Yeah, I agree that I just don't see where all the Columbus hate comes from. He certainly was the best at accomplishing the notion that the movies should follow the books. With the later books being so big and necessitating large cutting and reworking, I'm not sure how he'd fare, but he did do pretty well with those first two. Admittedly, parts of the first movie were a bit sappy, but I love Chamber of Secrets to this day. I loved Cuaron's style, but I hated how really important stuff was lost. Mike Newell did a great job with Goblet of Fire. I felt he was able to maintain everything that was truly important as well as add in several little touches that set it apart. I've only seen OotP once, but David Yates seems to have been able to accomplish something similar. So while I like Cuaron's style, I feel Azkaban is the weakest of the movies, and the series is still suffering from it (most notably the sudden inclusion of the nicknames Wormtail and Padfoot, which have no precedent for being used).