Edit: The answers to this survey question are too funny. Really, I am going to get kicked out of this computer lab.

I have not read any of the Harry Potter books (I've had too many good books turn out to be bad movies, so I don't read them anymore)
-IMDB user

That is the BEST reasoning I have ever heard.

So I saw it yesterday! And I'm feeling really lazy so I'm just going to paste what I wrote about it somewhere else, though it's pretty babbly & badly written.

Americans, go see it at midnight tonight and leave me your thoughts! Really, do; I am pathetic and can think of nothing else.

Don't read any further if you haven't seen it and don't like spoilers!

Where to even start? Azkaban is my favorite of the books, and the movie absolutely does it justice; Cuaron adds his own vision without ruining anything of Rowling's. It is (by far) the best movie so far.

The Dementors -- perfect. Really pretty terrifying. The special effects with their "kiss" is especially good and verrrry creepy.

The newbies: the new Dumbledore is much better than I expected (he had some big shoes to fill!) and is especially effective in his last 2 scenes, when he sends H&H back in time. Gary Oldman's Sirius is perfect, exactly how I imagined the character -- and really quite heartbreaking at the end. I didn't think I'd like David Thewlis' Lupin, but he is very good too. And Emma Thompson's Trelawney! SO freaking hiLArious! She is my favorite actress of all time (well, one of three, along with Meryl Streep and Katharine Hepburn; how could I pick?) and I think she is a brilliant comedienne, though such roles are not what she's best known for. Her Trelawney is dead-on.

Teen angst! Cuaron really plays up the love triangle, which I thought I would find annoying, but it WORKS. Everything absolutely makes sense for the characters, 13-year-olds and close friends as they are. There's a lot here for both Harry/Hermione and Hermione/Ron shippers. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Hermione and Ron are looking at the Shrieking Shack and Hermione says "do you want to move closer?" SO SO funny.

I cried three times. Yes. Of course, I've cried at almost every movie I've ever seen, but there were a lot of emotionally authentic moments. First, when Harry overhears McGonagall, Rosmerta and the MoM's conversation about Sirius betraying his parents and being his godfather, and he sobs and swears he will kill him. Second, when he watches "his father" perform the Patronus. And then when he performs the Patronus, continuously through Sirius' escape and goodbyes to Harry. SO well done.

The kids are really growing into their roles well. I think their acting gets better and better. Dan Radcliffe is doing angsty, angry Harry really well. Rupert Grint is adorable as a wuss (his sleeptalking "tapdancing spiders" bit? so funny). And I think Emma Watson is the best little actor of them all.

And I think the kids are being shown much more realistically. They get to wear their own clothes more -- of course they should be able to wear their own clothes! There are more scenes of the boys just having fun in the dormitory, hanging out -- they're 13-year-olds, this is what they should be doing when they're not fighting You Know Who!

I have to talk about my man Snape. Alan Rickman, esp as Snape, is THE asexiest for me. Oh man, I turn into a slobbering, giggling fool when he's on screen (and, happily, more screentime for him than in HP2). But I want to say that I think he is an absolute good guy, through and through -- which is to say, I think he puts on the act of hating Harry and favoring Draco to stay on the good side of Lucius et al. I think his true nature comes out at the end when he emerges from the whomping willow, starts to grumble "Potter....!" sees the werewolf, and instinctively tries to protect the kids. Also, he's pretty annoyed by Draco in class. Anyway, I think Snape is 100% on the good side, and if not, he's still absolutely dreamy.

Rowling has said that there are things in the movie that inadvertently foreshadow events in book 6 and 7. I can't imagine what they could be. Of course, it's been a while since I read book 3, and I can't remember if the small details were in the book, or if they're Cuaron's invention. For example, were all the crows in the book? They're so a part of the movie they're even on one of the posters. Also, this is a totally dumb theory, but when Harry returns the glass ball to Trelawney, there is a cat on her chair, and she's nowhere to be seen. She completely creeps up on him, and the cat is not seen again in the scene, though one of them is blocking the chair so it's probably still sitting there. Could she be an animagus? I think that's a terrible theory -- there are so few animagi, they can't all teach at Hogwarts, and they can't all be cats.

I think there might be one scene where Harry's scar is on the wrong side of his forehead? I could be wrong, it could be one of those cool mirror tricks Cuaron does so well, but I could swear...

Gripes: doesn't explain the whole "secret keeper" thing well enough, and that's essential. Also, isn't this the book where we find out about Snape's debt to James? They don't say that at ALL, and that's SO important; I think it will be integral to the rest of the series.

Actually, in a lot of ways, this movie wouldn't make much sense if you hadn't read the book. But as I have read the book, I don't mind.

Like I said I haven't read the book in a while so there's probably a few other things I could complain about if the real thing were fresh in my mind. But altogether it's a really tight, well-acted, visually stunning film.

The very end, like literally the last 2 seconds, was unsatisfying, I thought. But the closing credits are very cool.

I know I'm leaving out 20 things I wanted to say, but this is too long, and I'll think of them once you guys get the chance to see it and we can debate!

Potterheads forever!