Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Right after my Philo class this morning, I, along with Cerz and Raph went to SM North, where we met up with Jace, and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'm going to talk about it some right now, so if you don't want to have the movie spoiled for you, DO NOT HIGHLIGHT. Ok? Ok.
[START]It was disappointing, to say the least. I loved the book. I'm still not quite decided which I loved more--Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire. I'd seen the trailers before, and they had done a pretty good job with it, I must say. It made me excited to see the movie. I even went with the others to the opening day of the movie, on a school day, despite the hard time and too-familiar sermons my dad was giving me about this until this morning.
And then, we were there, sitting inside Cinema 7 of SM North, watching the movie unfold in front of us.
The first few minutes of the movie was too...rushed. One second, it was one scene, the next, it was another. I think the Quidditch World Cup was already over, and they were in the train headed for Hogwarts less than ten minutes into the movie. Come to think of it, they didn't even show the Quidditch game itself, and it was supposed to be this BIG THING. Apparently not.
Actually, that wasn't the only part of the book that was omitted in the movie. Let's see if I can remember most of it. The Quidditch match, like I said. Then, there's Ludo Bagman. They completely deleted the character of Ludo Bagman, as well as Percy Weasley and his obsession with Bartemious Crouch. Which could have been deemed necessary, since Bartemious Crouch was an important character, and Percy's adoration of him is supposed to show how, outwardly, the guy's this squeaky clean, law-abiding guy, only to turn out to have helped escape and put under imperius curse the man who would end up bringing back Voldemort. They also omitted that part about Bartemious Crouch and his son. Well, other than the court scene Harry witnessed through the pensieve, though they did edit that part too. I mean, they never showed the father's relationship with the son, how he helped the son escape by replacing him with his mother in Azkaban, how he put the guy under the imperius curse to keep him in check and put him under the care of Winky, the house-elf (who, along with Dobby, had been omitted, too), how the son eventually killed the father. Well, they showed Bartemious Crouch's dead body, but they never said HOW he died. Actually, they just showed the body. Period. I thought that when Harry went up to Dumbledore in the next scene, he would tell Dumbledore about it...but surprise, surprise, it wasn't even mentioned in that scene or in any scene after that. It was as if his death was just a normal thing. Weird. They took out the S.P.E.W story as well. According to Jace's LJ, this was because it wasn't really important to the central plot, but I have to say it kind of is. After all, the S.P.E.W. is connected with Winky the House-Elf's story, and Winky is important since her role in connection with the two Bartys is important. There wasn't anything about how Winky had been accused of conjuring the Dark Mark, how she was sacked, how she even existed. Then, there's the Rita Skeeter story. Damn...but Miranda Richardson is such a great actress, but they gave her such a frustratingly minor role. They never really showed the havoc she created with her crazy articles, or her being an unregistered animagus. They didn't show the interaction between the four tri-wizard champoins all that much, didn't show the development of the new characters...uh, character. They didn't even mention how Fleur's a veela, that's why everyone was so entranced with her. Actually, they didn't mention the veelas at all. They didn't show the relationship between Moody and Harry all that much, so you didn't get that sense of respect and trust Harry had for Moody. And that was just...wrong. It was Harry's trust in Moody that led him to the graveyard. The dementor's kiss, wherein the dementor sucked the soul out of Barty Crouch, was taken out too. And that's just stupid, because it was the fact that Cornelius Fudge had brought the dementor into the castle and allowed it to suck out Crouch's soul, rendering him incapable of being an important witness concerning Voldemort's rebirth that led to all those misunderstandings and strained relationship between the ministry and Dumbledore and his allies. They never even said what happened to Crouch after they walked out of the room and left him with Snape.
And, as the others have already said, many major characters suddenly became minor characters. Draco Malfoy had pitifully few scenes, as did Minerva McGonagall, Snape and the other teachers, including Hagrid actually. The Dursleys or Mrs. Weasley weren't in the movie at all. They didn't show much of the academic aspect of the story, which is just stupid, considering that they're in Hogwarts.
Everything was just so...rushed! I didn't feel that sense of time (a year's span).
Sure, the movie has some nice moments. But damn, it just seemed to lack that...wow factor, considering how good the trailers and promos were. There were many moments when my mind would just wander. And that is so...wrong.
Maybe it was because the book's so long, and the movie's only 2 1/2 hours long. But the third movie was pretty great, despite the cuts.
Ha. Sorry, I got carried away. But it was just so...disappointing, so much so that the good parts are being overwhelmed by the bad parts. And I really did love the book. I really hope they do better with the next movies.[END]
Well, that's it. Adios.
