GoF movie review (again)!
"Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!"
Half Blood Prince
Chapter 25 p451
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of NYC GoF premiere are now complete. New icons up. No one will resist the cuteness of Roonil Wazlib.
Ah, Dobby rocks for saying that and so does GoF! Hands down it's the best HP movie and probably will sustain the title depending on how the rest of the movies are directed and scripted. Now before everyone wants to plunge out at me, I have clarify a few things that made my GoF viewing experience delightful. For one, I had not read GoF in ages; seriously I'm most likely not too far off when I say it's been a year or more. I read the book this week right after the movie and let me say, GoF is one of the most fun to read in the series. I've been an idiot for depriving myself of it for so long yet I'll stop there since I'm not reviewing the book itself but the on-screen adaptation. I headed off to Jersey City with my mum and Maria taking the Path once more transfering at the Journal Square stop and getting off at Pavonia/Newport Centre. I've yet to find the movie theatre in Newark sadly so Newport Mall it was.
Yay, my first movie seen at the movies. Heading off all the way up to the Food Court on the 3rd floor we bought tickets for the 3:15 screening but the vendor dude was all like, "are you really sure you want tickets for this time? there's only 38 seats left and you could wait until 3:45 for the next showing." God, no we were not gonna wait an extra half hour. How dare he dissuade me and Maria from watching GoF? I thought I've been patient enough and this was as far as my patience could go standing mere yards away from the theatre. I thought it was worth the risk since Maria had already seen it and I pretty much had the images of the movie in my head. What do we find but the very first rows with plenty of seats empty? Ha, vendor dude didn't take in mind that those unoccupied 38 seats could've been located anywhere. Maria signaled towards the 5th or 6th row so we sat there but I spotted the first 3 rows with vacanies so we moved up to the third row and that was only because the first row was too close to the screen for our liking. Plus the place wasn't full to the brim with an audience. Thus I have encountered at least one advantage to being an HP fan in an urban area. Urban kids=hate reading->think HP is lame->less people at the movies (even though some non-readers attend)
Amazingly, because I set out to search for so many spoilers (images, reviews, clips) I knew the movie like the back of my hand before ever having seen it. It just didn't fully sink in until I saw GoF. Hypothetical Indra (conditions:had read GoF recently and had not had an ounce of spoiling):
Dude how can you cut out the Weasleys at the Dursleys. The Ton-Tongue toffee would have been so cool to see!
Ugh, why would you put Barty Crouch Jr in the Riddle House? Stupid non-readers ruin everything!
OMG! ~throws whatever she can find at screen~ You mothereffers! ~sobs hysterically~ How can you cut the Quidditch World Cup? That's the best quidditch in the entire series!
It's official. I hate Dumbledore. Steve Kloves has read the books, right?
Dooooooooooobbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! ~more hysterics~
The maze is soooooo lame.
Say it isn't so. Half the book is gone!
Now my actual reactions:
Nice move with the Angel of Death to start off the movie with a great horror feel to it. OMG, I loved Cedric's appearance because he is dashing. After 10 min, how is anybody supposed to follow this movie? It was much too choppy at the beginning. The transition progressed a bit and it lost its rushed quality later on. Jason Isaacs delivered his Malfoy lines spectacularly (if it rains, you'll be the first to know). Tom Felton was one fine piece of Malfoy might I say espcially with that black suit to accentuate him. I was bothered by the fact that the Weasleys and Hermione were still running around the campsite when everyone else departed in terror. The first task was extended for way too much time. Those 10 ten minutes could have been reduced to at least 5 or 7 and used the spare to introduce something like the fact that Rita Skeeter is an animagus. The DADA class was well portrayed not to mention the added bonus of seeing the spider lunge at Draco. You had to love Neville's performance too. Seriously, what male in the HP movies isn't good-looking? Us fangirls are so lucky. Fred and George's trademark humour finally shone through yet they haven't really hinted at WWW and even less at the 1000 galleons which poses a stronger dilemma for their dynamic exit in OotP. I like how the ferret scene was set up with another motive for Draco to agonise Harry with due to the lack of mention of the Ministry managing post-QWC. I know Beauxbatons and Durmstrang want to show off but the whole seductive sighing merged with pixie-thingies was absolutely pointless as was the spark-sticks. Why'd they waste CGI on pixie-thingies? Harry was being an OOC attention-whore with his whole "do you want me to open [the egg]?"
