GOBLET OF FIRE Spoiler Thread

[filkertom]

Not a review so much as a stream of consciousness. I might not even bother with a full review. Short form: Either you will be ticked off at the stuff they left out, or you will be amazed at how cool it is. I'm in the latter camp. LOVED what they did with Neville, Voldemort, and the Twins. Brendan Gleeson was superb as Moody. Dan Radcliffe had to carry this movie will getting his ass kicked from one end of it to the other, and he did great. Cho is cute and all, but Hermione is just too damn fine. I understand Ginny is supposed to be considered physically gorgeous -- let me know how that works out. Right now she looks like a very plain Amish girl stuck in the wrong movie. The brief but important parts with Lucius Malfoy and Amos Diggory set the tone wonderfully, and it broke my heart when Cedric died. What little there was of Sirius and Snape was delicious. And Rupert Grint and Michael Gambon both grew into their parts very, very well.

And, oh Christ, is this a movie for the slashgirls. I leave that as an exercise for the student.

Have at it.

Comments

[kender42.livejournal.com]

Yes, Hermione makes me feel dirty for thinking "Soooo hot!". I look very much forward to more Mad-Eye Moody as the series continues in film - I think he did a wonderful job. Cedric's death crushed me as well - that whole scene was very well played out.

Now, on the other side, I really think Harry needs a haircut, or a hairbrush. WHY does he look like he's always just been in a windstorm?! Also, for some reason, this Dumbledore in this movie came off just not quite right. I can't put my finger on why, but it just seemed not-correct in some way.

Overall, I liked it. I felt very "hurried" though, since I know the book well, but I had that same feeling in the last film as well

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore should have been played by Peter O'Toole in the first place, or at very least in the second place. I think that's why. Michael Gambon is a good actor, but he isn't right for the part.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I could've got behind that casting easily. As it is, I liked Gambon, because I thought he got across for the first time that Dumbledore is not all-knowing and all-powerful, that he gets frustrated and even fearful. But even last film, he did feel more... I guess down-to-earth is a way of putting it. Not as Yoda-like as Richard Harris. Kinda like Forrest Tucker, actually.

On the other hand, there's an entire other essay coming, on how needlessly, murderously cruel the JKR/HP wizarding world is....

[kender42.livejournal.com]

I have some comments from OotP regarding that one myself. That book seemed like a masochist's manual.

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but Gambon won't read the books, so he'll never *really* understand his character. He's playing Dumbledore as a film character, not as an adaptation. Admirable, I suppose, in certain acting circles, but it's not making his character any more believeable....

Good to know I'm not the only one who was thinking O'Toole -- I suppose they went with someone younger after Harris died.

I was disappointed at the lack of menace Snape displayed, but...all in all? I thought it was a much better film than Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban (which I found pretty, but completely incoherent).

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

I had a few bones to pick with Cuaron on HP3, but it was substantially more coherent than either of the first two, which were essentially highlights of the books. (My basic quibble with Cuaron is putting the soaring-on-Buckbeak scene too early. Should've been at the end.)

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

Really have to disagree with you on the coherence of HP3. From my perspective, there were many logic gaps in the story line, assumptions made by characters which could not be resolved within the film-as-presented, and the emotional heart of the book -- the story of Harry's Dad and his friends -- was excised from the film completely.... in favor of watching Anime!Hermione save the day.

I went with two coworkers who had never read the books and they sat through the movie going "Wha--?" And it's not because they don't understand the conventions of fantasy and fantasy filmmaking (they're both LOTR fans, so we've had these discussions before).

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Now, on the other side, I really think Harry needs a haircut, or a hairbrush. WHY does he look like he's always just been in a windstorm?!

"About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place"

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling, Ch 2 - "The Vanishing Glass"

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Richard Harris' family wanted O'Toole to play the role after Harris died. So did I. Him or Sir Ian McKellen. Mike Gambon can act much better than he did in this movie. He's not right for the role. Or he simply won't play it right. I thought he was much better in the 3rd movie, but there wasn't a lot of Dumbledore stuff in it for him to mangle.

I thought the movie also had far more humor than was needed to leaven the darkness in it. I'm generally not too aware of such things when I watch a movie for the first time, but I know I surfaced a few times during the laughter to think that some of it was unnecessary. Not the canonical humor (yay ferret scene!), but the interjected stuff that's simply there for the humor sake, rather than for the plot.

