Oh. My. God.
I just returned a few minutes ago from seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and holy god I am still in shock. It was extraordinary, d00dz. Oh my goodness.
So, let's see. My ramble. LJ-cut for spoilers.
Oh. My. God. This movie was by far the best of them all. Of course I have complaints, chiefly about cuts that were made, but I also know that they didn't have a lot of options because of time constraints, so I'll try not to whinge too much about it.
Some of the main things that went bye-bye: Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Dobby, Winky, Bagman, Bertha Jorkins, Bellatrix, Sirius...there were other things, I'm sure, but I'm still in such a state of amazement I can't remember them right now.
My other main complaint is about character design: I didn't really like the way they realized Mad-Eye Moody. He's rather short and stocky, and his eye, to me, looks almost cartoonish. I'd always pictured him as being rather tall and bony, and one of his eyes just being far larger than the other instead of it having that odd eyepatch look it ended up with. Excuse the poor grammar, at this point in time it's 3:23 AM and I can barely formulate sentences. Keep in mind it's taking me multiple tries to type most of these words.
Anyway. Among the things I loved about it (besides, of course, the abundance of British schoolboy hawtness): VOLDEMORT. Holy cow Ralph Fiennes was amazing. If you've read a review of the film, every positive thing they had to say about him is true. He was unbelievable. I was creeped right out. Not so much scared - I think at this point I'm too involved with the fandom to be genuinely scared of him - but I was definitely spooked. They got his appearance down perfectly, too, right down to the creepy flat snake nose. His tounge was even forked. OMG.
Hmm. Another thing I liked, relating to that: the graveyard scene and its aftermath were remarkably well-done. I was extremely concerned that they would be reminiscent of the "I'll be ready!" scene from PoA, in which - let's admit it - Dan overacted like whoa. This, though - this was beautifully done. I liked the "kill the spare" bit: that was all it was: Voldemort goes "Kill the spare," Wormtail says "Avada Kedavra," flash of light, Cedric's dead. Bang. Just like that. Before we really had time to react to the scene. Which I thought was a good thing. The entire point (I think) was that the act of killing Cedric was entirely emotionless, and it was. The sequence was stripped of any emotion; it just happened. And that was that. And it moved on. Which works: that's Voldemort's mindset, and that of his followers, that killing is just a thing that you do and it's really inconsequential.
Yeah, so enough rambling about that. Moving on. One thing I did find odd was that they cut out some of the lines of the spell that brings Voldemort back: Wormtail only said the "bones of the father, unknowingly given, flesh of the servant, willingly given, blood of the enemy, unwillingly taken," or whatever, part. Which I thought was, again, odd; there was no real reason to cut out those lines - it's not as though they're particularly long. Oh well.
The few moments it took for Voldemort to actually progress from his creepy-infant stage to fully-formed creepyass badguy form were also really well put-together. Actually it kind of reminded me of Alien, or something; he floated up into the air out of the cauldron and sort of grew very quickly, then the cauldron melted into smoke and became his robe, and holy crap it was just astounding. Again, Ralph Fiennes played the role perfectly. Right now I'm too incoherent to think of good adjectives and/or similies to use to describe his performance, but suffice it to say that he has Voldemort down exactly. I was extremely impressed.
Even Priori Incantatem worked out much better than I thought it would. The actual struggle between Harry and Voldemort to 'win' seemed a bit short, and I honestly think that unless one had read the book/had been told what was going on, it wouldn't have been apparent that they were struggling to gain control of the spell, but in the grand scheme of things I suppose that's a rather small wank. The spirits that came out - in this case, only Cedric, Frank Bryce, James, and Lily, in that order - were very ghostly, and colorless. Frank Bryce didn't say anything. He just kinda hung there, and you only saw him for a few seconds. James and Lily both spoke to Harry, as did Cedric, of course, but one thing I thought was sort of odd about the scene was that he didn't really react to their presence. He looked appropriately freaked out by the entire thing, as I should hope he would be, but there was no real change of expression when he saw his parents, no sign that he'd registered who they were. Again, I thought this was rather odd - he angsted so much about them in the first three movies, and now he doesn't respond when he does come face-to-face with them? Hmm. I could have sworn I remembered him reacting more strongly in the book, but then again, it's been quite some time since last I read it.
