The Lumos Scene in Prisoner of Azkaban Was Not As Stupid As You Think
If there is one thing that Harry Potter fans are still fretting about in the third film, it is this particular scene.
Fans love Alphonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for its own unique style and a whole new vision of the wizarding world, but one particular scene still bothers them to this day because of how ignorant it is of the main lore.
Yes, we're talking about the Lumos Maxima scene at the very beginning, which many fans feel doesn't make sense, since wizardry is forbidden to Hogwarts students under the age of 17.
However, in Cuaron's film, Harry practices the Lumos spell at the Dursley house without any particular consequences.
However, there is a cinematic explanation for why this scene actually works perfectly for the movie, despite not being too canon-conscious.
According to Redditor OldSpecialTM, the controversial scene is pacing-wise perfect as a means of quickly letting the viewer know what the main conflict of the movie is.
"That opening scene from PoA condenses the Harry Potter "origin story" into a tight 30-40 seconds. Instead of wasting tons of time on setting up Harry's conflict with the Dursleys, they give us this short scene to tell us all we need to know. Harry does magic, Vernon doesn't like it, and the viewer gets let it on the 'secret'," the fan explained.
The scene should not be taken literally, according to the fan, who recommends others take it as Cuaron's "executive decision" that not only made for a memorable introduction to the movie, but also saved a lot of exposition time.
While it's unlikely that anyone would start watching Prisoner of Azkaban without having seen the first two films, at the time Cuaron was picking up the torch from Christopher Columbus, the decision seemed reasonable.
After all, it was a milestone for Harry Potter, indicating that he was no longer a child, and the story was about to get darker.