Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

[watervole]

It's excellent. Best of the series so far and would work pretty well as a stand-alone for anyone who hasn't seen the others.

Fantastic CGI, more adult plot. I cried at the point where one might expect.

It's better than 'Serenity'. 'Serenity' was okay, but I felt GoF was better paced and was more true to the characters.

Comments

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

This might be a dumb question, but have you read the book?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Of course. I liked the book, but I felt the film made a sensible choice of what to leave out.

Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, I was taken to see it yesterday afternoon and thought it was the weakest of the three I've seen (I missed the first). Whether this was affected by the fact that we're now into the books I haven't read I'm not sure. My Potter-expert companions wanted to know how I reacted for that reason, and I said that the tournament didn't interest me - I kept feeling that we were missing out on the "real" plot - and I didn't understand why he couldn't just kidnap him at the start. They agreed that this was the major hole in a thin plot. I had much less sense of the passage of the school year than in earlier episodes (only occasional remarks tipped me off that the action took place over more than a week); I don't know whether that reflected the book or was a conscious decision by the director to avoid repeating the formula. On the one hand, it spared us the Dursleys, and I can forgive a film much for sparing us the Dursleys. On the other, I felt the adult cast, apart from Dumbledore and Brendan Gleeson's excellent Mad-Eye Moody, were underused. If the story had to abandon the school year format, I'd rather have followed the World Cup and had a plot unfolding between matches.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've also not read the book and didn't enjoy the film much, as I wrote earlier. The tournament felt from first to last like a plot device, and I agree most of the adults were horribly underutilised.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I didn't understand why he couldn't just kidnap him at the start

That was the big weakness of the book as well.

I've concluded (only after watching the film, oddly enough) that they needed to have Harry at a predictable time when they had everything else prepared. (though they could still have kidnapped and kept him prisoner until needed)

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, but all they needed to do was kidnap him. Forcing him to become an unwilling and controversially under-age participant in a tournament which could have resulted in his death (possibly they could have got some blood from his corpse, but I suspect the spell specified fresh), and then fixing the tournament to make sure he won it, seemed unnecessarily complicated. As my friend said, they could have turned his toothbrush into a portkey, and it would have worked just as well; the goblet didn't appear to have been one until it was enchanted while being hidden in the maze.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'd rationalised it (without reading the book) that Hogwarts is protected against unauthorised portkeys, but the tournament maze falls outside the school boundaries. Whatever, it does seem likely that faux-Moody could just have caught up with Harry on a Hogsmeade weekend.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[dev-iant.livejournal.com]

I said that the tournament didn't interest me - I kept feeling that we were missing out on the "real" plot...

I haven't yet seen the film, but that was exactly my reaction to the interminable (200 page) description of the tournament in the book. I'd been hoping that they'd have cut most of it.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I disagree. The tournament is the bit that makes a cohesive plot and is clearly the best bit to adapt for a film.

Re: Unenthusiasm and spoilers

[dev-iant.livejournal.com]

I think we may be at cross-purposes here - and perhaps this is the problem with commenting on a film you haven't seen. I was referring to the Quidditch World Cup which is interminable. I'd agree with you about the tri-wizard tournament. (Very late response due to LJ's problems with emails)