Raise your Goblet of Rock!
The short and spoiler-free version of my reaction to the GoF movie goes like this: I would have expected the film version of GoF to be the worst, given the amount of material they had to cover and the emotional depth of said material. But to my surprise and delight, it was the best of the four. It even made me cry - not only on the first viewing, but the second, too.
Of course, it also made me laugh, and not always in a nice way.
Disclaimer: This isn't a review. Reviews are structured and succinct. This is just a list, separated into two parts - the bad and the good, with the bad listed first - and it's stupidly long.
Things they got wrong:
Hermione. Up to now, I've been blaming the directors, producer, and Steve Kloves for the franchise's perpetual bastardization of her character, but this time, Emma Watson gets the blame. She overacts. She's an upstager. Her face is in overly dramatic motion all the time, even when she's not involved in the core action of the scene, and some of her line-readings are embarrassingly bad. "Everything's going to change now, isn't it?" Oy. It's a good thing Harry responded with (in-character!) matter-of-factness, or you could have topped two large pizzas with the cheese. And speaking of Harry: while Book Hermione certainly loves Harry very much, Movie Hermione clearly wants to sleep with him. I wouldn't hold it against anyone who hadn't read the books if, after watching this film, they came to the conclusion that, indeed, Hermione harbors a serious crush on Harry. Her tears of rage over not being asked to the ball by Ron are confusing, given most of her behavior. Seems to me that Movie Hermione would rather cry over Harry.
Ron. Knowing about those dragons, he takes a ridiculous and circuitous route to deliver the information to Harry. Book Ron is jealous and angry at that point in the story, but the second he goes to the first task and realizes what Harry is up against, he is horrified and remorseful, and comes down immediately to try to apologize. That's the entire point. That's what makes the resolution to their fight work. Movie Ron, on the other hand, knows exactly what Harry's up against, and not only does he persist in giving him the silent treatment, he fails immediately, in plain English, to inform his best friend that he's about to be roasted alive. That's so far away from the Ron I know that, though the overall treatment of his character was nowhere near as offensive as what the franchise has done to Movie Ron in the past, it tarnishes his authenticity as a representative of the canon character and makes him an unusually crappy best friend. It also makes the resolution of their fight as unsatisfying as it is unlikely.
The lovely ladies of BeauxBAT'ns. Number one, isn't it a French school? Wouldn't it be BeaxbaTOHN? And wouldn't Dumbledore know that, being, like, a genius? Number two, their prancing into the Great Hall could have been fantastic, had it been done simply. So then... why? Why all the sighing? And the weird leaning? I was mortified by it. I mean, if they had to do it like that, couldn't they have gotten a choreographer with some talent? Number three, why was Gabrielle allowed to come? Did Fleur throw a temper tantrum? Number four - and this is no offense to Clemence Poesy, who is beautiful - Fleur should smack of international supermodel. She shouldn't blend right in with the rest of the BeauxBAT'ns girls. If there's one person in this film who should have been cast almost entirely on looks, it's Fleur. She should blow everyone's hair back. And while she was lovely, she did not blow any hair back, and she was was not Fleur. Number five, I don't know whether to be sickened or impressed by the fact that Madame Maxime ate some kind of snack out of Hagrid's beard. And that's all I have to say about that.
The sons of Durmstrang. None of the Cirque du Soleil fire-breathing and staff-stamping really made much sense, but I'd like to bitch about Viktor in particular. I didn't get the Book Viktor vibe from this guy. Movie Viktor seemed very much to enjoy his fame and to think himself a real rockstar, while Book Viktor seemed to loathe to be followed and bothered. And Movie Viktor seemed to ask Hermione to the Yule Ball for no reason other than that she's cute, rather than finding her honestly compelling because she behaves differently from the others and investing emotionally in her to the point where she becomes the thing he would miss most. Of course, one could argue that it doesn't matter, since the depths of that storyline weren't really pursued - though perhaps the editors kind of forgot that, since they left in the reference to Viktor's trips to the library. Wha?
Cedric. As Cap'n Kathy beautifully put it "Book Cedric is an athlete. Movie Cedric is a jock." And so he is. He lolls about on benches laughing; he grabs people around the neck and goes a-rompin' down the halls, and he has an air of popular arrogance about him, though he seems a nice enough guy. Simply, he lacks the quiet nobility and honor that is inherent - and essential - to Book Cedric. It shines through at moments - key moments, to be fair - but overall, he's not the Real Ced Shady. When Dumbledore gave his speech about Cedric in the end, and cited all of his fabulous qualities, I was puzzled. Was Cedric so exemplary? I mean, I suppose it's pretty impressive that the guy lives in the sky - or at least, that's the conclusion I was forced to draw when he dropped out of it at the beginning of the movie. Was that supposed to be Apparition? Because it seemed like he'd just jumped out of a tree.
Draco. While we're on the subject of people in trees, I should point out that I can't really see Book Draco hanging around in a tree, surrounded by cronies, the way Movie Draco did in this film. When he hopped down from his perch to confront Harry, I laughed like a little freak. It's Draco in a Tree! He perches! He hops! He shakes down leaves on his enemies! Yay!
Arthur. Who, in all other ways, is pretty hot, so I hate to critcize... but I have to, because it's important. If Lucius Malfoy had smacked Harry on the hand with that walking stick in front of Book Arthur, Book Arthur would have gone all Flourish & Blotts on his ass. At the very least he would have told Lucius to step off. But movie Arthur just let it pass. No way, dude. No way.
