Oh. My. God! *faints* Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last Wednesday night. These are pretty late thoughts but it came out longer than I expected. But still, the movie’s great! Wicked! Love! BUT even if I find it absolutely awesome, I still have a lot of gripes about it. Plus I still love Cuaron’s approach and Prisoner of Azkaban movie better. But still, yeah, good. Yummy Krum!

If a book was turned into a movie, expect there to be a lot of scenes not included and a lot of scenes changed. And this one’s no exception. A lot of the major going-ons in the book was cut or altered. The explanations shortened. Characters left-out.

Let’s start with the Riddle house. They added Barty Crouch, Jr into the scene. I think they’re trying to squeeze everything in it and would like to do less talkies and explanation. So I find it kinda weird because if you don’t know the book, the presence of that extra person will always be lingering at the back of your head and will be giving you hints as to what will happen. And as with the book, all the things that happened at the Riddle house was Harry’s dreams. And so he wakes up,though not in the Dursley’s house but in the Weasley’s house. Already there, being awakened by Hermione to get ready for the treck to the portkey to go to the Quidditch World Cup with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George and Mr. Weasley.

The Quidditch World Cup. It was abrupt. Really. *snaps finger* Like that. If you blink, you missed it. I was looking forward really to this one because this would be the only Quidditch part in the whole movie, since there wouldn’t be any Quidditch Tournament at Hogwarts because of the Triwizard Tournament. But still, seeing a big video-projection-like image of Krum going through the stands was really jawdropping! I absolutely am in love with Stanislav Ianevski. But where’s Charlie and Bill?! I was soooo looking forward to seeing them! I miss my Weasley boys… (Well, except for Percy… XD) Hmp! Now after the World Cup, what happens? The Dark Mark. But this time, Harry sees who conjures up the mark, Barty Crouch, Jr., only this time, he still doesn’t know who he is. So yeah, no Winky. It’s not that I miss Winky but Winky made you think who could have conjured the Dark Mark, which was explained thoroughly at the end of the book. So yeah, no Winky, short Quidditch World Cup.

So now, they’re at Hogwarts. And the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived early. More Krum. *swoons* The flying carriage was cool! But the Durmstrang ship! Looooove it! And I love their entrance at the Hogwart’s Hall! Fleur was absolutely gorgeous. And Krum was all grumpy like you can almost hear him grunting. But he still looks adorable! *squishes teh Krum*

The Goblet of Fire was cool. It was what I had imagined what it would look like with the blue flames and everything. When the Weasley twins placed their names in it and got blasted and they had beards and longer white hair, they were hilarious and adorable even though they were fighting instead of laughing at each other. Then enter Krum, passes by Hermione and gives her the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen on anyone, and I just melted in my seat. XD But I’m still a R/Hr shipper. But Krum in the R/Hr shipping makes the relationship between the two more prominent.

And now, the first task: the dragons. Harry was introduced to the dragons by Hagrid with Charlie Weasley in the scene in the book. Since there’s no Charlie in the movie, it was all Hagrid. Poor Charlie. Now I think he really won’t make any appearance at all. Anyway, back to the first task. One thing I loved about the movie: the tasks were done really really great. The book had the dragon protecting the eggs under it. In the movie, the dragon chased Harry. And the chase was exhilirating. It was like watching Harry playing quidditch and he just spotted the snitch.

And then I’ll fast forward to the Yule Ball. I find the scene too short. But I still enjoyed it. There’s pretty Hermione, there’s cute Harry, there’s adorable Ron even on ugly and lacey dress robes, and of course there’s hot Krum. Can I just say that there’s not as much chemistry between Rupert and Emma as I would have liked it to reflect the Ron/Hermione angle in the book.

Fast forward again to second task: the mermaids. In the book, Dobby was the one who helped Harry with the task with gillyweeds. In the movie, since there were no house elf’s and that includes Dobby, Harry was helped by Neville. So Neville gets a bigger role than what’s expected of him. The only thing bothering me about this is that Neville wouldn’t be able to steal gillyweed from Snape’s office. It’s not that he’s terrified but Neville seldom or almost never breaks the rules.

I’ll jump to the third task, the maze because I”ll discuss all the scenes in-betweeen a bit later. Anyway, the maze. What they did with the maze was that they just made the whole maze an enchanted one. The creatures were gone. I mean the blast-ended skrewts that attacked Cedric. The sphinx that gave Harry the riddle. None. Nada. Then in the end, both Cedric and Harry touched the Triwizard Cup. And then they were transported to Lord Voldemort.

I love this part because it’s just how I envisioned it while reading the book plus more. The killing of Cedric. The ressurection of Voldemort. (Except for the blue eyes of Ralph Fiennes.) The appearance of the Death Eaters. (Except that there were only a few.) The battle between Voldemort and Harry. Except for the Priori Incantatem. They were a lot of people short. There were no Bertha Jerkins and all the people in between her and the Potters. All the ones that came out? Of course Cedric, Frank Bryce, then after that Lily and James Potter. :\ But yeah, how they appeared from Voldemort’s wand was how I pictured it to be. Then Harry escaped Voldemort for the fourth time in four years and he’s back in Hogwarts.

