Harry Potter and the GOF-might be spoilers

Cafe Society
21

I almost feel like if they couldn’t at least have fit in Percey Friggin’ Weasley, maybe this shouldn’t have been a movie. Because, you know what? His turning his back on his family does come up again in the books. Well, I guess those on these boards who have hypothesized that Percey was going to be really bad or really redeem himself are wrong. There must not be any special plans for him at the end of the series.

And the book, while not my favorite of the series (but on second read, not my least favorite either) had the best of all the Dursley scenes - you know, when the Weasleys come to get Harry.

The bitchiness of Rita Skeeter was REALLY downplayed, too. And I personally would have enjoyed the elves, but that’s just me.
Oh, and I hadn’t thought of the points about the female characters made by
even sven but I agree. Which now reminds me that I really missed Mrs. Weasley. :frowning:

22

Just saw the film - UNBOXED SPOILERS.

Ok, I thought the first half was excellent. Fantastic. A lot of the film was really hilarious, especially fred asking angelina to the ball, and the whole moaning myrtle sequence. She’s a bit of a minx, eh? :stuck_out_tongue:

Problems; I’m going to agree with the anti-Gambon people. He’s just not Dumbledore. Did he not even read the books before he started?
I didn’t care about Cedric’s death. They cut pretty much all of the material showing him to be a nice, honest guy; he just comes across like a jock. Apart from when he tells Harry what to do with the egg, he just seems…well, kinda just pretty-boy atheletic dude.

The maze was bad. Would it have killed them to add the Sphinx, even if Harry got the answer right away? Seriously, how about a new riddle? That would have been a nice touch for the people that have read the books, and plus it would show Harry wasn’t as moronic as it makes him out to be in the rest of the film.

I actually liked Cho. The only annoying thing about her was that people I talk to from America and Canada and whatnot think she has an irish accent; it’s scottish! And pretty cool, but then half my family’s from around the area with that accent, so i’m biased :slight_smile:

Acting wise, Daniel’s a lot better. Emma is as good as she’s always been, and Rupert was excellent. Piss off! :stuck_out_tongue: The Neville guy was pretty good, but when he got back to their room after the Yule Ball he seemed a bit *too * happy…I was thinking, did something happen between him and Ginny, eh? :wink: Speaking of Ginny, I noticed that they’ve made sure she’s more in the picture - showing her to be Hermione’s friend and around a lot more, which was cool. Tom Felton we didn’t see much of, but hey, that ferret sure can act! :stuck_out_tongue:

Voldemort…you know, he was good, but i really didn’t picture him like that. He seemed a bit too…floaty. I pictured him more as a kind of aristocratic, solid, tall dude; a bit like lucius is portrayed, only actually superior instead of just girl-swoony. :rolleyes:

Barty Crouh Jr. was good…I don’t know if i’m going to be able to take David Tennat seriously as Doctor Who, now though!

Overall: funny, funny film. Exciting. But tails off towards the end. And Michael Gambon is not Dumbledore. Heck, I could do a better job of it than him.

23

Anybody going to give us a spoiler box telling which character Rowan Atkinson plays? My money is on the Durmstrang headmaster (name escapes me at the mo).

24

There was a pre-release photo of Fleur Delacour showing some camel toe while standing on the platform before she jumped in the water.

25

I looked on IMDB and don’t see him credited at all. In the trivia section, they say there were rumors he was slated to play Voldemort. I don’t remember seeing him at all, but I’m putting this in a spoiler in case people want to keep looking for him. According to IMDB, Karkaroff (Durmstrang headmaster) is played by Pedja Bjelac.

GT

26

BTW, what did you all think of Flitwick’s new look? I think they made him more like JKR envisioned him, but he’s not what I’m used to.

27

I had some real problems with the special effects. First of all, the flue powder conversation. That was just awful. An unnecessary liberty taken with the book. Also, Cedric’s dad in the Wesley’s fire has my favorite sight gag from the series. I wanted Molly to feed his head some toast, goddammit! The Penseive scene was also hamhanded. I would have thought that Mike Newell would be interested in maintaining a little subtlety to the movie. We don’t have to have screams every time magic is performed. Why not just have him look around and find himself in the room, like in the book? I liked the idea of Dumbledore just appearing next to him. It’s important for the character, I think.

A lot of the movie was wasted on stuff like the departing students. I thought they could have brought in a (Much-reduced) Ludo Bagman, or found some other way to get the Weasley’s joke shop into the movie. I would hate to have the next movie make reference to things that should have happened in this movie, but we didn’t see. That would be really cheesy.

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UNBOXED SPOILERS

I agree with Evansven, there was a definite lack of women. I only noticed it because half the Irish Quidditch team is women, and they were all men, so I watched for it later on. Also, I don’t remember a female Death Eater in GoF, Bellatrix was in prison then.