And a sidenote here, because of the Arthur comment: more than anything else, it's those kinds of misses in characterization that make me dig my fingernails into my palms. The rest of the nitpicks are superficial discrepancies that I can take or leave - really. I list them for my own amusement, but they're not horrible, and they don't significantly detract from my enjoyment of the films. Go ahead, make Flitwick go crowd surfing, give your daughter a part in the movie, whatever. Let the BeauxBAT'ns girls do their laughable "dancing" in the bleachers. I might roll my eyes, but I don't really care. I do care when characters I love are represented as less than what they truly are. Ron would have said something about the dragons. Arthur would have shoved Lucius away from Harry. To make that untrue is to destroy something elemental, not only about those characters, but about the story JKR is telling. It's not just a story about Harry, or about good versus evil, it's also a story about the people who make goodness possible - about the people who buoy Harry up. It's a story about friendship, about love, about loyalty - about these flawed, funny, desperately human characters, who make mistakes like all of us do, but who have, at their cores, a great goodness that gives us all hope that maybe we, too, have a little of that same courage. People need such stories. That's why the whole world is knee deep in Harry Potter. So why is the movie franchise so flippant about that element of it? Why? I can't understand it. I just don't get it. Anyway. Moving on.
Dumbledore. If he manhandled Harry one more time, I was going to reach in there, tie his beard to his dress, and lock him in the trunk with Moody. Get the hell off him, dude! And get with the program: Dumbledore is a fullblooded man with feet of clay, yes, but he is also an insanely powerful wizard. Moreover, he is a person who sets a great deal of store by the considerate treatment of others, no matter what the circumstances. Up to the moment of his death, he is civil and mannerly, calm and collected; even when drained of all physical strength, he still radiates a quiet power, and he still maintains command. He therefore has no need whatsoever to grab a fourteen-year-old kid and shove him into a pillar. One sharp word from him should very nearly quiet the world; no need to resort to professional wrestling techniques. Also, I can't remember the exact speech, but there's a "really" in his reference to Cedric's death - something about it being a "Really awful thing," or "Really terrible" - which might not have been so bad, but for the delivery. Somehow, to me, he sounded callous.
The First Task. My only complaint here is that the dragon battle ranged all over creation and took for-EVA. I guess I just have to accept that this is "Harry Potter Four! Now With New Chase Scenes!" Because no movie is complete without a chase scene. Wait, yes it is.
The Second Task. Which should, perhaps, be a complaint about Harry's characterization, because that's where the nitpick lies: Book Harry is so nerve-wracked, so terrified, by what he believes is at stake in the Second Task, that he would never take the time to show off his fancy gillyweed fins by flipping up into the air like Ariel for all the school to see. It's Exhibitionist Harry! Yay! And speaking of mermaids - while I thought the visuals were really cool, the faraway shot of Dan shooting downward through the water, fins undulating, reminded me irresistably of Zoolander. "Moisture is the essence of wetness...and wetness is the essence of beauty..." And I didn't really get how he shot himself from the lake at the end, but apparently Movie Harry has some snazzy magic up his sleeve and doesn't much need Hermione's help with that kind of thing.
Rita Skeeter. If they weren't going to deliver on that storyline, why waste time with it? Not that I didn't enjoy Ms. Richardson's performance, but if those scenes were removed, what would be lost to the plot, as far as the movie is concerned? I suppose it's possible that they plan to use the Quibbler bits in the OotP movie... but that makes even less sense, given that Movie Hermione does not have Movie Rita in the palm of her hand (and you can take that one literally or figuatively. Up to you.)
Nigel. Another time-waster. As B Bennett rightly put it to me: with all the work they must have had to do to cut down Goblet of Fire to a reasonable length, why, oh why, did they still persist in wasting time on random students like Nigel, the delivery boy who wants Harry's autograph? Sigh.
Moaning (and apparently not just in a sad way) Myrtle. What. A. Perv. Her perviness is canon, sure, okay - but seriously. The lap sitting? The ooohing? The fact that Dan was a minor while shooting and that those two actors are like twenty years apart? Even though I'm sure Myrtle was green-screened and they probably never even saw each other, the scene was still taken too far. It crossed a line, and it made me uncomfortable.
The Imperius Curse. I'm complaining, even though I understand why they did the crazy-eye thing to denote Viktor's submission to the curse, in the maze. They needed the audience to understand completely that he was not acting of his own volition, so that he and Hermione could have their little parting at the end without there being an explanation in between of why Hermione would suddenly commiserate with such a person. However. If it were visually that easy to tell that someone were under the Imperius Curse, it would make it nigh on impossible for Voldemort to have cursed individuals do his bidding without being immediately recognized, and it would have made it much easier for the Ministry to idenify the liars, later on. They'd be about as hard to spot as zombies. Everyone would be like, oh, no! That guy has the crazy Riddick eyes! Get him! Or run away!
Sirius. Or as Zsenya now continually refers to him, "Fire-Head Sirius." Yeah. Not real impressed with the whole ember-face choice. One of these movies' strengths has always been that the visuals are wonderfully evocative of the books, but Fire-Head Sirius was a total miss.
Three other random complaints. I wanted Harry's robes to be bottle green, because I've always been taken by that description. I wanted Hermione's robes not to look like someone projectile vomited purple crayons all over her. And Ginny is not allowed to date Movie Dean. He's totally lame.
Stuff they got RIGHT!
