This is one movie for Harry Potter fans. It’s dark, it’s on the edge, and it’s entirely magical – literally. Way darker than the previous 3 installments. I think even pirates would probably have difficulty making bootleg copies of this, although this doesn’t mean that they can’t. Pirates these days, being as ingenious as they come, will be able to find ways to overcome the darkness of it all.

It most certainly helps to have read the book / books which followed the series up till this point. Then again, it’s still ok if you haven’t watched / read any of the books. As long as you understand that the show is about a boy going to school, that’s probably good enough. Oh course, it’ll be good to note that it’s no ordinery school this boy in particular is going to, but a school of magic.

However, I guess the scriptwriters tried to pack as much as possible into two and a half hours of footage, and tried to be as true to the book as possible. Not much screen time was devoted to explain at the start of the show, how Harry Potter got to be with Hermione and Ron. Not much of the Quiddich World Cup was explained too, only that it regarded as highly as the Olympics or the Soccer World Cup. Even the aftermath of the world cup didn’t really make much sense to me. Either that, or perhaps I was too engrossed in the visuals of the show.

At least a little bit of screen time was devoted to explaining the works of the Tri Wizards Tournament for not-so Harry Potter fans like myself. Rightfully so, since the majority of this installment is focused on the tournament itself. The Ball at the middle of the show seemed a little out of place compared to the main theme initially. But I guess it was to highlight the fact that even all-powerful wizards and all-powerful wizards-to-be were as normal as everyone else.

Nothing was explained regarding the sequence of events leading up to the start of the movie. How the characters managed to get to where they were. Even the supposed escape from Azkaban wasn’t explained, It wasn’t central to the plot line of the movie, but I guess a little additional info wouldn’t hurt. Of course, that would probably up the running time of the show to 3 hours. One thing’s for sure, Albus Dumbledore seems to more “active” in this installment compared to the previous 3 movies. Mr V seems a bit of a let down though. I’d expect him to be … a little more sinister perhaps?

Still, it’s a movie worth catching. There’s the cool visual effects, there’s Harry Potter, there’s Hermione Granger and then there’s Cho Chang.