Review analysis

 This review is written by Empire magazine.
The reviewer acknowledges the audience that its Harry's third year at Hogwarts by giving a short synopsis of what the Prisoner of Azkaban is about.

At the bottom of the subheading the reviewer gives a star rating of 4 out of 5. There are also social media network sites to share the review.

Paragraph 1-  The reviewer talks about Chris Colombus' film Bicentennial Man. The reviewer goes on to talk about Chris Colombus as he directed the first two Harry Potter films. He talks about how Chris created a worldwide audience for the first two films.

Paragraph 2- However, in the second paragraph the reviewer talks about how the new director Alfonso Cuaron took over the Harry Potter series and gave something better that was lacking from the 'Colombus era'

Paragraph 3- Colin makes reference to the locations of the film. From the Dursley's house to Hogwarts in Scotland's Glen Coe. He criticises the way the Dursley's house is shown however, highly complements the location of Scotland's Glen Coe as he believes that it goes well with the concept of the magical kingdom in the muggle nation.

Paragraph 4- Colin Kennedy gives a positive review on Alfonso Cuaron's experimentation of using different wide angle lenses to direct and also using ideas that aren't originally in the books.

Paragraph 5- Gary Oldman and David Thewlis are mentioned (Professor Lupin and Sirius black)

Verdict- Colin Kennedy finishes the review by complementing Cuaron's work.
Kennedy finishes off giving the movie an overall 4 out of 5 stars.
Colin Kennedy is also a well known writer/journalist as he is the editor of Empire Magazine.

At the top both reviewer's and the user's ratings are shown to be 4 out of 5 stars.
This review was written from a BBC reviewer. There is also the PG rating.

Paragraph 1- Nev Pierce starts by complementing the film by saying that it is 'funny, thrilling and enchanting'.
He goes on to talk about the 'Prisoner of Azkaban' Siruis Black and also complements David Thewlis (Lupin) for his acting. This reviewer also gives a small synopsis of Harry's motive in the film.








Paragraph 2- Nev makes reference to the Lord of the Rings, Black riders and compares them to the dementors due to the similarities. He talks about the main characters in this film and Sirius (Prisoner of Azkaban).
Nev talks about how Alfonso Cuaron had a better insight in directing the Harry Potter films. Due to his directing, Nev believes that the audience are able to gain a more realistic insight into the world of magic in Hogwarts.

Paragraph 3- 'The sets are spectacular'
Nev complements how the legendary creature, the Hippogryff (Buckbeak) looks realistic to the audience as this creature was made using CGI. He also mentions the Marauder map and explains what it does inside Hogwarts. This helps readers gain an insight into the fantasy genre of Harry Potter as these items are essential in portraying this particular genre. Nev quotes that these magical items will 'grab young imaginations'. This can show that these films may be targeted at a younger audience.


At the end of the review, Nev gives end credits of the main actors, the director, genre, length etc. This is all important information for audiences that haven't watched the film.

Poster analysis

USP: The unique selling point of the film is all three actors on the poster. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have also starred in two more previous Harry Potter films. This may appeal to the audience more.

 The tag line of the film. This tagline can be related to the images that are shown beneath it. The portal with the dementor may show that the wickedness can possibly be coming from the portal.

Target audience: The rating of this film is PG. This means that anyone can watch the film with parental guidance. This can be because many scenes in the film may be scary for younger viewers to watch.

The facial expression on Harry’s face shows that he’s cautious. Hermione’s facial expression shows us that she looks slightly intrigued but shocked. Ron’s facial expression shows us that he is frightened.

 The picture of the dementor may imply that this is a fantasy. This is because they are not real life creatures.

Also the colour of the background is black which may symbolize a dark fantasy film.

 The title of the film in based on the main character. We can also see that the image of Harry is slightly bigger than the other characters which can show that he is the main character. The scar on Harry’s head also corresponds to the scar on the letter P of the title.

