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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Warner Bros.
FILM:
GAMES:
MPAA RATING: PG for frightening moments, creature violence and mild language
Starring
Daniel Radcliffe,
Emma Watson,
Rupert Grint,
Gary Oldman,
David Thewlis,
Robbie Coltrane,
Emma Thompson,
and
Julie Christie
In this third installment of the series, the infamous Sirius Black has escaped from the dreaded fortress of Azkaban and is headed straight to Harry Potter.
| GENRE(S): |
Adventure
|
Family/Kids
|
Fantasy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Steven Kloves
J.K. Rowling (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Alfonso Cuarón
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 23, 2004
Video: November 23, 2004
Theatrical: June 4, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
136 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
A different kind of Harry Potter movie, a better kind... It's where this fantasy series has wanted to go all along.
100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The Prisoner of Azkaban is to Harry Potter what that other No. 3, "Goldfinger," was to James Bond: the movie that takes the invention and gamesmanship of the series to a whole new giddy peak.
100
Premiere
Susannah Gora
Soars gloriously into fluency and magic.
100
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
One of the greatest fantasy films of all time.
100
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
The most powerfully entrancing children's film in years. Of course, a true kid's classic is just as magical for adults.
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Potter 3 is, in its heart of hearts, a teenage angst movie...Cuaron has done a masterful job of bringing off this shift in the Potter paradigm without disrupting any disruption in the established style of the series and without any pandering concessions to the teen-movie genre.
90
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Like the first two movies, this is loaded with computer-generated imagery, but for the first time there's a sense of dramatic proportion balancing the spectacle and the story line.
90
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The right word for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is wondersful -- as in full of wonders, great and small.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
A deeper, darker, visually arresting and more emotionally satisfying adaptation of the J.K. Rowling literary phenomenon, achieving the neat trick of remaining faithful to the spirit of the book while at the same time being true to its cinematic self.
90
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
The best of the Harry Potter films so far, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is also hands down the scariest, and the deepest.
88
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
With Cuaron leading the way, Harry has burst from the printed page to soar on-screen.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Not only is this dazzler by far the best and most thrilling of the three Harry Potter movies to date, it's a film that can stand on its own even if you never heard of author J.K. Rowling and her young wizard hero.
88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
An entrancing experience for Potter fans. It's a carefully crafted, dreamy immersion in a world that feels snugly familiar even when evil intrudes.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
In an era when most scripts are written by committees of monkeys, hearing one man's intelligent voice is an almost forgotten pleasure.
88
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
[Cuaron]'s a visionary and crafty storyteller who rewards your patience, not with twists in the plot, though the movie has its share, but with pure feeling. Deploying wit, grace, and artistry, he's whisked a kid flick into adolescence.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Is Prisoner of Azkaban as good as the first two films? Not quite. It doesn't have that sense of joyously leaping through a clockwork plot, and it needs to explain more than it should. But the world of Harry Potter remains delightful, amusing and sophisticated.
88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Who would think Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban could be an art film? Thanks to director Alfonso Cuaron, a dazzling storyteller with a keen eye for whimsical detail, the third film in the Potter franchise is a visual delight.
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
This movie belongs to its young stars, who have grown immensely as actors since they were first ideally cast by Chris Columbus, the hack who directed the first two movies.
83
Portland Oregonian
Karen Karbo
Much has been made about the fact that the world's most popular fictional children are growing up and straight into that horror-filled no man's land of the human life span, puberty.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Shot in spooky gradations of silver and shadow, The Prisoner of Azkaban is the first movie in the series with fear and wonder in its bones, and genuine fun, too.
80
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
In the Harry Potter film series thus far, The Sorcerer's Stone remains the strongest, perhaps because the first look at any rich new world is almost always going to be more groundbreaking than its sequels. But Prisoner of Azkaban is a worthy and stylistically different follow-up, where Chamber of Secrets often felt like an unimaginative retread.
80
Slate
David Edelstein
In Cuarón's hands, the world of Harry Potter doesn't feel like a synthetic movie theme park anymore. It's almost real, Hogwarts and all.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Azkaban breaks free of all these shackles in its final hour. Working with the persuasive Thewlis and Oldman, able to focus his gifts on what's distinctive, dramatic and surprising about the story, Cuarón creates on screen the heartfelt magic that has enthralled so many on the page.
80
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
This film may disappoint some dogmatic Old Hogwartsians: a few plot points have been sacrificed, and Mr. Cuarón does not seem to care much for Quidditch. But it more than compensates for these lapses with its emotional force and visual panache.
80
Newsweek
Sean Smith
The result is a film that's really moving--and really moves.
80
Time
Richard Corliss
Enjoy the savory witches' brew that Cuaron has cooked up in his Harry pot. For on its own terms, this one is truly wizard.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marrit Ingman
It helps that J.K. Rowling’s third book in the series is full of spooky stuff that translates beautifully to screen.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
From its restlessly moving camera work to its heartfelt acting by a splendid cast, "Azkaban" is a horror movie for mature kids.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Although Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban stands well enough on its own, it has a "middle chapter" feeling. In other words, there's no real beginning or ending. Little is resolved and the film's climax is low-key.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
In the end, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban offers what neither of its predecessors, for all their wand-waving and witch-brooms, had: real magic.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Here, finally, is a Harry Potter picture that lives up to its potential -- that, plainly, LIVES.
70
Washington Post
Nicole Arthur
It's not perfect, or even close, but it delivers on the promise of J.K. Rowling's novels to a far greater extent.
70
Variety
Brian Lowry
Visually dazzling and considerably darker than the prior incarnations, the story suffers from a slightly disjointed feel that will prove less accessible to those not intimately familiar with every corner of author J.K. Rowling's world.
70
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
A mild upkick in pacing and texture can be credited to director Alfonso Cuarón (more Little Princess than Y Tu Mamá), who avoids Chris Columbus's mastodon-like setups and knows a bit more about whipping up atmospherics.
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
With shades of Carrie, Harry's magical powers and adolescent angst make a combustible fusion, taking on frightening, vengeful implications that Cuarón honors by refusing to airbrush the shadowy regions of fantasy.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
From my doddering perspective - rheumy with a view - Volume 3 puts plenty of cinema into the picture but leeches all the charm out of the tale.
60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Cuaron lets his enthusiasms show.
60
Empire
Colin Kennedy
Azkaban contains both the longest denouement and the most rousing finish of any of the books, and Cuarón wisely whips through the 'ah-hahs' so that the clever climax, complete with the series' best SFX, can enjoy its moment in the moonlight.
50
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
If my moviegoing experience was magical in any way, it was only in that I once or twice nodded off for a spell.
40
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Put delicately, this is one long sit, made all the more so by a turgid story, a dour visual palette and uninspiring action.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 348 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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