Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

so for some strange reason i just NEEDED to see this movie at 12:05 a.m. on an IMAX screen, directors seats--basically means my ass didn't have to wait in line!! reserved seating baby!! now for some reason, i was lead to believe that "director's seats" were the big ass leather seats & alcohol would be served (or a bar was within the theater). i was wrong. i felt all scrunched in my seat, and no alcohol around (probably good cause kids were around). it was stadium seating, so nobody's head was in my way (although, dude in front did not have to sit so far back that i wouldn't have any leg room). now on with my review... i'm not going to give you details of what actually happened within the movie (although feel free to ask-if you really want to know). this is more of what i liked, didn't like, total feel for it. first off the kids are getting stronger as wizards, which was wonderful to see. it's great to see harry become more "emotional" and acting out rather than just taking it. hermoine was absolutely brilliant as she took care of malfoy, and it's good to see ron finally being more confident with his abilities. they are all growing with their characters, and no they don't have to be replaced for the next four movies (we all know that it takes seven years to finish hogwarts). i loved seeing all the emotions the characters had, when harry met sirius face to face, when harry and lupin spoke about his parents...you can tell (and feel) the love they all had for each other. the closeness, it was just beautiful. i didn't particularly like the new dumbledore. he didn't have the grandfather type feel, the spark in his eyes, the closeness with the kids. granted he wasn't in the movie for very long, but still i couldn't feel the connection. there were a lot of parts of the book that weren't included in this movie. well maybe not a lot, but i feel that you needed those parts to fully understand the relationships between the characters. you can't just throw it all in one scene and expect everyone to get it. my suggestion to those that haven't read the book is to first watch it, then ask away. for the most part i remembered everything (well once they got to hogwarts anyway), i just felt it was too fast paced and way too short. i mean, i didn't want it to be over three hours or anything, but you could have explained a few things better so the audience could have a better understanding (if you didn't read). so far this is my favorite out of the three, but my absolute favorite of all the books is four! so i'm waiting around for that movie, now that has everything! so go and watch, this is a pretty "dark" movie so it's not the cheery happy go lucky like in the first two. this is more of a coming of age type deal, and i was lovin it. "those you love never really die, they live on."