The lightning bolt on the P resembles with the scar on Harry’s forehead.  The font of the title has been the same of the previous two films. This can attract fans carrying on the Harry Potter trilogy.

Textual analysis

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón
Genre: Fantasy, Science fiction
Release: June 4^th 2004

The equilibrium is when Harry is in his aunt and uncle’s home. This shows the normality of his everyday life.

The disruption occurs when a dementor comes to his train carriage and makes him unconscious, while hearing a scream of a woman. 

The recognition occurs when Harry realises that he has to do something to protect himself from the dementors.

To repair this problem, Harry gets help from a Professor Lupin to help defeat the dementors. 

 

In the end of the film Harry eventually defeats the dementors by going back in time to fix things properly. 

By travelling back in time Harry and Hermione were able to save Buckbeak's life. This is the new equilibrium. 

Characters: 
Harry is one of the main characters in the film. He has been targeted by the dementors because he mentions Sirius Black’s name. This is because Sirius Black has been imprisoned for many crimes that he supposedly committed.

Ron Weasley is one of Harry’s best friends. He has a fear of many things and tries to show bravery.

Hermione Granger is Harry’s other best friend and she is also the brain of the group. She has tactical ideas on what do when they are faced with a situation. For e.g. she time travelled  hours back in the day with Harry so that he can fix things.

Dumbledore is the professor of Hogwarts. He guides Hermione and Harry to go back in time and fix everything.

Mise-en-scene:There are many locations throughout the film. The first location we see is Harry’s aunt and uncles house. Another location was the train. 

Hogwarts is another location where many scenes are filmed. These scenes show us the fantasy genre of the film.

The classrooms also portray a fantasy genre as there are potions and spell books in the classes. 

Props: There is a variety of magical props that are typical of the fantasy genre. Harry and Voldemort’s wands are typical of the dark fantasy genre.

The time turner is a crucial prop in the film as it is used to help Harry and save Buckbeak too.This prop is typical of the fantasy sci-fi genre.

The Marauder map is a map of the entire school and also where Harry can see everyone’s footsteps. 

Harry's invisible cloak helped him enter a restricted area where he found the teachers revealing a dark secret. This prop is typical of the fantasy genre as it is not something you can use in a real situation and it shows us that it is magical. 

Sound:
The music was anticipated, loud, dark music. There were medieval influences of music. This was non diegetic sound.
There was Hedwig's theme song that was used in the first two Harry Potter films. 



Editing:
For editing CGI (computer generated imagery) was used to create the dementors and Buckbeak. 

Bullet time is also used in the scene where Harry is put on the Knight bus and taken to the Leaky Cauldron.

STORYLINE: The story follows Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts as he is informed that a prisoner named
Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban and wants to murder him.

There were many binary oppositions I found in the film such as Good vs Bad, Loyalty vs Betrayal, Truth vs Lies and Strong vs Weak. The main binary opposition is Good vs Bad. In this film, Harry gets help from a professor to help him learn a spell that will affect the dementors.
Loyalty vs Betrayal- Peter Pettigrew broke Harry's mum and dad's trust by selling them to Voldemort. 
Strong vs Weak- At the end of the film the dementors are strong to perform the kiss on Siruis and Harry, making them weak at this point.
Truth vs Lies- Harry and Hermione find out that Sirius is innocent. Harry finds out that Professor lies to him about Sirius at first. 

This is a medium shot where Hermione begins to turn the time turner. Harry is confused to what the time turner does. This time turner has significance to time travel. 

In this shot we can see a close up of the time turner as Hermione is turning it. This combines well with our film as the     main character, Kate turns a watch to travel back in time. 

This is the sequence from the film whereby Harry and Hermione are time travelling. During this time travel, Harry and Hermione travel back to the beginning of the day so that they can fix what had happened to Buck beak and to Sirius. This relates well to our film as we also portray Kate time travelling back to the past to fix the argument she had with Lily.