Moving on...when they returned from they graveyard - wow. Another scene that had the potential to go badly wrong, and didn't. I don't know the name of the guy who played Amos Diggory, but he was quite good. No, I'm telling it out of order. So: they come back, right, and Harry's just sort of lying there making these odd choking, sobbing noises; the randomass Hogwarts band (?????) starts playing, people are cheering and applauding and crowding around - and then Fleur screams, and people start getting confused...someone, I forget who, goes "He's dead!" and people start milling around, other people say things about him being dead, Harry starts babbling about bringing back Cedric's body - and Amos Diggory pushes through the crowd, and starts saying, "That's my boy. That's my boy." He falls down next to Cedric's body and grabs his face and just keeps going, "That's my boy." It was - yes, I know this is cliche, shut it - it was haunting. My eyes actually filled up with tears.
Hmm. Okay. I think that's all there is with that scene. Let's see. ...What else was there? Oh! Rita! Oh my god. Miranda Richardson was perfect. I adored her Rita. She wasn't quite as aggravating as the character in the book - by the end of the book I was quite glad she was stuck as a beetle, and would have gleefully gone to visit her in the bug exhibit at a zoo or whatever. In the film, it was more of a "oh just go away already you harpy" sort of thing - I just wished she'd leave. If that makes any sense. (It's 3:48 now, don't be surprised if it doesn't.)
Neville was quite good. I'm having a brain fart and not remembering the actor's name, but he did a lovely job. I think GoF is where Neville really starts to come into his own, and it was obvious that he was doing so in this, just in the way he stepped up and spoke sometimes, or just - god. I don't know. My train of thought just derailed. But he was good.
Um. There was someone else I wanted to mention. Oh! Fred and George! In the third movie I really thought more of their dynamic came across than had in the first two; that continued with this one. Fred and George aren't just a couple of silly idiots, and we all know this, even though that's sort of what they've been reduced to in the films, and what in hell does that have to do with anything? I've gone entirely off topic. Anyway. Oliver and - and - blast it, the Phelps twins, that're playing them, are really pulling their characters off splendidly. One of the scenes I thought was particularly well done in PoA was when they gave Harry the Marauder's Map, and the dialogue was switching back in forth between them in a way that I went - "There. They got it. That's Fred and George." All of their scenes in GoF were like that. They're beginning to understand their characters better, I think, or Steve Kloves is, or maybe that's Mike Newell, but whoever it is, they were just really good in this one.
Ummm. Fleur, Krum, Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime all had greatly reduced roles, as did Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, and the other Gryffindors, among others. Honestly, though, considering the time constraints, I thought they did all right with conveying the essence of their characters to the audience. I was slightly disappointed that Fleur and Krum weren't given more to say, though, not being a screenwriter myself, I couldn't begin to tell you where more could have been said.
I think if I had to choose one major complaint, it would be that the whole thing felt sort of rushed. Again, I know Kloves and Newell were working with a serious time constraint, but I also thought that the action jumped much too quickly between the tasks, and didn't talk enough about what happened in-between them. Part of what makes the characters so believeable in the books is that we see them interacting with each other in a way that's real; even Harry, Ron, and Hermione have times when they have to deal with schoolwork, or general teenagerish things, that interfere with being Heroes. Most of that was gone in this film. Actually, I believe the only time we saw them in class was when Moody did his Unforgivables lesson. There was of course the extremely odd and amusing scene in which McGonagall taught the students how to dance, but when exactly that was supposed to take place I'm not certain. I really think that this one is going to be a little difficult for people who haven't read the books to understand; those of us who have can just fill in the gaps ourselves, but there are some large time jumps that occur that I can easily see being confusing to someone who doesn't know what's going on in-between scenes.
...Okay, I know there was more I had to say. However, it will have to be said (at first I typed "be will have to said") later.
