My thoughts on GoF
Basic non-spoilery thoughts - In "feeling" it reminded me more of the first two movies than PoA. Yes, as expected there was a lot cut out of the movie. But, I actually have less argument about which things were cut than I did for PoA, with one teensy weensy exception. If you can accept the fact that they did have to cut stuff, you will have a better appreciation of the movie than if you are saddened at every missing facet.
Ok - IMO, I didn't really miss the following cuts at all: the house elves and Barty's escape from Azkaban, Rita's storyline, watching all the others battle their dragons. Explanation of what veelas are.
I missed this, but only for "sentimental" reasons - Hermy-o-ninny. Ron asking for Krum's autograph.
So really my only complaint was how the pensieve scene was handled. If you weren't listening for it and paying close attention, you wouldn't catch that the people Barty tortured were Neville's parents - and seeing how much emphasis they put on Neville's reaction to Cruciatus (rightly so, and very well done IMO) Harry should have asked Dumbledore about it afterwards. He didn't ask about Snape being a spy either. So really, this scene could have stood to have 2 more minutes of discussion. (And seeing as Harry didn't confront Snape after his meeting with Karkaroff either... another missed opportunity to talk about Spy!Snape.)
Other than that, I either didn't notice or didn't have issue with major cuts.
I loved Moody/Barty - he was great. I also loved Neville in the movie pretty much every time we say him. Snape, of course, was great but not nearly enough screen time. Lucius was luscious as usual. I figured we saw a lot less of Draco since he's not as gung ho about acting as before. I loved the Yule Ball scene and the dancing class (rotflmao).
One thing I did think was that they were spoonfeeding the viewers to figure out the Barty/Moody thing. I thought Mr. Shags had figured it out after I heard him say "ah" after Myrtle mentions the potion. When I asked him just now - he had figured out Barty was using potion but wasn't sure who he was emulating, though he did suspect Moody because he thinks of him as a bit of a "red-shirt". He didn't necessarily know it was him until he locked the door at the end, but he'd pieced most of it together. I don't think JKR made it that obvious in the books, honestly, so it was a bit disgruntling to see it be so easy in the movies. But that's kind of a minor quibble anyway.
Overall impressions therefore were quite positive.
Ok - IMO, I didn't really miss the following cuts at all: the house elves and Barty's escape from Azkaban, Rita's storyline, watching all the others battle their dragons. Explanation of what veelas are.
I missed this, but only for "sentimental" reasons - Hermy-o-ninny. Ron asking for Krum's autograph.
So really my only complaint was how the pensieve scene was handled. If you weren't listening for it and paying close attention, you wouldn't catch that the people Barty tortured were Neville's parents - and seeing how much emphasis they put on Neville's reaction to Cruciatus (rightly so, and very well done IMO) Harry should have asked Dumbledore about it afterwards. He didn't ask about Snape being a spy either. So really, this scene could have stood to have 2 more minutes of discussion. (And seeing as Harry didn't confront Snape after his meeting with Karkaroff either... another missed opportunity to talk about Spy!Snape.)
Other than that, I either didn't notice or didn't have issue with major cuts.
I loved Moody/Barty - he was great. I also loved Neville in the movie pretty much every time we say him. Snape, of course, was great but not nearly enough screen time. Lucius was luscious as usual. I figured we saw a lot less of Draco since he's not as gung ho about acting as before. I loved the Yule Ball scene and the dancing class (rotflmao).
One thing I did think was that they were spoonfeeding the viewers to figure out the Barty/Moody thing. I thought Mr. Shags had figured it out after I heard him say "ah" after Myrtle mentions the potion. When I asked him just now - he had figured out Barty was using potion but wasn't sure who he was emulating, though he did suspect Moody because he thinks of him as a bit of a "red-shirt". He didn't necessarily know it was him until he locked the door at the end, but he'd pieced most of it together. I don't think JKR made it that obvious in the books, honestly, so it was a bit disgruntling to see it be so easy in the movies. But that's kind of a minor quibble anyway.
Overall impressions therefore were quite positive.