Many would argue that Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best film of the Harry Potter
series, myself included. It worked so well due to its darker tone and beautiful
direction and cinematography. It recognised that its characters were growing
and the story itself was maturing into a darker tale. Alfonso Cuaron did a
masterful job of acknowledging this. However something in the film has always
bothered me so here we go. Spoilers ahead!
We are introduced to the scar faced Remus Lupin, a character
we later learn is a werewolf. We see what he fears most during the Boggart
scene in the form of a full moon. There are constant werewolf references in
Snape’s Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. Having watched it again I found
these hints almost insultingly blatant.
In the book Remus explains that the Whomping Willow was
planted the same year he arrived at Hogwarts. It doesn’t go into detail only
that a young boy was nearly blinded by it, after which all students were
forbidden to go near it. Later on his Boggart is described only as ‘a silvery
orb hanging in the air’ one of Harry’s classmates even suggests that it could
be a crystal ball. It’s very subtly described and you’re left wondering why
this is his biggest fear. Werewolves and Lupin’s tendency to be ill once a
month is also referenced throughout but never in great detail.
Cinematically it is difficult to drop hints like this as we
are only given visuals. I’ll reference The Sixth Sense here when explaining that
when setting up a film’s twist you should work smarter not harder. Place your
character in a situation that very subtly suggests to the audience that
something is being hidden from them. In The Sixth Sense Bruce Willis’ character
has dinner with his wife and she appears to not to be listening to him. The
subtly made the film infinitely more watchable, as next time you view this
scene from a totally different perspective.
Plot twists are Shyamalan’s biggest curse because he seems
to have forgotten how to execute them. Cuaron is no Shyamalan by any stretch
but the best Harry Potter film would have been that much more enjoyable had he
lightly applied these hints so the film’s eventual payoff is that much more
satisfying.
Thanks for reading guys I hope you share my thoughts on
this. Yeah this blog was a bit pointless but I thought it was just interesting
to talk about plot twists today.
If you liked this blog you’ll probably (definitely) LOVE my
new podcast Blanketbros, where we talk films, TV and news relating to those two
broad and daunting things!
