Important Movies

I said I'd make a case for Prisoner of Azkaban, so here it is: it launched the franchise into a strata of respectability due to Alfonso Cuaron's handling of the film, therefore bringing the series to the attention of more people and pretty much setting the direction for the rest of the films. Also, and maybe more importantly, it helped put the career of Alfonso Cuaron on the trajectory it ended up taking; by directing it, he was able to finance Children of Men, a highly-lauded and "important" film in and of itself, and then he'd go on to direct last year's hit, Gravity, which he earned an Academy Award for. It's also the last HP film to feature a score by John Williams, for what that's worth, and it's his best work on the franchise. Here's how I look at it ultimately: if Cuaron had just stuck to small independent fare such as Y Tu Mama Tambien, it's hard to say if he would've wound up with all the accolades and respect he has now; Prisoner of Azkaban essentially helped introduce the mainstream crowd to a great filmmaker while raising the bar for a franchise most considered just big-budgeted kiddie fare at that point.