pegkerr | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Reply)

I liked it. I would put it in first place, and #3 in second place, although the preference is not strong between the two. That may simply be due to the novelty of the fourth movie, and things may change as I mull it over. (Plus it's so much more fun to mull the fourth movie over. The bad place, you know.)

I thought Steve Kloves did as well as he could streamlining that enormous book, and yeah, there were holes, but it could have been so much worse. Some changes really worked, like having Neville give Harry the gillyweed, which cleanly simplifies things by cutting the role of Dobby and at the same time brings Neville forward into a slightly more prominent role, a nice set up for his expanded role in the fifth movie (but then you all know that I have a special soft spot in my heart for Neville, and all the nice Neville touches thrilled me. Matthew Lewis was spot on, as far as I was concerned. Excellent job with his reaction to the Cruciatus curse; it was everything I hoped it would be. My, that boy has grown tall in the last eighteen months.) Another change which was a good quick fix was to eliminate the whole Ludo Bagman plot and all mention of Harry giving the twins his Triwizard Cup earnings plots by having Fred and George obviously raising money for the joke shop by taking student bets on the tournament outcome. Economical (in more ways than one.) Draco fans, I know you were disappointed that you saw so little of your boy, but cheer up. He gets his big scene in book 6, when he has Dumbledore at the end of his wand, so hang on until then. Interesting to see how they handled the one shot that had both Tom Felton and Jason Isaacs in by shooting it from directly overhead; I gather that they did that to disguise the fact that Draco, who is supposed to be only fourteen, is now already taller than his father.

The age difference between the actors and the characters was a little more obtrusive, this time, but I still want all the actors to continue with all seven movies.

Brendan Gleeson was marvelous as Mad Eye Moody. He just gobbled up that part with tremendous gusto; great fun.

Yeah, there were scenes that I wished they could have shoehorned in, despite how long they would have made the movie. I really really wanted to see Molly Weasley hold Harry in the hospital wing, as he's trying desperately not to cry, because that was always the scene that made me cry most in the book. Yeah, I wanted more Sirius, and I wanted to see some of the actual Quidditch World Cup match. On the other hand, the scene where Harry brings Cedric's body back packed a much bigger wallop in the movie than the book, because they have added the reaction of his father--between Harry and Amos Diggory, that scene has broken me up both times I saw it, tore out my heart.

I loved little touches all the way through: the nervous little giggle Hermione gives when she takes Victor Krum's arm at the ball (and for those of you who have been complaining about too much giggling in the film from the girls, I tell you as the mother of a little girl poised on the cusp of adolescence, I think they got the amount of giggling just right). I just love the little detail of Hermione plopping down right on the stairs after her big fight with Ron to take off her shoes because she's been dancing all night, and they are probably her first pair of grown up shoes and her feet are killing her. I love the way that Snape makes that little adjustment to his cuffs in preparation for knocking Harry and Ron's heads together in study hall. I loved the close up shot of the spider dying from the Avada Kedavra curse changing to a far-focus shot of Harry's stricken face, re-living his parents' deaths. Beautiful!

The kids are getting better and better. I didn't see anything that made me cringe as a misfired emotional beat, the way that the ending of CoS did. Dan really did break my heart in the last quarter of the movie.

I liked what they added to the first task (although it belied Charlie Weasley's (?) reassurance in the book "don't worry, we'll have dragon handlers standing by so things don't get out of hand." Things clearly did get out of hand). The prefects' bath scene was perfect, serving the plot while capturing the awkwardness and embarrassment of an adolescent all too aware of the ways his body is changing (but then Moaning Myrtle would manage to embarrass anyone).

Someone (was it

aome or

cruisedirector? Don't remember.) mentioned how they were annoyed that Dumbledore seemed so angry at Harry in the trophy room when he asked whether Harry had put his name in the Goblet, whereas he was calm in the book. Didn't bother me one way or another. I liked Michael Gambon; I do prefer him to Richard Harris, mostly because I think Gambon is ten years younger than Richard Harris, and so his Dumbledore seems so much more vigorous, with a wider range of his emotions and an inner core of toughness that I like for Dumbledore, whereas Harris just felt wispy to me. Hope Gambon lives long enough to finish the series; I'd particularly love to see what he does with book 6).

So, yeah. I was pleased. I recommend it. My quibbles are on the order of "I wish that they could have put this favorite scene in, but I understand why they didn't." The stuff that seemed to be gaping holes (e.g. the lack of fuss over Barty Crouch Sr.'s death) were an understandably unavoidable side effect of trying to condense such a huge manuscript into a movie that runs for a reasonable amount of time.

Can't wait to see the next. They start filming in February. Hurrah.

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