It was uplifting finally seeing the Yule Ball. Apparently Hogwarts now has a chorus as a club activity. I thought that the dancing lessons were a bit of a waste of film since Harry messed up waltzing anyway and the other champions and partners' better dancing wasn't emphasised that much. Not only that but a few minutes later, Hogwarts turned into a mosh pit. Flashing an image of a punk rock band was bad taste as well. The Yule Ball felt too short to me because it was the part I wanted prolonged as much as possible but conveyed its message well. Ron was being a bit possessive of Hermione which was excellent yet I didn't feel there was enough motive for Hermione to start crying like that.
In regards to Task 2, Neville without a doubt had the best line in the movie! "I've killed Harry Potter!" BLOODY BRILLIANT. Moaning Myrtle was over perverted moreover considering JKR had not written her as shameless as that. The scene was too long and mighty disturbing knowing it is a 40yr old woman bringing Myrtle to life. We did learn at least that Dan has nice abs. Rita Skeeter goes without saying was perfect. Task 3 was fairly made up for with the killer hedges. I enjoyed how Cedric and Harry were racing for the cup. For a moment I thought Cedric was going to run for it after Harry had just saved him. The only time I found Voldemort worthy of the part was during his transformation when he looked like the alien from Species. They should have kept the red eyes what with the movie being PG-13 and all. For some crazy reason, he reminded me of the Grinch. His DE didn't seem to be as terrified as they should have been and Wormtail was pretty upbeat for someone who had not 3 minutes ago cut his hand off. I would've been satisfied with the phoenix song and the golden webbed dome yet alas, it was excluded. Harry's crying improved drastically in this movie. Pfft, in PoA he was simply whimpering, this was the real thing. If Amos had been an a***hole involving the "my son is better than yours/Harry Potter summoned the Dark Mark/What were you doing with that wand, elf?" subplots, then you would have not felt sorry one bit. I was prepared to cry but unfortunately nothing came out. It was as if it wasn't real enough for me. The end was quite jumbled too and man oh man, they so needed to bring the parting of ways scene in there. They should've kept Dumbledore's original discourse about Cedric but the one said was decent enough.
All in all, fantastic movie. It's fun to watch over and over. However, I could've waited until the dvd is released if put up to the challenge. With all the clips, reviews, and images I had seen it turned out I had seen practically the entire movie in the comfort of my room. The only thing I wasn't clued in on was the graveyard scene but even then I had seen what Voldemort looked like before and after the resurrection. 2nd reason why I thought it was the best movie: There was virtually nothing new while I was watching the movie amazingly enough. If I had been the hypothetical Indra, then I would've been heartbroken though it turns out this was the first HP movie I thoroughly enjoyed without a single complaint while viewing it. All that spoilage over cut-out scenes utterly influenced me to chip away at my disillusion of another sucky HP movie months and weeks ahead. I was in awe at how everything I watched I had already seen. There was barely anything unknown to get excited over. I really did know the movie through and through. Darn WB, you gave GoF away. My spoiler policy for OotP: read OotP, do not look at clips, read reviews partially, do not look at images Otherwise I'll end up a submissive viewer that forgets canon.
How about all those slashy sections, eh? Ron "in love" with Krum, Harry sprawled over Cedric, Karkaroff and Snape in a closet, Crouch Jr flicking his tongue at Snape...
Lines that take the cake too: *Harry: We're in a broom cupboard. Rita: Then you'll feel right at home.* *Curiosity is not a sin.* *And I said Yes!*
Let's make HP movies 3hrs from now on!
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=257496
Oslo, Norway November 23, 2005
A Norwegian church that included the popular Harry Potter character as a theme in the worship service has raised some questions among Norwegian priests, reports said on Wednesday.
Priests and young members of the congregation in the 12th-century Berg church in Halden, south of Oslo, helped put together the service with the theme Harry Potter Meets Jesus.
The church was packed and many of the congregation had dressed up as characters in the Harry Potter films, newspaper Vart Land said.
Organist Michael Servant played theme music from the movies while the priest, vicar and many children walked in procession dressed in red and black gowns.
The latest film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, premiered on Friday in Norway -- the day after the sixth Harry Potter novel was published in Norwegian.
Theologian Hakon Stornes, a youth priest in Bergen, western Norway -- who has used theatre performances in services for children and youth -- was one of the critics.
"The church has enough good stories," Stornes said, noting that he has made good use of Noah's Ark and St Francis of Assisi.
His other criticism was that "Harry Potter's literary universe is set in a magical adventure land, far from what children and youth today experience as relevant for their daily lives".
Berg church vicar Per Chr Solberg said the service was a success and attracted many children who do not normally attend church.
About 85% of Norway's 4,5-million inhabitants are baptised members of the state Church of Norway. -- Sapa-DPA
And this is how you get people to come to Mass, hehe.
