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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 40 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 40
  3. Negative: 0 out of 40
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  1. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Susannah Gora
    100
    Soars gloriously into fluency and magic.
  2. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    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.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    A different kind of Harry Potter movie, a better kind... It's where this fantasy series has wanted to go all along.
  4. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    100
    One of the greatest fantasy films of all time.
  5. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    100
    The most powerfully entrancing children's film in years. Of course, a true kid's classic is just as magical for adults.
  6. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    91
    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.
  7. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    90
    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.
  8. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    90
    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.
  9. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    The right word for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is wondersful -- as in full of wonders, great and small.
    All this critic's reviews
  10. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    90
    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.
  11. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    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.
  12. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    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.
  13. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    88
    With Cuaron leading the way, Harry has burst from the printed page to soar on-screen.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    An entrancing experience for Potter fans. It's a carefully crafted, dreamy immersion in a world that feels snugly familiar even when evil intrudes.
  15. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    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.
  16. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    88
    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.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    [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.
  18. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    In an era when most scripts are written by committees of monkeys, hearing one man's intelligent voice is an almost forgotten pleasure.
  19. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    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.
  20. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Karen Karbo
    83
    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.
  21. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    80
    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.
  22. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    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.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    80
    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.
  24. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Sean Smith
    80
    The result is a film that's really moving--and really moves.
  25. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    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.
  26. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    80
    Enjoy the savory witches' brew that Cuaron has cooked up in his Harry pot. For on its own terms, this one is truly wizard.
  27. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    78
    It helps that J.K. Rowling’s third book in the series is full of spooky stuff that translates beautifully to screen.
  28. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    From its restlessly moving camera work to its heartfelt acting by a splendid cast, "Azkaban" is a horror movie for mature kids.
  29. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    Here, finally, is a Harry Potter picture that lives up to its potential -- that, plainly, LIVES.
  30. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    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.
  31. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    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.
  32. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    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.
  33. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    70
    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.
  34. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    70
    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.
  35. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Nicole Arthur
    70
    It's not perfect, or even close, but it delivers on the promise of J.K. Rowling's novels to a far greater extent.
  36. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    63
    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.
  37. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    Cuaron lets his enthusiasms show.
  38. Empire
    Reviewed by: Colin Kennedy
    60
    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.
  39. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rick Kisonak
    50
    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
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    40
    Put delicately, this is one long sit, made all the more so by a turgid story, a dour visual palette and uninspiring action.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 502 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 215 out of 324
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 324
  3. Negative: 73 out of 324
  1. nboley08
    10
    Might be the best of the series. It's certainly the most impressive visually, as Hogwarts, which sometimes felt as thrilling as a funeral home during Columbus' films, comes vividly alive in the third film. Sirius Black is such an intoxicating and great character, he really ties the movie together greatly. This was arguably Rowling's peak in the series.… Full Review »
  2. grandpajoe6191
    8
    Finally, a harry potter movie that starts childlike and ends with maturity! Bravo Alfonso Cuaron!
  3. Magician
    10
    Nice.
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