The spirit of the tale. I can tease apart, bit by bit, which moments and choices make this the best of the four films, but what they got right isn't just about the details. PS/SS and CoS had plenty of details, but neither captured the soul of the stories. PoA was less slavish and much closer to the magic, making the first viewing of that film much more satisfying - but in the end, it had sacrificed too many important details and changed too many elements that jarred me, as a fan of the books, so that ultimately it killed my interest repeat viewings. GoF struck a beautiful balance, I felt between canonical detail and the - well - just the feeling of Harry Potter. More than ever before, I felt that I was watching the movie of the book. Not the movie of the cliff notes of a fanfic, but the movie of the book - or at least a damn good attempt at it. I was not terribly optimistic, going in, but a scene or two was all it took for me to relax into it, and a second viewing last night sealed it up for me. I want to buy this one. I want to watch this one. I really like this one. It was nearly bare of those cheesy framed-up jokes and Super!Harry and Badass!Hermione moments that have made me blush for the films in the past. It was secure in its original material, and almost never attempted to improve upon it. It simply served it.
Voldemort. Sweet miracle of miracles. This is, for me, the motherload. Ralph Fiennes' Voldemort is cold, genteel, lustful, graceful, masterfully charming, utterly collected, and legitimately chilling. He is the antithesis of Movie Dumbledore in that here, we finally have a deeply powerful character who clearly feels his power - who requires only the most graceful flicks of his tapered fingers to get the job done. The technical character creation here is also terrifically satisfying - perhaps in part because I was sure that they would not get him even close to acceptable, and instead I found myself rapt. I really was enchanted by what they came up with - with Fiennes, the animation, the costuming, the make-up, the bare feet and feminine fingers that only served to make him more terrifying. I never hoped for this movie franchise to grasp the subtleties of Voldemort, especially after their battery of failures with much less complex characters - but he thrilled me. His return is the big delivery moment of GoF, not to mention the turning point of the series, and they nailed it.
The graveyard sequence. I was so relieved that it didn't suck, and so staggered by how right they got it, that I hardly know where to begin. The Death Eaters called to life through the Dark Mark - gorgeous. The wand battle - very close to my imagination's visuals, if a bit too much lava, or whatever that was. Priori Incantatem didn't look like what I see in my head, but I still found it beautiful. Wormtail could have been a little more troubled by the fact that his hand was gone, perhaps... but that's it. Isaacs put in an good performance as Malfoy, showing him as the steeliest of Voldemort's sycophants - groveling, yes, but not sniveling - quite right. Cedric's wide-eyed death - YES. God. I remember reading that moment for the first time; I remember exactly where I was, and how I felt, and how I saw "Kill the spare," and felt a jolt of horror and shut the book and sat on my fire escape for several minutes, unwilling to open it again, because I didn't want to be on the other side of the story - the dark side of the story, where people die, and Harry sometimes can't save them, and it's a war. I would not have expected the film to make me feel the turning of the tide. But it delivered. Even more disturbing was the moment of Harry and Cedric's return to Hogwarts - the audience cheering, the band playing, the truth slowly registering on a few faces, Fleur's sudden scream, Harry's weeping and refusal to let Cedric's body go, Amos Diggory's open grief. I cried. I think I might always cry at that point in this movie; it's that well done.
DADA. Another scene in which the emotion of the books leaps off the screen with disturbing clarity is the Unforgivables scene. His laughter as he dances the spider about the room - his lack of warning before he flings her into the glass and dangles her above the water - the fall of silence, in the classroom, and the revulsion on the faces of the students - the torment of the spider, and Neville's carefully neutral delivery of the words "Cruciatus Curse"... oh, THANK YOU. I don't know who to thank. Gleeson? Newell? The editors who pulled the timing together so tightly? The animators who made that spider seem to scream? Matthew Lewis, for doing such a wonderful Neville? I don't care. I'll thank whoever I have to thank to get that kind of performance out of this franchise again. That was a scene straight from the book. Hammer, nail, bang, done. Do it again, guys! Do it again!
Harry. Internal Harry. Tense Harry. Allowed to simply react and sit there and mull in his own stew Harry. Not quite so ENFP Harry. I liked so many things about Dan's performance and Newell's direction. His reaction to Cho on the train, and his subsequent dreamy face - his reaction to her in the Great Hall when he embarrassed himself by spitting juice (fabulous) - as well his exchange with her at the top of the Owlery stairs followed by his self-contained mooning with the egg clasped to his chest - so lovely. The whole Cho thing was very well handled, I thought. Other little Harry moments I enjoyed: His sarcastic "Do I?" after Neville tells him he seems tense before the second task; his similar "Spectacular," when asked by Cedric how he's doing; his very in-character withdrawal into "Don't worry about it," when Cedric tries to apologize about the badges; his immersion into the Weasley family at the World Cup, when he sings along with the twins; his matter-of-fact response in the face of Movie Hermione's over the top ending line... he was, for the most part, a very satisfying Harry. As for the mega-acting-moments: the graveyard, the weeping over Cedric, the fall of his face when Dumbledore reminds him that the dead do not come back... I'm so glad that Dan seems to understand Harry so much of the time, in this film. Because boy, do I love Harry.
Cho. I liked her! I could see why Harry would be smitten. And, while this may not have been intentional in terms of setting her up as a bit of a drama queen for OotP, I loved it when she waved to the crowd upon surfacing from the lake, after the second task. That seemed quite Cho-ish to me.
