The summer movie season is upon us, which means that Saturdays are the day for seeing the latest release of the week. Today’s movie was the latest in the immensely popular Harry Potter series.

The franchise is already well established, so you probably know what to expect: young Harry, Hermione and Ron are back at Hogwarts. As Harry returns, he is confronted by the news that Sirius Black (played by Gary Oldman), a dangerous criminal has escaped from Azkaban prison. Apparently Azkaban is not your typical prison. Instead of ordinary guards, it is protected by Dementors, nasty wraiths who suck all happiness out of you.

We’ve all known a few people like that.

I’m told that the movie is somewhat different and compressed from the book: I can’t tell you, I haven’t read it. I found it to be competently constructed and fairly engaging. The effects and scenery is beautiful, the young actors turn in very solid performances, and I thought it was pretty good fun for a Saturday matinee. If you enjoyed the first two movies, I have no doubt that you will enjoy this one. Overall though, I haven’t found any of these movies to be especially memorable, so I will give it an eight out of ten: worthy of viewing, but unlikely to change your life in any significant way.