Critics spellbound by third Potter flick

Critics have been spellbound by the third Harry Potter movie The Prisoner of Azkaban.

The JK Rowling blockbuster, which opens in Ireland on Monday, takes a darker trun than the first two films.

Teenage angst runs through the plot as Harry enters his junior year at Hogwarts.

Convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped the wizards’ prison at Azkaban and it seems he’s coming after Harry.

Daniel Radcliffe’s performance as a more cynical and angst-ridden teenager has been greeted as “fantastic”.

In the Daily Mirror newspaper, a critic wrote that after the “over-elaborate disappointment” of second film The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban was “a return to form”.

The anonymous critic wrote: “This dazzling Potter spectacular is different, darker – but it’s still the stuff of magic.”

Harry Potter is a “new-look, deep-voiced, angst-ridden teenager with a serious score to settle.

“But he’s back in such sensational style that his millions of adoring fans will still be wild about Harry.”

The critic says: “Light and trite it isn’t. But new director Alfonso Cuaron’s bold plunge into the world of wizardry’s darker side has produced an absorbing film with a very different flavour from Harry’s first two big-screen adventures.”

Newsweek said: “The real reason this third film in the series outshines the others is that it’s about something more frightening than failing your potions final or facing Lord Voldemort. It’s about being 13.”

The magazine said the director came up with an inventive way of getting 14-year-old Radclffe to appear awed for one of the scenes.

He told him “pretend you’re seeing Cameron Diaz in a G-string.”

Radcliffe’s appearance and that of co-star Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, has totally transformed since the second Harry Potter instalment.

Film website Ain’t it Cool News describes Watson as a “mini, adolescent Grace Kelly” while Newsweek says Radcliffe is “totally crushworthy”.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes: “The Prisoner of Azkaban is more sinister, more magical, and some will say much more cinematic than the first two.”