The twins. Continuing in the grand tradition of the PoA movie, the twins were allowed to be the twins! Their tandem twindom is delightful; I'm so glad that they've been given a continually larger role and that their spirit has been better displayed each time. Fred asking Angelina to the ball - oh YES he did. ;alksdjf;laskdjf Their self-congratulatory romp across the age-line - perfection. This movie delivers more true-to-book moments than any other, and though much was cut, enough was kept to preserve the delight, and not only the darkness, of GoF. The twins are a huge part of that, and they are used to marvelous effect.
Ginny. Oh, if Emma would only take a few lessons from Bonnie. Bonnie's a natural. Her face is at rest, when she is listening. She is actively engaged in her scenes without being forcedly animated about everything that involves her. As Ginny, she delivers a lovely, happy, amusing little girl, who is into her own thing, off in her own Ginny place. Her vocal inflections are normal and real, her carriage at the Yule Ball is lovely, and there is an openness to her countenance that I really like. Her dealings with Ron, both regarding the dress robes and post-Fleur-debacle, are very satisfying to this Ginny fan, as was the gorgeous visual of her at the top of the sunlit hill. Yay.
Ron. Either Rupert is growing into his acting chops or Mike Newell is simply better at curbing his mugging tendencies than the other directors have been, or perhaps it's both. But this was a much closer Ron than ever before. The narrow look he gave Harry after he was chosen as a Champion was very good, as was his mumbled refusal of money at the snack-cart on the Hogwarts Express. I thought he handled his exchanges with Hermione well. And they should thank Rupert, because he has enough personal warmth to make that stupid resolution to the Ron/Harry fight almost work, even though, as I think I might have said, it's a stupid resolution.
The Unexpected Task. Talk about delightful. I could eat Terminal Bachelor Harry and Ron with a spoon, they are so like their canon counterparts. I was pretty damn satisfied with the entirety of the Yule Ball, especially considering that my copy of GoF opens to that scene, where the spine is broken from wear, thanks to countless re-reads during the Time of the Shipping Wars. I LOVE that scene. Didn't we all? I didn't expect it to be very good, in the movie, but it was. Parvati was bossy about her waist, and she and her sister were satisfyingly disgusted with their dates. Neville and Ginny were DARLING. I'll eat them with a spoon too. I loved that after the obligatory centuries-old dance, the kids broke right down into a little mosh pit. I loved that the Weird Sisters' music was believable as prom music. And I loved, LOVED Hermione, who, in that scene, is also spoonworthy.
Hermione. Emma makes my happy list for her performance at the ball. It's one of the few times in the movies when they let Hermione be a little girl. Not just a taskmaster, a mother hen, or an action figure - but a little girl who has a date and is alight with joy. Emma nailed it, from the moment she squeaked and waved as she passed Harry to the moment she burst into tears. You could see her pride and giddiness at feeling like a beautiful grown up - and yet she was so easily shaken down by Ron into a place of insecurity and anger. I think the scene is her best onscreen so far, both as an actress and a character (although baby Hermione, marching miserably past Harry and Ron in the first film with her little arms hugging her books for comfort, might still be my favorite).
Neville. Oh, poor, sweet baby. I hug and hug him, in the movie as in the book. I have nothing else to say about that.
Snape. I should complain about the way he smacks Harry and Ron around, because it's not entirely in character - but I don't care. When Rickman snaps his sleeve-ends in prep for another round of abuse, I cry with laughter.
The Third Task. The maze was awesome and alive and creepifying. Much more frightening than I would have thought. I jumped more than once, and was nerve-wracked - it looked so much better than the photo stills that were released. Fleur being rolled into the vines - nightmarish. The overall mood of the sequence - yes. The glow of the cup in the center, waiting for them, seeming for all the world like a victory... Ah, Harry Potter. How I love you.
The Second Task. I'm not sure, but I think that the four sleep-drowned doll figures of the hostages make for the most unsettling image of the film. You really get the sense that there is something dark and twisted about this contest. I think if I were eight, and I saw this movie, that would have been scariest-looking part. Also, very pleased with the visual of the Bubble Head Charm.
The First Task. Perhaps a little cheesy-chasey, but visually, I loved it. In particular, the animation on the miniature dragons (I want one so much! A mini-dragon to love!) and the pulled-back visual of the dragon perched on the tower, while Harry clung to the sill for life. Gorgeous. Wish I had the poster. Emotionally, I thought there was a wonderful tension to seeing Harry in the tent alone, before the task. That was very book, for me.
Moody and the central mystery. In general, I thought that the mystery was well played, if slightly obvious with the flicky tongue thing. Certainly the best layout of a mystery so far, with the flask and the clever play on words: "I wouldn't even bother telling you what's in there. You wouldn't believe me if I did." Nice! True to form! And Moody himself hit the spot in all the right ways - the Unforgivables, Neville, the ferret scene (heh heh - McGonagall was pretty funny there, too), the way he appeared to be an eccentric and possibly violent but ultimately goodhearted help to Harry, and the final scene in which he turns. Excellent. Just great. Also liked that we got a few fish-eye shots out of his magical eye.
Three other visuals I liked: The prefects' bathroom - though at first I thought the water was rusty, rather than multicolored. And the Quidditch World Cup stadium was wicked awesome. Loved the leprechaun, too. I totally felt the rush of adrenaline that one feels at such a massive sporting event - and yeah, maybe the giant Krum lightshow was over the top, but it LOOKED cool. And last, but certainly not least - in fact, perhaps my favorite visual of all - the Dark Mark (and I'm referring to the one on the arms, as the one in the sky, though very cool, was not composed enough of emerald stars). The creepy way it moved and throbbed in the skin - I never thought of it moving, but now I probably will. Excellent stuff.
