Goblet of Fire Review:
Okay, now I feel like I’ve had a few days to digest the movie and I can talk about it objectively. I’d warn you that there are spoilers ahead, but if you haven’t seen it and you haven’t read the book, what the heck are you doing reading this anyway?As with Pride & Prejudice, I steeled myself beforehand with the knowledge that they were going to have to cut out LOADS to get the story down to a reasonable length. For the most part, I think the GoF writer did a good job. The house elves and SPEW were never integral to the story, and neither was the whole “Will Vernon Dursley let Harry go to the World Cup?” thing at the beginning. The pace was a bit breathless though. At times I felt like I was watching the trailer for a much longer film. “They’re at the World Cup… Now they’re at school… and two seconds later the Beauxbatons and Durmstrangs are arriving!” A little breathing space might have been nice.

Things I really wish hadn’t been left out: The bit about how Barty Crouch helped break his son out of Azkaban. I liked that he was complicit; it makes his death seem less “Awww, sad!” and more “Fair comeuppance for a right bastard.” I wish that Barty Jr. hadn’t been visible as the “baddie” from the very beginning; there was very little suspense about who Voldemort’s “true faithful servant” was like there was in the book. I wish we’d gotten to see Molly Weasley, if only for a moment. I wish they’d left in *some* of the stuff about Fred and George starting their joke business, if only because it’s going to seem pretty sudden in the next one when they quit school to do it. (Not to mention the fact that in the book, their suspicious behavior provides a lot of plot misdirection.) I wish there’d been some mention of Moody before we saw him, just so it wasn’t immediately obvious that he was involved in the plot. (And hello? That whole snakey tongue gimmick? Way, way too obvious.) Mostly I just wish they’d explained some things a little bit more. Dumbledore just jumped right over the whole “Priori Incantatum” thing. (I had to wonder what the two non-Potterphiles watching it with me thought during that graveyard scene.) And as someone else said, why didn’t we get to hear about how the other contestants got past the dragon? Fleur seemed to suck so bad at the other tasks that it would have been nice to know the sole girl Champion wasn’t completely useless.

Things I LOVED that they put in: The ferret scene (of course). Neville practicing his dancing. The Wyrd Sisters playing and the kids all rocking out. The bit where Fred (or maybe George) asks Angelina to the ball. The fight between Ron and Harry (though the movie makes it out to be more about Harry not sharing with Ron his “plan” to put his name in, rather than Ron’s huge jealousy issues about his friend being famous and rich.) Seeing Ron after he asked Fleur to the Ball. Daniel Radcliffe shirtless. (Yes, I’m going to hell. The Snook was trying to cover my eyes at that point.)

To be honest, these are all little things. Overall I enjoyed myself… right up until the ending. Where in the hell did the happy come from? Cedric’s dead, Voldemort’s back, the government is covering it up, Harry is pissed off and angry… yet somehow they show us a bunch of kids cheering and waving goodbye and somehow that’s supposed to mitigate everything? It seemed very forced and out-of-left field. The Empire Strikes Back ends on a down note, and this movie should have too.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, my sister is married to Viktor Krum. That is all.