Review of Goblet of Fire Tonight I saw the new Harry Potter film. I have read all of the books. Rowling's writing has definitely improved since she began, and the characters are far more fleshed out than before. I am not too happy about the movies though. Here are some of the problems with Goblet of Fire. I don't think I spoil things too much, especially if you've read the books, as you already know what happens. However, you may want to wait to read this until after you see the movie yourself. 1. Everything is way too rushed. I almost wish they had left more out, because as it was they rushed through a bunch of stuff that never got explained very well. Instead, they spent all the film time on showy crap. 2. Too much showy crap, not enough subtlety. In the books, Harry is not very talkative. When Wormtail cuts his arm in the book, I don't recall Harry yelling. But he did in the movie. Maybe this is my faulty memory, but it seemed this way through a great deal of the movie. Everyone making far more noise than the book. 3. Dumbledore's hair was kind of messy and gray, while I imagine it to be neat and white. He also lacked sophistication. This guy has the most depth and experience of any of the wizards, and he is the only one Voldemort was scared of, so why does he just seem so regular? Where is evident the wisdom and depth that should be evident in a man like Dumbledore? 4. Voldemort was horrible. He seemed just like a regular guy, but kind of gross. He spoke too quickly. He was not controlled and refined, as I imagine him to be. 5. The caretaker of the Riddle house was a dirty looking guy, with a dirty looking house, and the Riddle house itself was full of cobwebs. I imagined that the guy actually kept it up, and cobwebs everywhere does not mean kept up! And when Voldemort kills him, it is loud with a big flash of light. Where is the finesse? Noise and flashes are not necessary for big impact. Killing someone is not a big deal to Voldemort, and he wouldn't yell and make unnecessary showiness. No, he is much more about finesse and control. The killing would have simply been done. 6. Myrtle's voice was so fucking annoying and overdone I wanted to rip off my ears. So fucking exaggerated and unrealistic. Again, where is the subtlety? 7. The maze in the movie cut out everything that was in the book. No sphinx, no riddle, no blast ended skrewt, no flipping upside down. Just hedges that squeeze and grab you. Lame! It was very disappointing. 8. The scene when the dark mark appears was way too unclear. Like so much of the movie, if you haven't read the book you would have no clue what was going on, and if you have read the book than you are left feeling rushed and incomplete. The book just has a much more realistic pace, with discussion all over the place, and with a real feel for the sense of time passing throughout the year. In the movie, it was jump jump jump to each sequence, with no segway! 9. Hogwarts itself was built with unrefined, heavy metal. For instance, in the prefect's bathroom, the mermaid was lame, not beautiful, soft, and refined like in the book. She looked more like a color by number picture, or one of those stained glasses you make in your oven with your kids. And the water pouring out of the jets was so large, noisy, and just not relaxing. The colors in the book were again more beautiful and more refined. 10. Dumbledore's office is the same way, with large heavy objects that move solidly around. In the book the objects are delicate and twinkling. They are not delicate at all in the movie! Same with the pensieve, though the thoughts Dumbledore pulled from his mind was very good in the movie. I realize that there is no law that the movie must follow the book, and of course that it is impossible to include everything in the book. The movie must stand on its own. In this case the movie hardly stands on its own, and every single time they changed something it was for the worse. One perfect example of this is in the lake with the grindylows. In the movie Harry is surrounded, doing nothing, and he is completely taken over by them, until finally he blasts away from them, shooting himself into the air. In the book, Harry actually fights them and gets them to back off. It is much more satisfying that way. Also, in the entire movie Harry casts a spell at most three times. Professor Flitwick is much too small. Olympe is too tall. She is taller than Hagrid! The arrival of Beauxbatons school was disappointing, again lots of noise and flash and silliness to the detriment of how it might really be. Bah. I didn't want to bash on it too heavily to Azaya, because she was so excited about it, but there was a lot that bothered me. Oh yeah, Moody's eye in the movie was so dumb, I couldn't believe it. It was just a big plastic eye. In my mind, it doesn't look like an eye, but an orb of swirling blue and pearlescent aquamarine. With all the special effects, why oh why does the eye look so cheap? Why is it held on with a leather thong? The best part of the movie was when the quidditch players at the World Cup flew onto the field. You got the feeling that they were expert fliers and everything was very thrilling. The stands were pretty cool too. Too bad it immediately cut to after the Cup, with absolutely no transition. I was completely thrown off guard. The match is just beginning! How thrilling! Oh, it's over. Bam. The actors who play Harry and Hermione aren't very good. They both make way too many facial movements. It's similar to children driving a car. They always exaggerate the steering. That's how I feel about those two. Enough of the eyebrow twitches Hermione! Enough quivering and big eyes, Harry! The ass shot of the French girls was too much. The boys are clearly interested in girls, but in the book they are not ogling asses. Does it really improve the story to have that? I don't think so. The boys are more just overwhelmed by the girls. Again, where is the finesse? I realize a lot of men think that being a doofus and ogling and looking at women as if they are assessing a piece of meat is attractive and manly, but trust me it's uncool and only makes you look incompetent and as if you have no understanding of interactions between men and women. Makes you wonder about how mature the director is. Such a heavy handed, showy portrayal of the story only emphasizes to me how unrefined our pop culture is. |