And that's it. The end. Holy crap, I'm longwinded.
Of course, it also made me laugh, and not always in a nice way.
Disclaimer: This isn't a review. Reviews are structured and succinct. This is just a list, separated into two parts - the bad and the good, with the bad listed first - and it's stupidly long.
Things they got wrong:
Hermione. Up to now, I've been blaming the directors, producer, and Steve Kloves for the franchise's perpetual bastardization of her character, but this time, Emma Watson gets the blame. She overacts. She's an upstager. Her face is in overly dramatic motion all the time, even when she's not involved in the core action of the scene, and some of her line-readings are embarrassingly bad. "Everything's going to change now, isn't it?" Oy. It's a good thing Harry responded with (in-character!) matter-of-factness, or you could have topped two large pizzas with the cheese. And speaking of Harry: while Book Hermione certainly loves Harry very much, Movie Hermione clearly wants to sleep with him. I wouldn't hold it against anyone who hadn't read the books if, after watching this film, they came to the conclusion that, indeed, Hermione harbors a serious crush on Harry. Her tears of rage over not being asked to the ball by Ron are confusing, given most of her behavior. Seems to me that Movie Hermione would rather cry over Harry.
Ron. Knowing about those dragons, he takes a ridiculous and circuitous route to deliver the information to Harry. Book Ron is jealous and angry at that point in the story, but the second he goes to the first task and realizes what Harry is up against, he is horrified and remorseful, and comes down immediately to try to apologize. That's the entire point. That's what makes the resolution to their fight work. Movie Ron, on the other hand, knows exactly what Harry's up against, and not only does he persist in giving him the silent treatment, he fails immediately, in plain English, to inform his best friend that he's about to be roasted alive. That's so far away from the Ron I know that, though the overall treatment of his character was nowhere near as offensive as what the franchise has done to Movie Ron in the past, it tarnishes his authenticity as a representative of the canon character and makes him an unusually crappy best friend. It also makes the resolution of their fight as unsatisfying as it is unlikely.
The lovely ladies of BeauxBAT'ns. Number one, isn't it a French school? Wouldn't it be BeaxbaTOHN? And wouldn't Dumbledore know that, being, like, a genius? Number two, their prancing into the Great Hall could have been fantastic, had it been done simply. So then... why? Why all the sighing? And the weird leaning? I was mortified by it. I mean, if they had to do it like that, couldn't they have gotten a choreographer with some talent? Number three, why was Gabrielle allowed to come? Did Fleur throw a temper tantrum? Number four - and this is no offense to Clemence Poesy, who is beautiful - Fleur should smack of international supermodel. She shouldn't blend right in with the rest of the BeauxBAT'ns girls. If there's one person in this film who should have been cast almost entirely on looks, it's Fleur. She should blow everyone's hair back. And while she was lovely, she did not blow any hair back, and she was was not Fleur. Number five, I don't know whether to be sickened or impressed by the fact that Madame Maxime ate some kind of snack out of Hagrid's beard. And that's all I have to say about that.
The sons of Durmstrang. None of the Cirque du Soleil fire-breathing and staff-stamping really made much sense, but I'd like to bitch about Viktor in particular. I didn't get the Book Viktor vibe from this guy. Movie Viktor seemed very much to enjoy his fame and to think himself a real rockstar, while Book Viktor seemed to loathe to be followed and bothered. And Movie Viktor seemed to ask Hermione to the Yule Ball for no reason other than that she's cute, rather than finding her honestly compelling because she behaves differently from the others and investing emotionally in her to the point where she becomes the thing he would miss most. Of course, one could argue that it doesn't matter, since the depths of that storyline weren't really pursued - though perhaps the editors kind of forgot that, since they left in the reference to Viktor's trips to the library. Wha?
Cedric. As Cap'n Kathy beautifully put it "Book Cedric is an athlete. Movie Cedric is a jock." And so he is. He lolls about on benches laughing; he grabs people around the neck and goes a-rompin' down the halls, and he has an air of popular arrogance about him, though he seems a nice enough guy. Simply, he lacks the quiet nobility and honor that is inherent - and essential - to Book Cedric. It shines through at moments - key moments, to be fair - but overall, he's not the Real Ced Shady. When Dumbledore gave his speech about Cedric in the end, and cited all of his fabulous qualities, I was puzzled. Was Cedric so exemplary? I mean, I suppose it's pretty impressive that the guy lives in the sky - or at least, that's the conclusion I was forced to draw when he dropped out of it at the beginning of the movie. Was that supposed to be Apparition? Because it seemed like he'd just jumped out of a tree.
Draco. While we're on the subject of people in trees, I should point out that I can't really see Book Draco hanging around in a tree, surrounded by cronies, the way Movie Draco did in this film. When he hopped down from his perch to confront Harry, I laughed like a little freak. It's Draco in a Tree! He perches! He hops! He shakes down leaves on his enemies! Yay!
Arthur. Who, in all other ways, is pretty hot, so I hate to critcize... but I have to, because it's important. If Lucius Malfoy had smacked Harry on the hand with that walking stick in front of Book Arthur, Book Arthur would have gone all Flourish & Blotts on his ass. At the very least he would have told Lucius to step off. But movie Arthur just let it pass. No way, dude. No way.
