Harry Potter Movie
Ok, so. I went to see Goblet of Fire tonight. Overall, I enjoyed it, but there was a lot about it that could have been done in a better way.
The first half an hour made me cranky. I didn't think that the caretaker should have had a flashlight. I wish they had spent more time on the World Cup. I wish they had kept the house elves. Winky added a lot to the book, and I think it could have been a good thing for the movie. The scene where Barty Crouch accuses the kids of casting the Dark Mark, in the book, makes a lot more sense. Without the house elf, without Harry's missing wand, it loses a certain credibility.
Many of the things that, in my opinion, were Very Important to the overall plot arc of the books got breezed past, or worse, left out completely. Many of the things that made the book magical and mysterious were altered, shortened, or left out. In fact, at least two characters were left out completely. Some would argue that they weren't important characters, but I missed Fred and George plot the whole time about how to get their money out of Bagman. It added more of a mystery. I missed Dobby. He may be annoying and obsequious, but he also added a lot. Not having Winky also prevented Hermione from starting her crusade on behalf of House-elves everywhere. Lucius Malfoy came off self-serving enough, though. He also came off as a power-mad git. Which is fairly true to the spirit of the book, if the execution was a bit off. I do wish we could have at least seen his wife. She figures very heavily in the beginning of book six, and I'm not sure the sympathy for her will be there in movie six if no one has met her yet. Plus, it took out one of the funniest snarky lines Harry has in the whole series.
Mad-Eye Moody was not nearly gruff enough. Scary, sure, creepy, absolutely, but not gruff enough. His eye was too steam-punk.
Hagrid and Madame Maxime never got into their fight, which totally made me mad.
There were many good points in the movie. Ron's dress robes were everything I ever hoped. The fight he and Hermione got into at the ball was perfect. Spot on, in fact. And the Weird Sisters were everything and more that was promised. In fact, I'm vaguely hoping that they release an actual album. For now though, I'm debating buying the soundtrack.
The scene in the graveyard at the end was everything I had hoped for, barring one thing. The Phoenix song. I was hoping for Phoenix song, and the closest it got was a few random bird noises. That was ok though, as I was scared out of my mind. Which is what should have happened. If I hadn't been scared, I would currently be seriously pissed off. And Voldemort was almost exactly the way I pictured him. The two things that I would have changed were his eyes, and the fact that he was slightly less thin than I thought he should be. When he first opened his eyes, they looked fine, but after that, they seemed to be less reptilian. By the end of the scene, they looked pretty much normal. I don't know if that was just me, seeing them wrong, but I think more likely they couldn't convince the actor to wear contacts and didn't want to continue to animate them digitally. I'm sure that in the next movie they will be right, as they started out right. I think it was more of an oversight in post-production than their intent that he look more human throughout the scene.
Dumbledore seemed too powerless. I know that they were trying to press home the point that he's human, but he really does come off as all-knowing in the books, and really comes off in this movie as confused and frail. He barely speaks to Harry the whole time, and when he does, he almost seems to blow him off.
I guess, if I had to pinpoint something that bothered me about the movie, it was this; they spent 2 and 1/2 hours on a 700+ page book. Which is a fairly valid complaint, I feel.
Don't let all this ranting confuse you. I really loved this movie. It was a great piece of escapism, and by the end I was jumping out of my seat. I worried for Harry, and was shocked for Cedric. I was sad for Dumbledore, speaking to the school about the death of a student he was supposed to protect, choking on his words. Hermione, at the end seemed genuinely frightened. Which is as it should be. The world has just changed, forever, for the worse. She and her friends are being forced to grow up, quickly, and face the fact that each time they see one another could be the last. In her shoes, I would be frightened, too.