Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban

Being an overly obsessed HP fan, I bide my time before going to see the movies. I'm not an opening night junky - although seeing kids compare it to the book, with the movie falling short always tickles my funny bone. No, I'd rather wait until the house isn't going to be packed, so I am free to express whatever criticism come to mind with the poor person who was willing to go with me. (I feel for them as I have one of those detail soaked brains that is capable of not only telling you that the dialogue isn't verbatium, but what it should have been.) It makes for an interesting time at the show. But last night as I waited for the events I knew were to occur, I thought of something. J.K. is part of the process. Some of the deviations were brilliantly appropriate. If I change my prospective just a bit, rather than a travesty that ruins the movie, I could see it as a tickle for those individuals like myself. How else can we be thrilled and amazed by plot twists when we know the very next word that will be said? The visual of the movie merely serves to emphasis the points that the medium cannot. Its limitations are such that developement must be faster -- 2 1/2 hours rathers than 433 pages. The characters must manuever through their scenes in the extreme ends of their personalities. Action packed though it is, the book still contains more that has been left out. If taken simply for a movie, and not a knock-off of a book, it was well done, well developed and well, decent. But the book was still better.