After all that comes in the exposition. It was abrupt. The barest were the only ones explained. No explanation about how Barty Crouch, Jr escaped from Azkaban. How he was placed under the Imperius curse by his father. How everything happened in the Quidditch World Cup. And his fate. Which was delivered at the hands of a dementor. And then the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang leave the same way they arrived. Giving us a little peek at a Krum and Hermione moment.

See? A lot tinkered with. A lot left out. Sirius should had a bigger role than just a face in the fireplace. He should have been there even though he’s in Animagus form. And we have Rita Skeeter. In the movie, she’s just portrayed as an annoying journalist. The Rita Skeeter as an Animagus beetle wasn’t even remotely mentioned. Dobby and Winky were gone. No S.P.E.W. And no Bill and Mrs. Weasley cheering for Harry on the Triwizard Tournament. Thus no Bill meeting Fleur. Thus, I have no idea how they’ll say at HBP that they’ll get married. And the madness of Barty Crouch! They just showed him lying in the forest already dead. Poor Crouch. So yeah, missed a lot especially, I think some of these are really essential for the future Harry Potter movies. Example the Dumbledore vs Fudge at the end of the book. That’s a crucial part of the book that paves the way for establishing the Order of the Pheonix which is in Book 6.

But even with all those gone. I pretty much enjoyed the movie. That’s why I still like it. The tasks were pretty well done. The acting by the kids better than the usual. As a standalone movie and if I won’t take the book into consideration, I think it’s has a pretty concrete plot. Less magical than the previous books (I was waiting for the portraits to move but they don’t.) but definitely more action-filled. And the action is what partly made me love the movie.

Dan really is growing as an actor! The drama he showed at some parts of the movie make me look forward to what he’ll be showing as angsty!Harry in OotP. Emma is pretty! No doubt about that one. Though the one part where she was showing tears… I found that scene too abrupt for my liking. But yeah, she’s still okay in my book. As for Rupert, I’ve always loved him. And it never wavered. So yeah, I’m biased towards him. From the movie, I now see why people like the Dan/Emma or Harry/Hermione relationship. Seriously though, Dan has more chemistry with Emma than with Rupert. Emma and Rupert on screen are just friends. They lack tension. Even the awkward moments at the ball looks like just a squabble between friends. Now I wonder how they’ll pull off the HBP R/Hr tension projected all throughout the book. Tom Felton was still annoying as Draco. He’s still adorable though and already past his awkward stage from the previous film. Neville surprised me since he grew a lot. I mean there was this scene where he was walking beside Dan and it looks like Dan only reached his shoulder! Oh my god! This boy is going to grow tall!

Now for the new young actors on board: Robert (Cedric), Katie (Cho), Stanislav (Krum) and Clemence (Fleur). I was icky from the pictures with Robert since he looks so gay with the pinky cheeks and everything. But hey, he was good as Cedric. He has his cute moments and he grew on me on the movie. Katie was a surprise for me. I didn’t expect much from her. I know there are a lot of people who didn’t want her on the role. I remember some Pinoys were even pinning Heart for the role?! As if? She’s not even British and everyone knows that the movies try to stick to the correct nationality. But yeah, I’m pretty much satisfied with Katie on the role. Clemence was lovely as Fleur. She looks similar to Claire Danes only prettier. And more refined. As for Krum… *ahem ahem* Again, biased me! But still I absolutely adore this guy, even more so now that I was able to watch him on screen. He was exuding Krum all thoughout the movie. Grunt grunt grunt. Frown. Glower. Growl. But best look for him though is when he looks at Hermione! *swoons* He smiles that lopsidded grin that just makes my heart absolutely melt and makes a mush out of me at my seat. Oh God! *fans self* I soooo want to see this guy more and more. I wonder if he’ll be pursuing an acting career after this. Krum ain’t in the succeeding books except for the occasional letter written to Hermione so I doubt that he’ll be in any more HP movies. Dang.

On the other actors, I can only talk about a few since most of them got too little screentimes because of the kids. Mike Ganbon as Dubmbledore. Since the last movie, I never really liked him in Dumbledore’s role. He was okay but his Dumbledore never grew on me. I absolutely love Richard Harris’ feel to Dumbledore. He gave Dumbledore a calm, soothing and collected character. Someone who doesn’t get mad and shout. Someone with a gentle touch. Someone gentle, kind and understanding. That’s the Richard Harris Dumbledore and the book Dumbledore that I know. Mike Ganbon’s Dumbledore on the other hand sounds too strict. Too forceful. He shoved Harry when he was asking him if he placed his name in the Goblet of Fire! Yeah, never did really like him as Dumbledore. But will still hope that he does a good job for the following films. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. I love this man. He can absolutely act. Love his movements as the resurrected Voldemort. Sadly, the other actors, like the previous films were overshadowed by the younger cast. But still great presence by Jason Isaacs and Alan Rickman.

Anyway, overall, liked the movie as is. Not tie-ing it up with the book, it’s great. I find it not as magical as the other films though, but yeah, it kept me entertained for more than two hours. Like what I said earlier, only second to Prisoner of Azkaban. But still great adventure film. Watch it!

tags: books, harry potter, movies
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