17 November 2005

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

So how could I not watch this one on the day of it's release?

To start with, it was not too bad. In all honesty, I might have enjoyed the movie a lot better if I hadn't read the book yesterday. The book is really too big for the director to stay true to it, so there was a lot of editing! And very liberal doses of creative license...

For starters the Dursleys, the stay at the Burrow and (some of) the Weasley brothers were totally left out! At the Quidditch World cup, Harry and the Weasleys take the nosebleed seats instead of sitting in the main box. And there's no mention whatsoever of house-evles! Poor poor Dobby! And the Quidditch World Cup is totally left out. All we get to see is a starting line up of the two finalists. No Veelas!!!!! Ludo Bagman was a bit of a funny character in the book. Ludo Bagman who? That's right. He's been edited out. Rita Skeeter, the nosy journalist, is less than a pale shadow of her acidic, vicious self! For all the build-up and screen time she got, she might have been left out too! And did I mention that Barty Crouch Jr is brought in right at the beginning? There's never any explanation of how he's at Hogwarts when he's supposed to be in Azkaban!

The challenges in the Triwizard Tournament were well picturised. The maze challenge though, was a bit of a let down with hedges that rearranged themselves instead of assorted challenges thrown at the champions on the way to the trophy.

The Yule ball scene was good fun, so was the transformation of Hermione...

The finale at the graveyard was spectacular. And continuing in the spirit of cribbing, I must add that I didn't see Wormtail's new hand in the scene where the wands connect and Voldemort's wand spits out shadows of earlier spells. Ralph Fiennes was cool was Voldemort!

Hysteric Histrionics! My main crib (you mean there's more?) about this movie has to Michael Gambon who plays Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore is supposed to be calm and collected always and a class act all the way. You'll know what I mean if you've watched the first three movies, with Richard Harris (RiP) in the role. This Dumbledore raves and rants and at seems to be on the verge of hysteria. I was so irritated by the character!

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 on 5!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, it is not scary?? I was reading reports of folks who saw the preview of the movie in Britain.. even the adults said it was too scary..

am thinking of going tomorrow with my older one

Suj

Vidya said...

hmmm... not really scary... i guess i was too busy cribbing and finding gaping holes in the plot compared with the book, that I was way too occupied to think of being scared

Vc said...

Hey Vidya what abt when Dumbledore says" Silence" and the camera zooms on the students who continue to chat , they don't even finch.. eeww... I missed the house elves Dobby in particular.....yep it was a letdown.. but..okish I guess..

PNA said...

the house elves weren't in and somehow the whole idea of the book never came thru.......

the two potter ignorant friends i accompanied were totally lost when i began explaining the book story ....

they couldn't capture the effect. still i guess it was better than the others ........