Hey Patman, I see you are in Duluth. Did you go see this at the Medlock Bridge theatre? That's where I saw it.

Sorry, I've read the books many times and still like this movie ... it is not Cuaron's fault that so much stuff was cut out, as I'm sure most of that came down to Kloves, the screenwriter. As for JK Rowling suing, I don't think that is going to happen since she has publically stated that this is her favorite movie of the three. I'll admit that there werewolf was probably the worst CG in the film, but it wasn't awful and I don't think it deserves a "retarted" label.

Are you CRAZY?!?!?! Visually, is was 1000% better than the static images Columbus created. I would agree a lot got cut out from the books, but all of the elements are there. It's meant to be a movie based on a book, not a 1 to 1 mapping from book to film. All of the elements of the book were there and put together well.

I LOVE your last comment. You clearly hated it, yet obviously you intend to spend more money on it (ny either buying or renting it) to see the cut scenes. Amazing.

Having seen the movie twice now, some scenes or plot points I wish were included are:

1. More thorough explanation and history of Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, their reason for becoming anamagi, their history with Snape, and a bit more on the shrieking shack (considering it was set up a lot with repeated mentions of it being haunted).

2. Mention of Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff seeker who defeats Harry

3. Mention of how Sirius escapes from Azkaban and the tie-in with the copy of the Daily Prophet featuring the Weasley's (why was this in the movie if it wasn't even used ... cut scenes or an homage to the book?)

4. An emphasis of Trelawney's prediction that a servant is being sent back to the dark lord ... ie, tie Pettigrew in more with Voldemort

Well, I've read the books and I disagree with that statement.

Now what do you have to say?

I agree 100%

Well here are JK Rowling's exact comments on Cuaron and the movie: source: USA Today

Looks to me like JK Rowling was very impressed with Cuaron's vision of Azkaban and loved the movie just as much as the majority of HP fans!

Just so everyone knows, J.K. Rowling had final say on all the changes to plot in this movie...she approved ALL of them, and vetoed some others (see the lastest Entertainment Weekly article for confirmation).

If EVERYTHING had been put in, this would have been a 3 1/2 hour film and you'd all be complaining about how long it was (like most of you were about CHAMBER OF SECRETS). The background of the map was INTENTIONALLY saved for the GOBLET OF FIRE movie, and the Quidditch stuff and studying for finals...while fun...ultimately had little to do with the main story.

i saw harry potter on Friday! and all i can say is GREAT MOVIE!!
it was a great representation of the book! i do think that after reading the book and then going to see the movie you caught alot of things that they cut out. Like the start of the movie started around chapter 2. they cut out diagon alley and thats one of my favorite parts of the book! we got to see more of the school and i love that! this movie was great and for a true harry potter fan not long enough!!!!
i have seen this movie only once but plan on going a few more times! i can't wait for it to come out on DVD and see all of the bounus materials!!!

I'll have to ask those who say that they didn't mind the extreme amount of story, info removed if they enjoy the theater editions more than the Extended editions of the LOTR series.

I enjoyed the movie but I really wanted another 20-30 minutes to the film to flesh out a lot of those skipped over information or that info that was summed up with a sentence only. I felt that you really had to read the books in order to fully understand it all and not scratch your head at the end.

I wont go to the extreme bigdogkt2003 stated and I liked some of the things cauron did, but I didn't like all of them. But I am worried how much will be removed from the next film.

GOBLET OF FIRE doesn't have the Dursleys in it at all...so presumingly it will begin at the Quidditch tournament that Harry goes to with the Weasleys. The good thing about GOBLET OF FIRE is that much of the competition that Harry goes through can probably be taken care of in a 5 minute montage.

I just want to see more moaning myrtle in GoF.

I liked it...the pace of the story felt a little rushed, but in the end a solid cinematic experience.

I believe it was Framestore CFC that did Buckbeak, not ILM.

I do prefer the theatrical edition of The Two Towers. And while the EE of Fellowship is an improvement, the theatrical edition is valuable as a very different experience.

What was your point?

Best Yet, I don't get the complaints to be quite honest, and it didn't feel rushed in the least.

(Note: not a reader of the books, so I don't know what was exised, but as a film it held up very well and had the most solid conclusion of yet (the conclusions for the first two were the weakest aspects))

Aw, you just want to see her gawking at Harry's scrawny naked body. Perve.

Look...in the books, we have real charcters. The kids talk amongst themselves, the plan, try to figure out what is going on, and Harry of late has been getting PO.

They get up, go to classes, survive the day and then sit around and try and put this whole mess into perspective. All the supporting charcters in the book interact with this forumula and kids deal with it.

In all the movies, there is none of that. All that happens is CGI events and we see the kids as that event is taking place. This movie was by far the worse of the bunch. Do we really know any fo the charcters? NO! Just by stupid one liners and little comedic events. Do we know Neville at all? Or the twins?

Or even Ron! In the book he is Harry's straight man, the one who adds a touch of reality and common sense. In the movies he is nothing more than a version of Lou Costello.

Alot of people I notice who have not read the books like the films...good. Stay away from the books then, for while you will marvel at the story unfolding, you will find the movies very unsatifying.

Point: Theater versions, while staying fairly faithful to the books cuts down a lot. The Extended editions bring about a whole lot more information from the books. Much like the theater editions of LOTR, I enjoyed this film. But I really think a lot more from the book could be put into it to make it even more enjoyable.

Ugh...unless I'm mistaken this is the one where the Weasley's tear to pieces the Dursley's living room after using their fireplace.

But how did your initial post evidence this? It seemed like the point you were getting at was that everyone would agree that the EEs were better. I don't agree. And in any case, how does what works for LOTR have any bearing on what would work with Harry Potter?

yes it is, but it's already been said that they will not use the weasley actors in the fourth to save on time and get right into the action of the big game.

Yes, that's correct...it won't be in the movie.

The Weasleys WILL be in the film...they play a big part - particulary Mr. Weasly. The Dursleys (Harrys stepparents) are the ones who WON'T be in the movie.

Ok, now you are stretching it and twisting what I said. The point is this. an extra 20 minutes to this film would have added a lot. We would have realized why potter created what he did. We would have realized the back story a bit more to the connection between the four friends and snapes relationship to them all. We would have hopefully seen the flash back to how sirius was captured, something that really was needed and if they just cut it out in hopes to not show muggles getting hurt then I would hate to see how they will treat the deaths in GoF.

I'm not going to comment on EE's vs TE since I like both equally and well.. there is no mirror image here since Potter will not get a EE. The works of LOTR had the baring in this that while a lot of the information was covered in the Theater version, a lot was left out. In this film a lot was covered, but a lot felt like it was breezed through so quickly with a one or two sentence resolution and some of it felt like they didn't even set it up right. Buckbeak's sentence came out of no where. Sure you saw him attack a student but you weren't aware that haggred was going to go to any court case of any type. Lupin's wolf back ground could have been played with a little more. Sirius needed a lot more hinting at and the main question wasn't even touched. HOW did he escape from azkaban. The readers know, but the viewers going in cold seemed to have been screwed out of that little detail. If this prision was so well guarded and had no escapes ever then an explaination would be nice and it would have added to reinforce the idea of Sirius' animage background which could have tied into why the friends all were able to do this for a friend.