And a sidenote here, because of the Arthur comment: more than anything else, it's those kinds of misses in characterization that make me dig my fingernails into my palms. The rest of the nitpicks are superficial discrepancies that I can take or leave - really. I list them for my own amusement, but they're not horrible, and they don't significantly detract from my enjoyment of the films. Go ahead, make Flitwick go crowd surfing, give your daughter a part in the movie, whatever. Let the BeauxBAT'ns girls do their laughable "dancing" in the bleachers. I might roll my eyes, but I don't really care. I do care when characters I love are represented as less than what they truly are. Ron would have said something about the dragons. Arthur would have shoved Lucius away from Harry. To make that untrue is to destroy something elemental, not only about those characters, but about the story JKR is telling. It's not just a story about Harry, or about good versus evil, it's also a story about the people who make goodness possible - about the people who buoy Harry up. It's a story about friendship, about love, about loyalty - about these flawed, funny, desperately human characters, who make mistakes like all of us do, but who have, at their cores, a great goodness that gives us all hope that maybe we, too, have a little of that same courage. People need such stories. That's why the whole world is knee deep in Harry Potter. So why is the movie franchise so flippant about that element of it? Why? I can't understand it. I just don't get it. Anyway. Moving on.
Dumbledore. If he manhandled Harry one more time, I was going to reach in there, tie his beard to his dress, and lock him in the trunk with Moody. Get the hell off him, dude! And get with the program: Dumbledore is a fullblooded man with feet of clay, yes, but he is also an insanely powerful wizard. Moreover, he is a person who sets a great deal of store by the considerate treatment of others, no matter what the circumstances. Up to the moment of his death, he is civil and mannerly, calm and collected; even when drained of all physical strength, he still radiates a quiet power, and he still maintains command. He therefore has no need whatsoever to grab a fourteen-year-old kid and shove him into a pillar. One sharp word from him should very nearly quiet the world; no need to resort to professional wrestling techniques. Also, I can't remember the exact speech, but there's a "really" in his reference to Cedric's death - something about it being a "Really awful thing," or "Really terrible" - which might not have been so bad, but for the delivery. Somehow, to me, he sounded callous.
The First Task. My only complaint here is that the dragon battle ranged all over creation and took for-EVA. I guess I just have to accept that this is "Harry Potter Four! Now With New Chase Scenes!" Because no movie is complete without a chase scene. Wait, yes it is.
The Second Task. Which should, perhaps, be a complaint about Harry's characterization, because that's where the nitpick lies: Book Harry is so nerve-wracked, so terrified, by what he believes is at stake in the Second Task, that he would never take the time to show off his fancy gillyweed fins by flipping up into the air like Ariel for all the school to see. It's Exhibitionist Harry! Yay! And speaking of mermaids - while I thought the visuals were really cool, the faraway shot of Dan shooting downward through the water, fins undulating, reminded me irresistably of Zoolander. "Moisture is the essence of wetness...and wetness is the essence of beauty..." And I didn't really get how he shot himself from the lake at the end, but apparently Movie Harry has some snazzy magic up his sleeve and doesn't much need Hermione's help with that kind of thing.
Rita Skeeter. If they weren't going to deliver on that storyline, why waste time with it? Not that I didn't enjoy Ms. Richardson's performance, but if those scenes were removed, what would be lost to the plot, as far as the movie is concerned? I suppose it's possible that they plan to use the Quibbler bits in the OotP movie... but that makes even less sense, given that Movie Hermione does not have Movie Rita in the palm of her hand (and you can take that one literally or figuatively. Up to you.)
Nigel. Another time-waster. As B Bennett rightly put it to me: with all the work they must have had to do to cut down Goblet of Fire to a reasonable length, why, oh why, did they still persist in wasting time on random students like Nigel, the delivery boy who wants Harry's autograph? Sigh.
Moaning (and apparently not just in a sad way) Myrtle. What. A. Perv. Her perviness is canon, sure, okay - but seriously. The lap sitting? The ooohing? The fact that Dan was a minor while shooting and that those two actors are like twenty years apart? Even though I'm sure Myrtle was green-screened and they probably never even saw each other, the scene was still taken too far. It crossed a line, and it made me uncomfortable.
The Imperius Curse. I'm complaining, even though I understand why they did the crazy-eye thing to denote Viktor's submission to the curse, in the maze. They needed the audience to understand completely that he was not acting of his own volition, so that he and Hermione could have their little parting at the end without there being an explanation in between of why Hermione would suddenly commiserate with such a person. However. If it were visually that easy to tell that someone were under the Imperius Curse, it would make it nigh on impossible for Voldemort to have cursed individuals do his bidding without being immediately recognized, and it would have made it much easier for the Ministry to idenify the liars, later on. They'd be about as hard to spot as zombies. Everyone would be like, oh, no! That guy has the crazy Riddick eyes! Get him! Or run away!
Sirius. Or as Zsenya now continually refers to him, "Fire-Head Sirius." Yeah. Not real impressed with the whole ember-face choice. One of these movies' strengths has always been that the visuals are wonderfully evocative of the books, but Fire-Head Sirius was a total miss.
Three other random complaints. I wanted Harry's robes to be bottle green, because I've always been taken by that description. I wanted Hermione's robes not to look like someone projectile vomited purple crayons all over her. And Ginny is not allowed to date Movie Dean. He's totally lame.
Stuff they got RIGHT!