[START]It was disappointing, to say the least. I loved the book. I'm still not quite decided which I loved more--Prisoner of Azkaban or Goblet of Fire. I'd seen the trailers before, and they had done a pretty good job with it, I must say. It made me excited to see the movie. I even went with the others to the opening day of the movie, on a school day, despite the hard time and too-familiar sermons my dad was giving me about this until this morning.
And then, we were there, sitting inside Cinema 7 of SM North, watching the movie unfold in front of us.
The first few minutes of the movie was too...rushed. One second, it was one scene, the next, it was another. I think the Quidditch World Cup was already over, and they were in the train headed for Hogwarts less than ten minutes into the movie. Come to think of it, they didn't even show the Quidditch game itself, and it was supposed to be this BIG THING. Apparently not.
Actually, that wasn't the only part of the book that was omitted in the movie. Let's see if I can remember most of it. The Quidditch match, like I said. Then, there's Ludo Bagman. They completely deleted the character of Ludo Bagman, as well as Percy Weasley and his obsession with Bartemious Crouch. Which could have been deemed necessary, since Bartemious Crouch was an important character, and Percy's adoration of him is supposed to show how, outwardly, the guy's this squeaky clean, law-abiding guy, only to turn out to have helped escape and put under imperius curse the man who would end up bringing back Voldemort. They also omitted that part about Bartemious Crouch and his son. Well, other than the court scene Harry witnessed through the pensieve, though they did edit that part too. I mean, they never showed the father's relationship with the son, how he helped the son escape by replacing him with his mother in Azkaban, how he put the guy under the imperius curse to keep him in check and put him under the care of Winky, the house-elf (who, along with Dobby, had been omitted, too), how the son eventually killed the father. Well, they showed Bartemious Crouch's dead body, but they never said HOW he died. Actually, they just showed the body. Period. I thought that when Harry went up to Dumbledore in the next scene, he would tell Dumbledore about it...but surprise, surprise, it wasn't even mentioned in that scene or in any scene after that. It was as if his death was just a normal thing. Weird. They took out the S.P.E.W story as well. According to Jace's LJ, this was because it wasn't really important to the central plot, but I have to say it kind of is. After all, the S.P.E.W. is connected with Winky the House-Elf's story, and Winky is important since her role in connection with the two Bartys is important. There wasn't anything about how Winky had been accused of conjuring the Dark Mark, how she was sacked, how she even existed. Then, there's the Rita Skeeter story. Damn...but Miranda Richardson is such a great actress, but they gave her such a frustratingly minor role. They never really showed the havoc she created with her crazy articles, or her being an unregistered animagus. They didn't show the interaction between the four tri-wizard champoins all that much, didn't show the development of the new characters...uh, character. They didn't even mention how Fleur's a veela, that's why everyone was so entranced with her. Actually, they didn't mention the veelas at all. They didn't show the relationship between Moody and Harry all that much, so you didn't get that sense of respect and trust Harry had for Moody. And that was just...wrong. It was Harry's trust in Moody that led him to the graveyard. The dementor's kiss, wherein the dementor sucked the soul out of Barty Crouch, was taken out too. And that's just stupid, because it was the fact that Cornelius Fudge had brought the dementor into the castle and allowed it to suck out Crouch's soul, rendering him incapable of being an important witness concerning Voldemort's rebirth that led to all those misunderstandings and strained relationship between the ministry and Dumbledore and his allies. They never even said what happened to Crouch after they walked out of the room and left him with Snape.
And, as the others have already said, many major characters suddenly became minor characters. Draco Malfoy had pitifully few scenes, as did Minerva McGonagall, Snape and the other teachers, including Hagrid actually. The Dursleys or Mrs. Weasley weren't in the movie at all. They didn't show much of the academic aspect of the story, which is just stupid, considering that they're in Hogwarts.
Everything was just so...rushed! I didn't feel that sense of time (a year's span).
Sure, the movie has some nice moments. But damn, it just seemed to lack that...wow factor, considering how good the trailers and promos were. There were many moments when my mind would just wander. And that is so...wrong.
Maybe it was because the book's so long, and the movie's only 2 1/2 hours long. But the third movie was pretty great, despite the cuts.
Ha. Sorry, I got carried away. But it was just so...disappointing, so much so that the good parts are being overwhelmed by the bad parts. And I really did love the book. I really hope they do better with the next movies.[END]
Well, that's it. Adios.
# Lyn found a missing piece @ 4:25 PM 