-edit-1:42PM- A thing I forgot - Cho! Cho was actually quite good, even though she had the thickest Scottish accent in the history of existence, which I found interesting. But she was rather good. I found myself really liking her at the end of the movie (I no longer like her in the books, and even in GoF I was sort of indifferent towards her). I thought they should have given her a bit more screen time after they realize Cedric is dead...as I remember they just sort of showed her face, starting to break down into tears, and that was it. Hmm. Oh well.
Anyway...as I type this it's 4:01 (note that I started around 3:20) and I'm having severe issues with typing and sentence-forming. I'm extremely worried I'm going to nod off and sleep straight through tomorrow - or today, whatever. I can't miss art history tomorrow, I can't, I've a quiz and I have to quit missing that class. (Has anyone else ever tried to do HTML when your brain feels like it's falling out your ears? Try it sometime. It's extremely difficult.) Fortunately I can miss writing workshop, as since we have a paper due next week I'm pretty sure all we're going to be doing is talking about it and I really don't need to talk about it. I just need to get my ass in gear and actually work. So I can come back here and powernap. I'm concerned about French though...I know we were supposed to have done some kind of project on French cinema, but I'm extremely unclear on what, exactly, that project entails. I severely hope I'm not the only person who's confused.
Shit. I'm falling asleep as I type. My original plan was just to stay awake until art history, do that, come back and sleep, go to French, then come back and sleep some more. Hopefully I can wake myself up in time to see Avatar, because I haven't seen it in a long time and it's very frustrating, since I know all sorts of interesting things are happening and I don't know what they are. Grr. Like this Zula chick. Who the hell is she? I've heard she's Zuko's sister. Is that right? I don't even know.
And I'm well and truly rambling now. I'm trying to stop myself, I really am, but the words just keep coming...I'm, like, drunk on exhaustion, if that's possible.
All right. I'm going to go before I make a complete fool of myself.
Ah yes, and one last thing - the lj cut text is something Ron said at the end of the movie that struck me as actually being rather deep, if you think about it. Oooooo.
Okay. Peace.
So, let's see. My ramble. LJ-cut for spoilers.
Oh. My. God. This movie was by far the best of them all. Of course I have complaints, chiefly about cuts that were made, but I also know that they didn't have a lot of options because of time constraints, so I'll try not to whinge too much about it.
Some of the main things that went bye-bye: Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Dobby, Winky, Bagman, Bertha Jorkins, Bellatrix, Sirius...there were other things, I'm sure, but I'm still in such a state of amazement I can't remember them right now.
My other main complaint is about character design: I didn't really like the way they realized Mad-Eye Moody. He's rather short and stocky, and his eye, to me, looks almost cartoonish. I'd always pictured him as being rather tall and bony, and one of his eyes just being far larger than the other instead of it having that odd eyepatch look it ended up with. Excuse the poor grammar, at this point in time it's 3:23 AM and I can barely formulate sentences. Keep in mind it's taking me multiple tries to type most of these words.
Anyway. Among the things I loved about it (besides, of course, the abundance of British schoolboy hawtness): VOLDEMORT. Holy cow Ralph Fiennes was amazing. If you've read a review of the film, every positive thing they had to say about him is true. He was unbelievable. I was creeped right out. Not so much scared - I think at this point I'm too involved with the fandom to be genuinely scared of him - but I was definitely spooked. They got his appearance down perfectly, too, right down to the creepy flat snake nose. His tounge was even forked. OMG.
Hmm. Another thing I liked, relating to that: the graveyard scene and its aftermath were remarkably well-done. I was extremely concerned that they would be reminiscent of the "I'll be ready!" scene from PoA, in which - let's admit it - Dan overacted like whoa. This, though - this was beautifully done. I liked the "kill the spare" bit: that was all it was: Voldemort goes "Kill the spare," Wormtail says "Avada Kedavra," flash of light, Cedric's dead. Bang. Just like that. Before we really had time to react to the scene. Which I thought was a good thing. The entire point (I think) was that the act of killing Cedric was entirely emotionless, and it was. The sequence was stripped of any emotion; it just happened. And that was that. And it moved on. Which works: that's Voldemort's mindset, and that of his followers, that killing is just a thing that you do and it's really inconsequential.
