Review Detail

Having been a big fan of Andreas first edit, I was really looking forward to this one and I wasn't disappointed. This is such an upgrade over the theatrical version. I hadn't watched that since my daughter was five. It's the worst one in the series in my opinion. The audio and visual editing was superbly done. I didn't remember the theatrical cut very well and there was so much that was just "better" without me being able to tell what's changed. That's the goal. I really liked the color grading. It's not the ideal way I'd want a movie to look but it ties in really well with the later entries in the series.

Some random things I liked:
The polyjuice potion transformation looks better than I remember. Not sure if that's my memory or some fx touch-ups.
The inclusion of Azkaban as a hellish nightmare of a place. Huge improvement.
The overall tone of everything. The music did wonders.
Highlights of the score for me: when Ernie et al are talking about Harry after the parseltongue scene, the cue after McGonagall says "it's out of my hands, Potter," Phoenix scene, use of Voldemort theme, the Gilderoy confrontation, how it stops for Harry's line in that scene, when Tom Riddle's true identity is revealed, the music over Dumbledore speaking at the end that takes us into Azkaban

Nitpicks:
Dobby was still sliiiightly too pink for me compared to later movies (this is pretty subjective)
Cut to Hagrid's hut does feel slightly abrupt. Like it feels like we should definitely see them in the exterior hut. BUT the tradeoff is getting the hut from later films and I do think that is worth it.
The really strange wipe between the gorgeous sweeping snow shot and the scene where Gryffindor is giving Harry grief. I'm not sure if that's in the original or not.

Overall, this was great. Those nitpicks are extremely minor. I will watch Andreas' edits and then pick up with PoA from now on.