Goblet of Fire: The Obligatory Review
I took eldest to the 3:30 showing today. The theatre was jam-packed and most of the audience was held, enrapt, by the movie magic.
Visually distinguished, right from the beginning credit (with the distressed chrome setting a chill, blue light that ran throughout much of the film), this was a great adaption. In fact, I'd say that the film improves on the book in many instances. Whereas I've always felt Goblet of Fire was one of the weakest in the series because of sprawling length(so much of the Quidditch Cup material was fun but could have been told in a much more compressed fashion), the movie is terse and economical with the storyline.
Certainly, there were moments from the book that I desperately missed seeing on screen: I wanted so to see Ron's reaction to Ferret!Draco and I would have adored seeing more of the Yule Ball sequences. We didn't get to see Rita Skeeter's come-uppance (or the reaction to her rumours beyond Hermione's annoyed mention). No Quidditch? Oh, well. The complete lack of house elves was a good thing, though.
The young actors have all visibly matured since Prisoner of Azkaban. I noticed, in part, because the audience did. When the Prefect's bathroom scene began, the squee! of fangirls was audible. (It did seem to be mostly coming from the young women in the crowd, which relieved me since I can't think of young Mr. Radcliffe as anything but jailbait.) There were also some dreamy sighs over Cedric coming from the teenage girls around us. Poor Cedric. Robert Pattison is so becoming the romantic teen idol actor of the next fifty seconds, isn't he?
Favourite scenes? The pensieve scenes were great, especially when Harry catapulted into Dumbledore's memory of the interrogation/courtroom scene. Harry's fights and reunion with Ron were wonderfully awkward, boyish emoting. The Yule Ball was beautiful but we needed to see more of everything.
And the climactic scenes? Fiennes made a sinister Voldemort but I think his strange face was still a little bit overpowering for the role, however appropriate to Rowling's description. It was. . . so. . . distracting! But the spirits of the recently deceased coming out of the wand -- Cedric, Lily and James -- well done and touching. You believed Harry's breakdown thereafter (so, I assume there's a Harry/Cedric ship with plenty of fanfic out there, no?) and the emotional building to the second climax with the revelation of Crouch's deception -- that wasn't an anti-climax, as I feared it would be.
I think I like this film better than most of the others. It'll take a few more viewings to decide for sure, but I don't think they'll be a burden!
Visually distinguished, right from the beginning credit (with the distressed chrome setting a chill, blue light that ran throughout much of the film), this was a great adaption. In fact, I'd say that the film improves on the book in many instances. Whereas I've always felt Goblet of Fire was one of the weakest in the series because of sprawling length(so much of the Quidditch Cup material was fun but could have been told in a much more compressed fashion), the movie is terse and economical with the storyline.
Certainly, there were moments from the book that I desperately missed seeing on screen: I wanted so to see Ron's reaction to Ferret!Draco and I would have adored seeing more of the Yule Ball sequences. We didn't get to see Rita Skeeter's come-uppance (or the reaction to her rumours beyond Hermione's annoyed mention). No Quidditch? Oh, well. The complete lack of house elves was a good thing, though.
The young actors have all visibly matured since Prisoner of Azkaban. I noticed, in part, because the audience did. When the Prefect's bathroom scene began, the squee! of fangirls was audible. (It did seem to be mostly coming from the young women in the crowd, which relieved me since I can't think of young Mr. Radcliffe as anything but jailbait.) There were also some dreamy sighs over Cedric coming from the teenage girls around us. Poor Cedric. Robert Pattison is so becoming the romantic teen idol actor of the next fifty seconds, isn't he?
Favourite scenes? The pensieve scenes were great, especially when Harry catapulted into Dumbledore's memory of the interrogation/courtroom scene. Harry's fights and reunion with Ron were wonderfully awkward, boyish emoting. The Yule Ball was beautiful but we needed to see more of everything.
And the climactic scenes? Fiennes made a sinister Voldemort but I think his strange face was still a little bit overpowering for the role, however appropriate to Rowling's description. It was. . . so. . . distracting! But the spirits of the recently deceased coming out of the wand -- Cedric, Lily and James -- well done and touching. You believed Harry's breakdown thereafter (so, I assume there's a Harry/Cedric ship with plenty of fanfic out there, no?) and the emotional building to the second climax with the revelation of Crouch's deception -- that wasn't an anti-climax, as I feared it would be.
I think I like this film better than most of the others. It'll take a few more viewings to decide for sure, but I don't think they'll be a burden!