The spirit of the tale. I can tease apart, bit by bit, which moments and choices make this the best of the four films, but what they got right isn't just about the details. PS/SS and CoS had plenty of details, but neither captured the soul of the stories. PoA was less slavish and much closer to the magic, making the first viewing of that film much more satisfying - but in the end, it had sacrificed too many important details and changed too many elements that jarred me, as a fan of the books, so that ultimately it killed my interest repeat viewings. GoF struck a beautiful balance, I felt between canonical detail and the - well - just the feeling of Harry Potter. More than ever before, I felt that I was watching the movie of the book. Not the movie of the cliff notes of a fanfic, but the movie of the book - or at least a damn good attempt at it. I was not terribly optimistic, going in, but a scene or two was all it took for me to relax into it, and a second viewing last night sealed it up for me. I want to buy this one. I want to watch this one. I really like this one. It was nearly bare of those cheesy framed-up jokes and Super!Harry and Badass!Hermione moments that have made me blush for the films in the past. It was secure in its original material, and almost never attempted to improve upon it. It simply served it.
Voldemort. Sweet miracle of miracles. This is, for me, the motherload. Ralph Fiennes' Voldemort is cold, genteel, lustful, graceful, masterfully charming, utterly collected, and legitimately chilling. He is the antithesis of Movie Dumbledore in that here, we finally have a deeply powerful character who clearly feels his power - who requires only the most graceful flicks of his tapered fingers to get the job done. The technical character creation here is also terrifically satisfying - perhaps in part because I was sure that they would not get him even close to acceptable, and instead I found myself rapt. I really was enchanted by what they came up with - with Fiennes, the animation, the costuming, the make-up, the bare feet and feminine fingers that only served to make him more terrifying. I never hoped for this movie franchise to grasp the subtleties of Voldemort, especially after their battery of failures with much less complex characters - but he thrilled me. His return is the big delivery moment of GoF, not to mention the turning point of the series, and they nailed it.
The graveyard sequence. I was so relieved that it didn't suck, and so staggered by how right they got it, that I hardly know where to begin. The Death Eaters called to life through the Dark Mark - gorgeous. The wand battle - very close to my imagination's visuals, if a bit too much lava, or whatever that was. Priori Incantatem didn't look like what I see in my head, but I still found it beautiful. Wormtail could have been a little more troubled by the fact that his hand was gone, perhaps... but that's it. Isaacs put in an good performance as Malfoy, showing him as the steeliest of Voldemort's sycophants - groveling, yes, but not sniveling - quite right. Cedric's wide-eyed death - YES. God. I remember reading that moment for the first time; I remember exactly where I was, and how I felt, and how I saw "Kill the spare," and felt a jolt of horror and shut the book and sat on my fire escape for several minutes, unwilling to open it again, because I didn't want to be on the other side of the story - the dark side of the story, where people die, and Harry sometimes can't save them, and it's a war. I would not have expected the film to make me feel the turning of the tide. But it delivered. Even more disturbing was the moment of Harry and Cedric's return to Hogwarts - the audience cheering, the band playing, the truth slowly registering on a few faces, Fleur's sudden scream, Harry's weeping and refusal to let Cedric's body go, Amos Diggory's open grief. I cried. I think I might always cry at that point in this movie; it's that well done.
DADA. Another scene in which the emotion of the books leaps off the screen with disturbing clarity is the Unforgivables scene. His laughter as he dances the spider about the room - his lack of warning before he flings her into the glass and dangles her above the water - the fall of silence, in the classroom, and the revulsion on the faces of the students - the torment of the spider, and Neville's carefully neutral delivery of the words "Cruciatus Curse"... oh, THANK YOU. I don't know who to thank. Gleeson? Newell? The editors who pulled the timing together so tightly? The animators who made that spider seem to scream? Matthew Lewis, for doing such a wonderful Neville? I don't care. I'll thank whoever I have to thank to get that kind of performance out of this franchise again. That was a scene straight from the book. Hammer, nail, bang, done. Do it again, guys! Do it again!
Harry. Internal Harry. Tense Harry. Allowed to simply react and sit there and mull in his own stew Harry. Not quite so ENFP Harry. I liked so many things about Dan's performance and Newell's direction. His reaction to Cho on the train, and his subsequent dreamy face - his reaction to her in the Great Hall when he embarrassed himself by spitting juice (fabulous) - as well his exchange with her at the top of the Owlery stairs followed by his self-contained mooning with the egg clasped to his chest - so lovely. The whole Cho thing was very well handled, I thought. Other little Harry moments I enjoyed: His sarcastic "Do I?" after Neville tells him he seems tense before the second task; his similar "Spectacular," when asked by Cedric how he's doing; his very in-character withdrawal into "Don't worry about it," when Cedric tries to apologize about the badges; his immersion into the Weasley family at the World Cup, when he sings along with the twins; his matter-of-fact response in the face of Movie Hermione's over the top ending line... he was, for the most part, a very satisfying Harry. As for the mega-acting-moments: the graveyard, the weeping over Cedric, the fall of his face when Dumbledore reminds him that the dead do not come back... I'm so glad that Dan seems to understand Harry so much of the time, in this film. Because boy, do I love Harry.
Cho. I liked her! I could see why Harry would be smitten. And, while this may not have been intentional in terms of setting her up as a bit of a drama queen for OotP, I loved it when she waved to the crowd upon surfacing from the lake, after the second task. That seemed quite Cho-ish to me.
The twins. Continuing in the grand tradition of the PoA movie, the twins were allowed to be the twins! Their tandem twindom is delightful; I'm so glad that they've been given a continually larger role and that their spirit has been better displayed each time. Fred asking Angelina to the ball - oh YES he did. ;alksdjf;laskdjf Their self-congratulatory romp across the age-line - perfection. This movie delivers more true-to-book moments than any other, and though much was cut, enough was kept to preserve the delight, and not only the darkness, of GoF. The twins are a huge part of that, and they are used to marvelous effect.
