> > I don't recall a metal group breaking into "song" in the middle of the Yule Ball.

Ugh, that was terrible. But I echo your general feeling that the movie was good. They cut out a TON -- Bagman, Percy, and the house elves are utterly absent, for example -- but the cuts allowed the movie to take its time with what it did include. While tightly edited, the movie didn't feel as rushed as the second and third episodes except in the opening World Cup scenes, which went by like a whirlwind.

> I like this new director MUCH better than the last one, of course, that don't take much.

We have absolutely polar opposite viewpoints on this one. What was wrong with Cuaron? He was, I think, the ONLY director so far that's had a cohesive and compelling style that accentuated the material instead of simply staying out of its way. Newell does share one strength with Cuaron that eludes the overblown and heavyhanded Columbus -- both the third and fourth episodes were great at enhancing the character scenes with psychological depth. And Newell was wonderful with the light, humorous moments, better than Columbus or Cuaron. But he was uncomfortable with the action scenes, which ultimately work but lack the tension and impact of Cuaron's film.

An example: when Harry and the dragon go down, and the crowd waits to see if one or both reappear, then Harry pops into view to the appropriate musical cue -- well, for one, this is a terrible cliche; two, it is awkwardly unemotional, thanks in part to the editing, which is too muddled at that point to convey what needs to be a crisp and clear beat, and in part to the photography, which is too much in long shot. Long shots are objective and impersonal and very much inappropriate for the moment. We can blame Steve Kloves, the screenwriter, for including that scene at all (but he's done a fantastic job on the series, so he can be forgiven for a minor slip), but Newell is to blame for shooting it all wrong.

All this is splitting hairs, to a point. All four movies are exceptional if flawed films. But I think the Prisoner of Azkaban was the only one whose success owes as much to the director as to the source material.