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The latest Harry Potter movie, the Prisoner of Azkaban, is a definate step in the right direction compared to the previous two films. Alfonso Cuar?n directs this edition and is forced to condense the lengthly novel into a mere 2.5 hours, which has some significant benefits; there is much less tedious exposition and explanation – although I felt there were still some sequences which could have been cut. His darker style fits well with the material and some of the effects are really well done (the Dementors are very effective and many of the background bits and pieces are unobtrusive but lend a sparkle, although the CGI werewolf is a bit too Scooby-Doo). There is also a nice bit of Back To The Future-esqe time travelling which is good fun and nicely edited.

Overall: a big improvement over the yawn-fest of the previous Potter films; still nothing more than a popcorn picture but a pleasant surprise.

[for ratings and review of other films see the reviews page]

“Inspired by” Isaac Asimov’s classic collection of short stories, I Robot treads the familiar path of robots taking over the world.

The result is a fun, fast-paced action movie which isn’t quite as dumb as it looks – but which also misses out on the opportunity to really do something different. Will Smith does a decent enough job as the paranoid and racist Detective Spooner, and Bridget Moynahan also does well with Susan Calvin’s character (although the script misses the significance of Calvin’s contribution in Asimov’s original books) – and the CGI robots are also very well done, especially with the translation of Alan Tudyk’s acting for the humanoid robot Sonny.

The downsides: the look of the movie is fairly unimaginative (large video screens on buildings, slightly restyled cars on automated highways – a lighter, cleaner Blade Runner universe) and the product placement is horrific: I reckon they were very close to adding a line for Smith’s character saying “Hey kids, buy your 2004 Converse sneakers now and look as cool as me!”

Overall I enjoyed the film but forgot most of it within five minutes of leaving the cinema; as summer action films go, not too bad.

The second film in the Spider-Man series shows Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) becoming tired of his Spiderman role – but can it replicate the energy, humour and visceral action of the first?

Spider-Man 2 deals out a healthy dose of angst and suffering, as Peter is trying to juggle a pizza delivery job, his studies, finding the rent, saving citizens from lots of criminals and stopping himself from lusting for the clearly desperate Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Into this mix is added the unusually complex villan of the piece, “Doc Ock” (played with enthusiasm by Alfred Molina) whose metallic appendages are controlling his mind! The action is just as good as in the previous outing, and there’s a lot of character development / drama scenes which show up the usual two-dimensional portraits in most action movies.

A thoroughly enjoyable summer movie which almost surpasses the original – and also bonus points for the opening titles which give an elegant solution to the problem of “as previously seen in Spider-Man…”

[for ratings and review of other films see the reviews page]