Yeah, so enough rambling about that. Moving on. One thing I did find odd was that they cut out some of the lines of the spell that brings Voldemort back: Wormtail only said the "bones of the father, unknowingly given, flesh of the servant, willingly given, blood of the enemy, unwillingly taken," or whatever, part. Which I thought was, again, odd; there was no real reason to cut out those lines - it's not as though they're particularly long. Oh well.
The few moments it took for Voldemort to actually progress from his creepy-infant stage to fully-formed creepyass badguy form were also really well put-together. Actually it kind of reminded me of Alien, or something; he floated up into the air out of the cauldron and sort of grew very quickly, then the cauldron melted into smoke and became his robe, and holy crap it was just astounding. Again, Ralph Fiennes played the role perfectly. Right now I'm too incoherent to think of good adjectives and/or similies to use to describe his performance, but suffice it to say that he has Voldemort down exactly. I was extremely impressed.
Even Priori Incantatem worked out much better than I thought it would. The actual struggle between Harry and Voldemort to 'win' seemed a bit short, and I honestly think that unless one had read the book/had been told what was going on, it wouldn't have been apparent that they were struggling to gain control of the spell, but in the grand scheme of things I suppose that's a rather small wank. The spirits that came out - in this case, only Cedric, Frank Bryce, James, and Lily, in that order - were very ghostly, and colorless. Frank Bryce didn't say anything. He just kinda hung there, and you only saw him for a few seconds. James and Lily both spoke to Harry, as did Cedric, of course, but one thing I thought was sort of odd about the scene was that he didn't really react to their presence. He looked appropriately freaked out by the entire thing, as I should hope he would be, but there was no real change of expression when he saw his parents, no sign that he'd registered who they were. Again, I thought this was rather odd - he angsted so much about them in the first three movies, and now he doesn't respond when he does come face-to-face with them? Hmm. I could have sworn I remembered him reacting more strongly in the book, but then again, it's been quite some time since last I read it.
Moving on...when they returned from they graveyard - wow. Another scene that had the potential to go badly wrong, and didn't. I don't know the name of the guy who played Amos Diggory, but he was quite good. No, I'm telling it out of order. So: they come back, right, and Harry's just sort of lying there making these odd choking, sobbing noises; the randomass Hogwarts band (?????) starts playing, people are cheering and applauding and crowding around - and then Fleur screams, and people start getting confused...someone, I forget who, goes "He's dead!" and people start milling around, other people say things about him being dead, Harry starts babbling about bringing back Cedric's body - and Amos Diggory pushes through the crowd, and starts saying, "That's my boy. That's my boy." He falls down next to Cedric's body and grabs his face and just keeps going, "That's my boy." It was - yes, I know this is cliche, shut it - it was haunting. My eyes actually filled up with tears.
Hmm. Okay. I think that's all there is with that scene. Let's see. ...What else was there? Oh! Rita! Oh my god. Miranda Richardson was perfect. I adored her Rita. She wasn't quite as aggravating as the character in the book - by the end of the book I was quite glad she was stuck as a beetle, and would have gleefully gone to visit her in the bug exhibit at a zoo or whatever. In the film, it was more of a "oh just go away already you harpy" sort of thing - I just wished she'd leave. If that makes any sense. (It's 3:48 now, don't be surprised if it doesn't.)
Neville was quite good. I'm having a brain fart and not remembering the actor's name, but he did a lovely job. I think GoF is where Neville really starts to come into his own, and it was obvious that he was doing so in this, just in the way he stepped up and spoke sometimes, or just - god. I don't know. My train of thought just derailed. But he was good.