Half Blood Prince
Chapter 25 p451
Parts 1, 2, and 3 of NYC GoF premiere are now complete. New icons up. No one will resist the cuteness of Roonil Wazlib.
Ah, Dobby rocks for saying that and so does GoF! Hands down it's the best HP movie and probably will sustain the title depending on how the rest of the movies are directed and scripted. Now before everyone wants to plunge out at me, I have clarify a few things that made my GoF viewing experience delightful. For one, I had not read GoF in ages; seriously I'm most likely not too far off when I say it's been a year or more. I read the book this week right after the movie and let me say, GoF is one of the most fun to read in the series. I've been an idiot for depriving myself of it for so long yet I'll stop there since I'm not reviewing the book itself but the on-screen adaptation. I headed off to Jersey City with my mum and Maria taking the Path once more transfering at the Journal Square stop and getting off at Pavonia/Newport Centre. I've yet to find the movie theatre in Newark sadly so Newport Mall it was.
Yay, my first movie seen at the movies. Heading off all the way up to the Food Court on the 3rd floor we bought tickets for the 3:15 screening but the vendor dude was all like, "are you really sure you want tickets for this time? there's only 38 seats left and you could wait until 3:45 for the next showing." God, no we were not gonna wait an extra half hour. How dare he dissuade me and Maria from watching GoF? I thought I've been patient enough and this was as far as my patience could go standing mere yards away from the theatre. I thought it was worth the risk since Maria had already seen it and I pretty much had the images of the movie in my head. What do we find but the very first rows with plenty of seats empty? Ha, vendor dude didn't take in mind that those unoccupied 38 seats could've been located anywhere. Maria signaled towards the 5th or 6th row so we sat there but I spotted the first 3 rows with vacanies so we moved up to the third row and that was only because the first row was too close to the screen for our liking. Plus the place wasn't full to the brim with an audience. Thus I have encountered at least one advantage to being an HP fan in an urban area. Urban kids=hate reading->think HP is lame->less people at the movies (even though some non-readers attend)
Amazingly, because I set out to search for so many spoilers (images, reviews, clips) I knew the movie like the back of my hand before ever having seen it. It just didn't fully sink in until I saw GoF. Hypothetical Indra (conditions:had read GoF recently and had not had an ounce of spoiling):
Dude how can you cut out the Weasleys at the Dursleys. The Ton-Tongue toffee would have been so cool to see!
Ugh, why would you put Barty Crouch Jr in the Riddle House? Stupid non-readers ruin everything!
OMG! ~throws whatever she can find at screen~ You mothereffers! ~sobs hysterically~ How can you cut the Quidditch World Cup? That's the best quidditch in the entire series!
It's official. I hate Dumbledore. Steve Kloves has read the books, right?
Dooooooooooobbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! ~more hysterics~
The maze is soooooo lame.
Say it isn't so. Half the book is gone!
Now my actual reactions:
Nice move with the Angel of Death to start off the movie with a great horror feel to it. OMG, I loved Cedric's appearance because he is dashing. After 10 min, how is anybody supposed to follow this movie? It was much too choppy at the beginning. The transition progressed a bit and it lost its rushed quality later on. Jason Isaacs delivered his Malfoy lines spectacularly (if it rains, you'll be the first to know). Tom Felton was one fine piece of Malfoy might I say espcially with that black suit to accentuate him. I was bothered by the fact that the Weasleys and Hermione were still running around the campsite when everyone else departed in terror. The first task was extended for way too much time. Those 10 ten minutes could have been reduced to at least 5 or 7 and used the spare to introduce something like the fact that Rita Skeeter is an animagus. The DADA class was well portrayed not to mention the added bonus of seeing the spider lunge at Draco. You had to love Neville's performance too. Seriously, what male in the HP movies isn't good-looking? Us fangirls are so lucky. Fred and George's trademark humour finally shone through yet they haven't really hinted at WWW and even less at the 1000 galleons which poses a stronger dilemma for their dynamic exit in OotP. I like how the ferret scene was set up with another motive for Draco to agonise Harry with due to the lack of mention of the Ministry managing post-QWC. I know Beauxbatons and Durmstrang want to show off but the whole seductive sighing merged with pixie-thingies was absolutely pointless as was the spark-sticks. Why'd they waste CGI on pixie-thingies? Harry was being an OOC attention-whore with his whole "do you want me to open [the egg]?"