Ginny. Oh, if Emma would only take a few lessons from Bonnie. Bonnie's a natural. Her face is at rest, when she is listening. She is actively engaged in her scenes without being forcedly animated about everything that involves her. As Ginny, she delivers a lovely, happy, amusing little girl, who is into her own thing, off in her own Ginny place. Her vocal inflections are normal and real, her carriage at the Yule Ball is lovely, and there is an openness to her countenance that I really like. Her dealings with Ron, both regarding the dress robes and post-Fleur-debacle, are very satisfying to this Ginny fan, as was the gorgeous visual of her at the top of the sunlit hill. Yay.
Ron. Either Rupert is growing into his acting chops or Mike Newell is simply better at curbing his mugging tendencies than the other directors have been, or perhaps it's both. But this was a much closer Ron than ever before. The narrow look he gave Harry after he was chosen as a Champion was very good, as was his mumbled refusal of money at the snack-cart on the Hogwarts Express. I thought he handled his exchanges with Hermione well. And they should thank Rupert, because he has enough personal warmth to make that stupid resolution to the Ron/Harry fight almost work, even though, as I think I might have said, it's a stupid resolution.
The Unexpected Task. Talk about delightful. I could eat Terminal Bachelor Harry and Ron with a spoon, they are so like their canon counterparts. I was pretty damn satisfied with the entirety of the Yule Ball, especially considering that my copy of GoF opens to that scene, where the spine is broken from wear, thanks to countless re-reads during the Time of the Shipping Wars. I LOVE that scene. Didn't we all? I didn't expect it to be very good, in the movie, but it was. Parvati was bossy about her waist, and she and her sister were satisfyingly disgusted with their dates. Neville and Ginny were DARLING. I'll eat them with a spoon too. I loved that after the obligatory centuries-old dance, the kids broke right down into a little mosh pit. I loved that the Weird Sisters' music was believable as prom music. And I loved, LOVED Hermione, who, in that scene, is also spoonworthy.
Hermione. Emma makes my happy list for her performance at the ball. It's one of the few times in the movies when they let Hermione be a little girl. Not just a taskmaster, a mother hen, or an action figure - but a little girl who has a date and is alight with joy. Emma nailed it, from the moment she squeaked and waved as she passed Harry to the moment she burst into tears. You could see her pride and giddiness at feeling like a beautiful grown up - and yet she was so easily shaken down by Ron into a place of insecurity and anger. I think the scene is her best onscreen so far, both as an actress and a character (although baby Hermione, marching miserably past Harry and Ron in the first film with her little arms hugging her books for comfort, might still be my favorite).
Neville. Oh, poor, sweet baby. I hug and hug him, in the movie as in the book. I have nothing else to say about that.
Snape. I should complain about the way he smacks Harry and Ron around, because it's not entirely in character - but I don't care. When Rickman snaps his sleeve-ends in prep for another round of abuse, I cry with laughter.
The Third Task. The maze was awesome and alive and creepifying. Much more frightening than I would have thought. I jumped more than once, and was nerve-wracked - it looked so much better than the photo stills that were released. Fleur being rolled into the vines - nightmarish. The overall mood of the sequence - yes. The glow of the cup in the center, waiting for them, seeming for all the world like a victory... Ah, Harry Potter. How I love you.
The Second Task. I'm not sure, but I think that the four sleep-drowned doll figures of the hostages make for the most unsettling image of the film. You really get the sense that there is something dark and twisted about this contest. I think if I were eight, and I saw this movie, that would have been scariest-looking part. Also, very pleased with the visual of the Bubble Head Charm.
The First Task. Perhaps a little cheesy-chasey, but visually, I loved it. In particular, the animation on the miniature dragons (I want one so much! A mini-dragon to love!) and the pulled-back visual of the dragon perched on the tower, while Harry clung to the sill for life. Gorgeous. Wish I had the poster. Emotionally, I thought there was a wonderful tension to seeing Harry in the tent alone, before the task. That was very book, for me.
Moody and the central mystery. In general, I thought that the mystery was well played, if slightly obvious with the flicky tongue thing. Certainly the best layout of a mystery so far, with the flask and the clever play on words: "I wouldn't even bother telling you what's in there. You wouldn't believe me if I did." Nice! True to form! And Moody himself hit the spot in all the right ways - the Unforgivables, Neville, the ferret scene (heh heh - McGonagall was pretty funny there, too), the way he appeared to be an eccentric and possibly violent but ultimately goodhearted help to Harry, and the final scene in which he turns. Excellent. Just great. Also liked that we got a few fish-eye shots out of his magical eye.
Three other visuals I liked: The prefects' bathroom - though at first I thought the water was rusty, rather than multicolored. And the Quidditch World Cup stadium was wicked awesome. Loved the leprechaun, too. I totally felt the rush of adrenaline that one feels at such a massive sporting event - and yeah, maybe the giant Krum lightshow was over the top, but it LOOKED cool. And last, but certainly not least - in fact, perhaps my favorite visual of all - the Dark Mark (and I'm referring to the one on the arms, as the one in the sky, though very cool, was not composed enough of emerald stars). The creepy way it moved and throbbed in the skin - I never thought of it moving, but now I probably will. Excellent stuff.
And that's it. The end. Holy crap, I'm longwinded.