Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is easily the best movie of the trilogy so far, and the only one that I'd consider seeing twice. However, I departed the theater in some confusion over a couple of key plot points, and a quick glance at Chapters 17-19 of the original novel (which I haven't read) confirmed that the movie, as it stands, is missing a few minutes of exposition at a crucial scene that renders the plot almost, well, nonsensical. The scene was clearly trimmed in the editing room at the last minute, presumably to eliminate a long scene of talk before the climax. Not only does it leave the some important questions unanswered, but it removes a pause in the story necessary to justify Harry's abrupt change of heart about a key supporting character. This lapse of attention on the part of the director is pretty surprising, given Alfonso Cuaron's loving attentiveness to every other frame of this generally rich and satisfying movie. Maybe a reel went missing in the lab?

Anyway, it's genuinely worth seeing once, or even twice. The vague sexual innuendoes that made The Chamber of Secrets such fun are still there in profusion. ("You're supposed to stroke it!") And Emma Watson, who in the first movie was much too huggable at age eleven, and in the second movie was far too huggable at age twelve, has grown surprisingly huggable at age fourteen.