It was uplifting finally seeing the Yule Ball. Apparently Hogwarts now has a chorus as a club activity. I thought that the dancing lessons were a bit of a waste of film since Harry messed up waltzing anyway and the other champions and partners' better dancing wasn't emphasised that much. Not only that but a few minutes later, Hogwarts turned into a mosh pit. Flashing an image of a punk rock band was bad taste as well. The Yule Ball felt too short to me because it was the part I wanted prolonged as much as possible but conveyed its message well. Ron was being a bit possessive of Hermione which was excellent yet I didn't feel there was enough motive for Hermione to start crying like that.
In regards to Task 2, Neville without a doubt had the best line in the movie! "I've killed Harry Potter!" BLOODY BRILLIANT. Moaning Myrtle was over perverted moreover considering JKR had not written her as shameless as that. The scene was too long and mighty disturbing knowing it is a 40yr old woman bringing Myrtle to life. We did learn at least that Dan has nice abs. Rita Skeeter goes without saying was perfect. Task 3 was fairly made up for with the killer hedges. I enjoyed how Cedric and Harry were racing for the cup. For a moment I thought Cedric was going to run for it after Harry had just saved him. The only time I found Voldemort worthy of the part was during his transformation when he looked like the alien from Species. They should have kept the red eyes what with the movie being PG-13 and all. For some crazy reason, he reminded me of the Grinch. His DE didn't seem to be as terrified as they should have been and Wormtail was pretty upbeat for someone who had not 3 minutes ago cut his hand off. I would've been satisfied with the phoenix song and the golden webbed dome yet alas, it was excluded. Harry's crying improved drastically in this movie. Pfft, in PoA he was simply whimpering, this was the real thing. If Amos had been an a***hole involving the "my son is better than yours/Harry Potter summoned the Dark Mark/What were you doing with that wand, elf?" subplots, then you would have not felt sorry one bit. I was prepared to cry but unfortunately nothing came out. It was as if it wasn't real enough for me. The end was quite jumbled too and man oh man, they so needed to bring the parting of ways scene in there. They should've kept Dumbledore's original discourse about Cedric but the one said was decent enough.
All in all, fantastic movie. It's fun to watch over and over. However, I could've waited until the dvd is released if put up to the challenge. With all the clips, reviews, and images I had seen it turned out I had seen practically the entire movie in the comfort of my room. The only thing I wasn't clued in on was the graveyard scene but even then I had seen what Voldemort looked like before and after the resurrection. 2nd reason why I thought it was the best movie: There was virtually nothing new while I was watching the movie amazingly enough. If I had been the hypothetical Indra, then I would've been heartbroken though it turns out this was the first HP movie I thoroughly enjoyed without a single complaint while viewing it. All that spoilage over cut-out scenes utterly influenced me to chip away at my disillusion of another sucky HP movie months and weeks ahead. I was in awe at how everything I watched I had already seen. There was barely anything unknown to get excited over. I really did know the movie through and through. Darn WB, you gave GoF away. My spoiler policy for OotP: read OotP, do not look at clips, read reviews partially, do not look at images Otherwise I'll end up a submissive viewer that forgets canon.
How about all those slashy sections, eh? Ron "in love" with Krum, Harry sprawled over Cedric, Karkaroff and Snape in a closet, Crouch Jr flicking his tongue at Snape...
Lines that take the cake too: *Harry: We're in a broom cupboard. Rita: Then you'll feel right at home.* *Curiosity is not a sin.* *And I said Yes!*
Let's make HP movies 3hrs from now on!
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=257496
Oslo, Norway November 23, 2005
A Norwegian church that included the popular Harry Potter character as a theme in the worship service has raised some questions among Norwegian priests, reports said on Wednesday.
Priests and young members of the congregation in the 12th-century Berg church in Halden, south of Oslo, helped put together the service with the theme Harry Potter Meets Jesus.
The church was packed and many of the congregation had dressed up as characters in the Harry Potter films, newspaper Vart Land said.
Organist Michael Servant played theme music from the movies while the priest, vicar and many children walked in procession dressed in red and black gowns.
The latest film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, premiered on Friday in Norway -- the day after the sixth Harry Potter novel was published in Norwegian.
Theologian Hakon Stornes, a youth priest in Bergen, western Norway -- who has used theatre performances in services for children and youth -- was one of the critics.
"The church has enough good stories," Stornes said, noting that he has made good use of Noah's Ark and St Francis of Assisi.
His other criticism was that "Harry Potter's literary universe is set in a magical adventure land, far from what children and youth today experience as relevant for their daily lives".
Berg church vicar Per Chr Solberg said the service was a success and attracted many children who do not normally attend church.
About 85% of Norway's 4,5-million inhabitants are baptised members of the state Church of Norway. -- Sapa-DPA
And this is how you get people to come to Mass, hehe.