IT'S third time lucky for Harry Potter. Under the tutelage of Mexican director Alfonso Cuarn (Y Tu Mama Tambien), the boy wizard comes magically to life on the big screen.

For the first time, we have a filmmaker who understands the dark, foreboding undercurrents in JK Rowling's writing.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban begins, like the book, in the leafy surroundings of Privet Drive.

Following an altercation with Uncle Vernon (Richard Griffiths) and his bullying sister Aunt Marge (Pam Ferris), Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) heads back to Hogwarts with best friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint). The school is abuzz with news of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), a convicted killer who has escaped from Azkaban and is making his way to Hogwarts to kill the boy wizard.

Thankfully, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) has permitted the prison's guards, the hideous Dementors, to be stationed around the school grounds.

Should Black attempt to gain access to the school, he will be set on by the Dementors and his soul sucked from his body.

Harry soon learns the truth about the convicted killer and Black's links with the new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin (David Thewlis).

More shocking secrets are revealed, culminating in a life-or-death encounter between Harry and the Dementors.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban is the most compelling and thrilling adventure in the series to date, stripped bare of the gloss and sentimentality which blighted the first two films.

You actually feel that Harry's life is in jeopardy as he comes face-to-snout with a slavering werewolf, then tries to conjure the Patronus charm to banish the Dementors.

Cuarn sets the ominous tone early on with the showdown between Harry and Aunt Marge that plays even more like a scene from Roald Dahl on film, laced with delicious black humour.

The director builds the tension nicely with the first appearance of a Dementor on the Hogwarts Express at night, visible in the flashes of lightning from outside. The gnarled creatures cast a long, deathly shadow over the entire film, brought vividly to life by the special effects department.

Light and shadow are used to striking effect by director of photography Michael Seresin, giving the entire film a more forbidding, eerie quality.

Radcliffe is, at last, beginning to relax in front of the cameras, finally showing us glimmers of Harry's anguish and vulnerability.

Watson is terrific, relishing Hermione's pivotal role in the film's final act, while Grint once again demonstrates his impeccable comic timing.

Oldman gleefully toys with the two sides of his character and Thewlis is a delight. Children everywhere will wish they too had a teacher as nurturing as Professor Lupin.

Screenwriter Steve Kloves remains largely faithful to Rowling's book, galloping through the big set-pieces including a visit to the wizarding village of Hogsmeade, a memorable encounter with the Whomping Willow and a trip to the Shrieking Shack.

Unfortunately, for the sake of expediency, he removes a lot of the plotting and character development.

The Quidditch season is reduced to just one match and Hogwarts' curriculum no longer includes Potions with Snape (Alan Rickman) or Transfiguration with McGonagall (Maggie Smith), where we learn all about Animagi (wizards who can transform themselves into animals at will).

Peeves the poltergeist has been exorcised entirely and, curiously, there is no discussion of the Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

Little wonder then that the third film is the shortest so far.

Quibbles aside, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban is a lively and hugely enjoyable thrill ride guaranteed to cast a spell on audiences of all ages.

york twenty4seven view: 4/5

Updated: 09:22 Friday, May 28, 2004