harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban

in preparation for the newest harry potter movie coming out, my wife wanted to rewatch all the older ones so she could be up to speed on the story so far. i am not a big harry potter fan, but was willing to give it a go out of curiosity. i had seen the first two before and was not at all impressed, but was willing to give this one a chance because i knew it was a different director. turns out its not as bad as the first two. this one follows the gang as they return for their third year of school at hogwarts. there is an escaped prisoner from the high security prison called azkaban who seems to be after none other than our hero harry. the story follows the kids as they try to uncover who this guy is and why he might be after harry. turns out its a man by the name of serius black, and he has a history with the potter family. he was imprisoned for the murder of harry's parents, but he's trying to come back to put right his false imprisonment and find the one who is actually responsible. there are some fun parts in this film, such as the playing with time travel and the kids starting to find their place in this world of magic. the cast is fantastic, with all the great british actors filling in the roles of the adults and teachers. the best of which is gary oldman, playing the escaped convict. even the kids begin to grow into their roles as actors. i'm still not sold on the harry potter world, as it just seems formulaic and seems to take so much from other books. this was more evident in the first two films, but still lingers on in this story as well.