Frabjous Times

Winners

• Remus Lupin: one of the most likeable characters in the book also comes off quite sympathetically here too. It was a bit unexpected at the end when his behavior turned malevolent in his "Moony" form.
• Cornelius Fudge: unusual for the amount of screen time this somewhat peripheral character receives.
• Rubeus Hagrid: who when he first appeared on screen, caused me to whisper to my wife "Hey, wasn't he just on Survivor All-Stars? Although the book goes into more detail about the amusing classtime mishaps of his, the main storyline does go through his hut after all.
• Hermione Granger: who could basically run the whole last act of the script if only she could do a Patronus charm. The comment she makes on seeing her hair from behind could only make me think that Cuarón was just holding himself back from commenting about some other aspect of her backside. Ew.
• Sybill Trelawney: good hippy-trippy vibe projected by Emma Thompson. Perhaps it would have been even better if the Gilderoy Lockhart character of the second book/movie (played by Kenneth Branagh) had been in play this time as well.

Losers

• The Dursleys: clearly the director was eager to move along as soon as he could past this bit of legacy scene-padding. They don't even get an appearance at the end as summer vacation comes again. All to the good, imho.
• Ron Weasley: who didn't get a scene as memorable as the slug-spitting of the previous outing. the bit with the boggart wasn't really much, and for the most part he seemed to be just the rat-carrier this time around.
• Sirius Black: who came into the movie a little to late to elicit the amount of good-feeling his character is supposed to garner. He is the title character after all. Plus in the Wanted posters, Gary Oldman looks like a serial killer than a sort of distraught Gregg Allman to me.
• Minerva McGonagall: given rather short shrift here.