Eh, I could go on and on. :)

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Ian McKellan was on INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO awhile back, not too long after Richard Harris died and before Michal Gambon was announced as replacing him as Dumbledore. ISTR McKellan said he HAD been approached about playing Dumbledor, bur he turned it down because he'd just DONE the "iconic wise old man" character as Gandalf and didn't want to repeat himself right away.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

I knew that. It's just wishful thinking on my part... knowing he /could/ pull the role off correctly.

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

I did appreciate one thing about the Dumbledore Switch.

A younger kid *would* feel Dumbledore was more Yoda-like, all perfect and fearless.
Kids are supposed to think we got it goin on as adults.

A 13-14 year old is figuring out that adults really have no clue, and suddenly cognate and recognise the personalities of our elders, not as examples of zen perfection, but as human.

[chaosdancer.livejournal.com]

That was exactly my reaction/rationalization for the change of Dumbledores. I thought I was the only one! Richard Harris was rather Father-Christmaslike. Not that he wouldn't have been capable of projecting the proper ferociousness when the time came, I'm sure. But in the first two books it wasn't called for.

[codevixen.livejournal.com]

I have to comment on the slash bit. WOW. Fred and George were particularly incestual in this movie, and Cedric had some things going on with both Harry AND Ron. Mostly, though, I cannot forget the Voldemort/Harry.

Now THAT was disturbing. The sex noises. Eww.

Of course, I tend to think slashy anyway, so... interpret how you will.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

ITA with all of that. When I saw that shot of Harry lying on top of Cedric, all I could think was "oh, dear, here we go again ..." And the trouser ferret. And the Snape's potion cupboard. And the ... oh, I could go on. :-)

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

*snerk*
trouser ferret. heeheehee.
i am gonna laugh about that ALL DAY at work. and i thank you, 'cause i need something to laugh about and it's hard to quietly filk over the frelling holiday music.

[animator55.livejournal.com]

My biggest disappointment is that of Voldemort. Apparently if you sell/split your soul for power and undergo hideous mutations... all you get is really pale skin and slits for a nose (at least they got that part right)... weren't Voldy's eyes red in the books?? Either way they could have easily given him some contacts, plus I highly doubt his teeth would have been so perfect. I hope they fix this for OotP.

When we first get a full glimpse of the voldemort "baby" I said aloud (but not loud enough for everyone to hear) "Amanda Kruger wants her son back"... hey Freddy was burned alive and it shows... Voldy was mutated and what do we get? "Powder" with a snake nose.

[eamclaren.livejournal.com]

(Hi, longtime lurker, enjoy pretty much every random thing you put here, and my ex boyfriend tuned me in to your music.)

One of the things I found interesting about this movie is that the director is British, and I think it showed. Except for the quidditch stadium in the beginning, the rest of the movie didn't seem nearly so grand as the others. I think the feast hall in the first movie was at least half again as large as the one in this one, and rather than the wide shots of the Escher-like stairs in the belly of Hogwart's, there was one shot of a spiral staircase with a mosaic on the floor. Neat stained glass windows, though.

But Mad-Eye Moody was great, and while not everyone I've talked with agrees, I think the Ralph Fiennes-acted Voldemort was just superb.

I think the problem with Dumbledore in this movie was simply that they didn't put his quirks into the script. Except for the licorice snaps, there weren't any moments of Dumbledore cheer -- when he says, "I'd like to say a few words," I was expecting to hear 'licorice, gingerbread, fountain, and quill' or something. The endearing half-mad Dumbledore we love from the books just wasn't written into this script (or didn't make the final cut).

[tlunquist.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the different interpretation of the castle speaks to the ideas mentioned above about the evolving Dumbledore - the perception of the castle when you're a first-year vs. the perception of the castle when you're taller and know your way around. Ever been back to your elementary school? Hint: the ceiling is not nearly so high as you remember it.

As for Dumbledore in this film - the problem I had with him is that he seemed angrier, more easily upset, and far, far less patient than any sense I ever had of him from reading any of the books. In this movie he seemed harried and annoyed, as though the students were a nuisance and he would rather have been somewhere other than where he was. I saw something more like codger-next-door fury when he tackled Harry on various occasions, when I'd have expected something more along the lines of parental terror.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

yeah, there was a LOT of slash-allusion going on this time around. it's not particularly my scene (i ship harry/hermione, myself, and the talk i keep hearing of twincest is rather squickworthy), but the signs are there.
heh. anne and i will have plenty to twitch about next time she makes it to marcon. :-D