that film (as well as all subsequent films). Additionally, and I didn't notice this until about the tenth time I saw the film, the place where Harry, Ron and Hermione witness Buckbeak's execution is, in fact, a giant sundial. I about pissed my pants when I realized that. Pure fucking genius.

azkaban is by far the best so far. I didn't mind the addition of extra material not in the books because it was not really "Plot" material...

Beware, Half Blood Prince spoilers ahead!

only joking...spoilers go to the special hell with pdeophiles and people who talk during movies.

havent seen or read any potter yet - but I'm sure I'll experience it like Chris

I did not like Phoenix. Too much that was in teh book was not included in the movie. One of the best parts of the book was when Fred and George announced that they were dropping out, and they told Peeves to "give [Umbridge] hell for us..." It was absolutely hilarious what he did in response. That movie would have been fucking great if only it had shown Peeves terrorizing Umbridge, and McGonagall helping him.

FUCK! THE RING GETS TOSSED IN THE LAVA?

Thanks for ruining lord of the rings for me.

I actually can't get into the Potter books - I tried the first one more than one, and it read like a kid's book to me. Which of course is what it is. But it was just too precious (?) for me. But I *adore* the hell out of these movies. I have not seen the newest yet, but that's the plan for the weekend.

Azkaban is definitely the best! I'm glad others agree as well. I only have one complaint about the movie - Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs!

Thats my favorite part in the book too! Best Quote "It unscrews the other way"

I guess I'm the only one, but Azkaban was my favorite book, and my least favorite movie.

The Problem with Order of the Phoenix is that its all set up, set up, set up. With very little in the way of resolution. It was one gigantic Anti-Climax. When it actually starts getting good(the end battle), its over...it has a lot of good pieces, its just that they all dont seem to make a whole, its not very cohesive, and seems to merely move from one thing to the next with very little in the way of a throughline of plot to hold it together. It looks nice, but lacks that x-factor that made earlier entries stand on thier own.

Agreeing with the majority in saying Azkaban is clearly the apex of the film series thus far, however I feel that Secrets was clearly the turd of the crop. I personally would swap Phoenix and Snakes In A Castle on your little rank list.

As someone who has not read any of the books I have to ask if Draco Malfoy's character is simply omitted from the movie scripts and present in the novels, or did JK just decide to sort of ignore his character past the first few installments?

Well if they want the next movie to work, they better deal with Draco...

I do have to say the battle in Order of the Phoenix is just awesome in IMAX 3D.

I was rather impressed that they did a magic duel, did it quickly, did it well, and there was no gratuitous special effects. It wasn't the usual "hey, we'll have people waving hands and do all the effects we know how to do, plus some" - the effects were there to support the story, not the other way around.

However all the movies gloss over the character's motivations and most of the important subtle interactions (except for the first book, where there weren't any)

And yes, Draco is mainly just the token pain-in-the-ass in both the books and the movies.

christ, I have to work 9PM-1AM tonight for the HP release @ work...i don't understand those nerds who'll waste a whole day wanting to be the first in line...hell, there were 3 college-age girls who camped outside the store at 11PM last night, just to be the first ones