by MARK SLUTSKY

Harry Potter mania continues! It's been a year and a half since the Hogwarts gang's last outing, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, while enjoyable enough in a Sunday-afternoon-on-the-couch way, wasn't too different from the first film (in particular in its sense of being too long). Maybe it's best to put the blame for that on author J.K. Rowling's shoulders, as the second book in the series was a bit of a re-hash.

Regardless, the Potter production team has made a smart move in switching gears for the third installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Chris Columbus, director of the first two, has stepped back into a producing role, handing the reins to Alfonso Cuarón, best known as the director of the sexy hit Y Tu Mamá También.

Luckily for worried parents everywhere, Cuarón hasn't added any threesomes to Azkaban's already-crowded plot. What he has brought to the franchise is a pleasing update to the movies' lush, CGI-crowded style, adding a bit of Lord of the Rings-ish darkness to the colour palette and generally giving the movie a heavier atmosphere than its predecessors. He also knows how to hurry things along - Azkaban runs at over two hours, while the previous Potter films were in the three-hour range.

The movie starts, as did the first two, with our hero Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) miserable in the land of the Muggles (i.e. the non-magic-enhanced humans), spending his summer vacation at the home of his vile aunt and uncle. A series of mishaps brings him back to Hogwarts, now guarded by a phalanx of spooky Dementors, ragged-cloaked, soul-stealing beings on the lookout for Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), a notorious criminal on the loose who apparently has a vendetta against Potter. Of course his friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) are back, and the three get to the business of figuring out exactly what's going on. (Which turns out to be quite a bit, involving hippogriffs, werewolves, magic maps, secret tunnels and the like.)

A bonus with the Potter movies is their wicked supporting casts, drawn from the first rank of British thesps. Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane and Maggie Smith, among others, are back, now joined by Michael Gambon (standing in for the late Richard Harris as Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore), David Thewlis, and Emma Thompson, who, incidentally, steals the show as the flaky Professor Trelawney.

The cast, the amazing visuals, the shortened running time - this really all should have added up to the perfect Potter movie. But something isn't quite right. As much as I appreciated the movie's brevity, I also had the distinct feeling of being rushed along from one plot point to another - a staple of misfired page-to-screen adaptations. Cuarón lingers on nothing, leaving no time for the plot points to sink in, and he leaves a lot unexplained. Though this is overall a strong entry in the series, it does feel a bit too businesslike.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opens Friday, June 4

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