Um. There was someone else I wanted to mention. Oh! Fred and George! In the third movie I really thought more of their dynamic came across than had in the first two; that continued with this one. Fred and George aren't just a couple of silly idiots, and we all know this, even though that's sort of what they've been reduced to in the films, and what in hell does that have to do with anything? I've gone entirely off topic. Anyway. Oliver and - and - blast it, the Phelps twins, that're playing them, are really pulling their characters off splendidly. One of the scenes I thought was particularly well done in PoA was when they gave Harry the Marauder's Map, and the dialogue was switching back in forth between them in a way that I went - "There. They got it. That's Fred and George." All of their scenes in GoF were like that. They're beginning to understand their characters better, I think, or Steve Kloves is, or maybe that's Mike Newell, but whoever it is, they were just really good in this one.
Ummm. Fleur, Krum, Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime all had greatly reduced roles, as did Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, and the other Gryffindors, among others. Honestly, though, considering the time constraints, I thought they did all right with conveying the essence of their characters to the audience. I was slightly disappointed that Fleur and Krum weren't given more to say, though, not being a screenwriter myself, I couldn't begin to tell you where more could have been said.
I think if I had to choose one major complaint, it would be that the whole thing felt sort of rushed. Again, I know Kloves and Newell were working with a serious time constraint, but I also thought that the action jumped much too quickly between the tasks, and didn't talk enough about what happened in-between them. Part of what makes the characters so believeable in the books is that we see them interacting with each other in a way that's real; even Harry, Ron, and Hermione have times when they have to deal with schoolwork, or general teenagerish things, that interfere with being Heroes. Most of that was gone in this film. Actually, I believe the only time we saw them in class was when Moody did his Unforgivables lesson. There was of course the extremely odd and amusing scene in which McGonagall taught the students how to dance, but when exactly that was supposed to take place I'm not certain. I really think that this one is going to be a little difficult for people who haven't read the books to understand; those of us who have can just fill in the gaps ourselves, but there are some large time jumps that occur that I can easily see being confusing to someone who doesn't know what's going on in-between scenes.
...Okay, I know there was more I had to say. However, it will have to be said (at first I typed "be will have to said") later.
-edit-1:42PM- A thing I forgot - Cho! Cho was actually quite good, even though she had the thickest Scottish accent in the history of existence, which I found interesting. But she was rather good. I found myself really liking her at the end of the movie (I no longer like her in the books, and even in GoF I was sort of indifferent towards her). I thought they should have given her a bit more screen time after they realize Cedric is dead...as I remember they just sort of showed her face, starting to break down into tears, and that was it. Hmm. Oh well.
Anyway...as I type this it's 4:01 (note that I started around 3:20) and I'm having severe issues with typing and sentence-forming. I'm extremely worried I'm going to nod off and sleep straight through tomorrow - or today, whatever. I can't miss art history tomorrow, I can't, I've a quiz and I have to quit missing that class. (Has anyone else ever tried to do HTML when your brain feels like it's falling out your ears? Try it sometime. It's extremely difficult.) Fortunately I can miss writing workshop, as since we have a paper due next week I'm pretty sure all we're going to be doing is talking about it and I really don't need to talk about it. I just need to get my ass in gear and actually work. So I can come back here and powernap. I'm concerned about French though...I know we were supposed to have done some kind of project on French cinema, but I'm extremely unclear on what, exactly, that project entails. I severely hope I'm not the only person who's confused.
Shit. I'm falling asleep as I type. My original plan was just to stay awake until art history, do that, come back and sleep, go to French, then come back and sleep some more. Hopefully I can wake myself up in time to see Avatar, because I haven't seen it in a long time and it's very frustrating, since I know all sorts of interesting things are happening and I don't know what they are. Grr. Like this Zula chick. Who the hell is she? I've heard she's Zuko's sister. Is that right? I don't even know.
And I'm well and truly rambling now. I'm trying to stop myself, I really am, but the words just keep coming...I'm, like, drunk on exhaustion, if that's possible.
All right. I'm going to go before I make a complete fool of myself.
Ah yes, and one last thing - the lj cut text is something Ron said at the end of the movie that struck me as actually being rather deep, if you think about it. Oooooo.
Okay. Peace.