Potter, GoF

[mneme]

We just saw it.


Spoilers Ahoy!

The Good

The visuals. Hogwarts come to life.
-Most- of the cuts were of things we really didn't miss. The house-elf stuff doubly so.
The Duel
The Return (and consumate mourning)
The way the Polyjuice was handled. Sublte -and- cool.
The Quuddich game -- what we saw of it, anyway.
Hermione's set down of Ron. Also, her ball appearance.
Myrtle. She was so cute.
The "entrance" of the other schools. Sure, they showed a lot of it in the previews, but not all, and it was very pretty.

The Bad

Damnit -- Bernie (fake Moody) should have gotten his say after he was captured. That was one of the best parts of the book -- the fanatic showing his contempt of the mere supporters.
Dumbledore. So flat. Not warm. Not in control. Not imposing. Not Dumbledore.
The costumes. wtf? Since when do Hogwarts kids wear school uniforms instead of robes that just -look- like school uniforms? Ron's dress robe just made this more painful, since it reminded us of the robes they weren't wearing.
The houses. You might be able to tell Cedric's house on a third viewing, if you hadn't read the book. I'm more skeptical about being able to tell Cho Chang's.

The Ugly

Viktor Krum. Wasn't he supposed to be Eastern European -flashy-, not strong and silent? He's a bit big to be a seeker, at that. Still, it worked well enough.
The Dark Lord. So ugly. I'm hoping he'll have hair in later movies once he's taken a chisel to his features.
Wormtail. Um. Yes.

Oh, we saw TG, TB, & TU a few weeks ago. Perty good, if a bit slow for a modern eye.

Comments

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

I aggree on most points, esp. Myrtle, she was delciously pervy. I also liked Neville (in spite of scary teeth - please let them be prosthesis!) and his mastery of the dance and hot date with Ginny Weasley.

Dumbledore I gather was supposed to seem fallible and older in this film and he did. I guess they have to work up to his total inexplicableness in the next one. i didn't like it either though. The lack of fake Moody's rant though was a big weakness. They didn't even make it clear that it had been Crouch who turned Draco into the ferret (sweet!) and not the real Moody - they never established when the switch happened at all. Oh and I would have liked scores for the dragon test; the concept of scoring wasn't even mentioned until after the swimming event.

I did like the lack of robes though. I always felt that they detracted from the boarding school feel in the other films. The houses though were indeed largely invisible and while I hate loathe and despise the school house system it is kind of important to the book.

I really wanted to hear Krum say 'Her-mee-own' - he wasn't ugly enough either.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I never pictured him as ugly. I thought he was supposed to be a hottie, just a different enough hottie that everyone was jealous.

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

I thought he was supposed to have a nose that looked like he had flown into something at speed and a thoroughly grumpy expression. I'll have to dig the volume out tonight and check.

[mneme]

I never pictured him as ugly either. -- more small, dashing, dark and athletic. Nothing like he was in the movie, though it worked well enough, just not as I pictured it (thus its placement above).

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't think I ever got a "small" vibe from him. I thought of him as a somewhat typical jock, of the dark rather than blond variety.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

He'll be back.

[mneme]

I missed the Neville/Ginny thing -- thanks; we were wondering who he was with!

I thought it was clear that it was Crouch who was Moody all along -- that the eyepiece was a "fake Moody" artifact. Actually, it definately was -- he drank from his Polyjuice container in his first scene! I -really- did like that detail -- it took me a few scenes to catch on, but his "shiver" when he drank the potion mirrored the Polyjuice effect in #2!

I think the robes are what make Hogwarts Hogwarts, instead of -actually- a brittish boarding school "except magic." Killing the robes (and having the mundania-ignorant wizards dance to rock music and wear modern street clothes in their off hours) does blow the mood to me.

I don't like the way the House system is handled in the book, but it -is- important -- and dropping the points as well as the robes and to an extent, the colors didn't improve the movie.

Still a damned good movie, though.

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

The lack of clarity about the Moody/Crouch swap did not occur to me at the time but then I knew when it had happened already. I think the polyjuice was the only clue I could think of (and I bet the real Mad Eye doesn't drink pumkin juice either). I really want to talk to someone who saw it without reading the book first. That is usually Myles for me but as you know he didn't go along this time.

The Weird Sisters rock group was canon, though the sound was very rock and roll alright, very electrical for a non Muggle outfit (perhaps they were trying to pass and get in the charts). (Pause to think fondly of Mr Weasley's plug collection.) Though if it had been true to most people's mundane school experience the band would have been something local and AWFUL!! playing covers of Westlife and worse.

There is no House Cup in the book, because of the tournament thang, but I cannot remember if there are no points given out either. I'll have to reread the damn thing to see if Snape never gets to utter 'ten points from Griffindor Miss Granger!' even once, poor lamb.

[kyrielle]

For whatever it's worth, I have read the book, but back when it came out. And when I saw the movie I had no idea when Moody ceased to be Moody and became the impersonator - I was at a dead loss. (Nor was that the only thing I was lost about in regards the movie - some of those I had vague memories of, others such as this, I had no recollection at all.) The only reason it didn't bug me more was that it didn't really matter, because honestly, the whole "who is after Harry thing" got so little sense of being a question that I sort of expected to be smacked with a board at some point; the only question was which board. It didn't even occur to me to wonder when the thing had been planted. :P

[mneme]

I didn't know he didn't go along this time -- I'm not sure what info would have led tme to knowing that.

I should re-read to see what they say about the Wierd Sisters rock group. I think the point of the HP books is not only that Hogwarts is "only magical" but that it's actively better and idealized.

[avram]

Since when do Hogwarts kids wear school uniforms instead of robes

Since the third movie, I think.

Wasn't he supposed to be Eastern European -flashy-, not strong and silent?

No, I don't think so. "Strong and silent" matches how I remember him from the book, and I haven't seen the movie yet so it can't be distorting my memories.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Viktor Krum. Wasn't he supposed to be Eastern European -flashy-

No--in the book, he was slope-shouldered and duck-footed. The only time that he was anything approaching beautiful was when he was flying.

Yes, Stanislaus Ianeski(sp?) looked like Orlando Bloom on steroids, but it didn't exactly ruin my cinematic experience :-) If the PTB want to populate all the HP movies with Euro-Hotties, who am I to complain? :-D