I was disappointed in the directing, and in Dumbledore’s acting. He seemed too mean, too loud, and his voice was too deep. Not whimsical enough, as someone said. I really disliked how bright the movie seemed, the flashes of light during the quidditch cup and later gave me a headache.

What also annoyed me was the RANDOM SKIPPING OF TIME. That movie did not make sense at all, not a wit. If you haven’t read the book, you get almost no sense of plot, except for the fact that Moody was trying to kill Harry because he was really a spy. But that was so obvious. They didn’t explain how paranoid Moody was about not drinking other people’s beverages, so combined with the random swigs from a flask and missing potion ingredients, any intelligent person could have made the leap. Not to mention the fact Harry was talking about who could be causing all the weirdness, and the camera zooms in on Moody’s face.

Also, when Neville gets that sad look on his face and stares at the stained glass window after DADA, I thought that it was a bit much to zoom in on the face of the lady and watch a droplet of rain/tear roll down her cheek.

I really would’ve liked to see Charlie, houseelves, a better ending, more of Draco, the veela, the sphinx, Voldemort’s little speech on the three missing Death Eaters, the gathering of the four champions in the forest (they just made Barty Sr. look like a drunk), and maybe a better plot continuation. I also wish Emma Watson was a better Hermione. She barely seems the be a bossy, worried caricature of Hermione.

I loved the twins, and Ron. Rupert Grint is a fabulous actor, and the Phelps brothers were just wonderful with their teasing and their charm. The Weird Sisters were awesome, and I think the two girls who played the Patil twins were great at playing jilted dates as well. (I don’t think that can really be seen as weak female representation; after all, it was that way in the books as well.) I also liked the pensieve scene a lot.

Overall, I would give it a C. I liked specific scenes, but overall the movie wasn’t that good. Warner Bros. should have done what they had been thinking of in the beginning and made two parts of the movie. They would have done it more justice that way, and kept more of the subplots and the main plot.

29

I was holding opout for O’Toole. I still am.

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I also loved Neville. He’s just so cute, especially dancing about the dormitory. Then coming back late with his shoes around his neck. Whoever plays him is great at getting his innate Nevilleness down too.

31

I dressed up and saw it at midnight.
I was STUNNED.
Ahhh, it was so good, a huge improvement over the last few.
I thought Dan Radcliffe did the graveyard scene really well, much better from that crying scene in PoA.
Voldemort looked almost as I thought he would, though I thought his nose looked too weird to look scary. I was giggling.
The movie skipped around a lot which I didn’t really like, but to transition well the movie would have been about four hours long.
And for the Dan Radcliffe fans… OH MY OG HE WAS HOT. Ahh, the bath scene with that little seductress Myrtle… and this one part where he’s sprawled out on the floor in these jeans…
I loved Fred and George, I agree with everyone else where they stole the show in every scene they were in. Fred asking out Angelina was great.
Oh oh, I met the twins tonight!! THey were at a movie theater that was sorta close to the city I live in so my friend and I went. Their hair was shorter and back to their natural shade of dark brown and they were so nice to everyone. I chatted with James(Fred), got an autographed picture of them, then a picture with them. Oliver(George) put his hand around my waist… :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, I really, really enjoyed this film, they did a fantastic job, and I’m excited to see it again.

32

Add me as one who thought it was best of the series so far (though we seem to be in minority). GoF is a MASSIVE book, and the fact that they compressed it down so I could see it in movie form was incredible enough. However, the fact it was so good was even better :D. Yes, I liked it better than Cuaron’s PoA and have nothing but praise for Newell.

Yeah, time moved around quickly, but it had to. You had to tell the basic story. I thought the effects were marvelous and the story was told wonderfully. The maze didn’t have everything as in the book, but it may have been a ‘we can’t have this movie go 4 hours’ cut. Voldemort was amazingly done, and Fiennes was sufficiently scary. It’ll be a treat to see him in OotP.

As for Gambon as AD. I really didn’t mind as much as most. He isn’t Harris, but then again, he doesn’t look like a stiff wind would kill him either.

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even sven --I had not thought about it, but I agree with you. Women definetely took a backseat to the men in this movie. And to think that we saw Hermione putting Draco in his place just last film! Unthinkable in this movie.

And Hermione’s character was just so uneven. She enjoyed the attention that Viktor gave her and the compliment of being asked by a champion to the ball, but then she overplayed the whole “in your face” thing to Ron right afterwards. She goes from “debutante” to “unrequited love turns angry and bitter” to “mother figure for the boys” in about 5 seconds. With your comments, it is now more disturbing to me to see 3 female archetypes in such quick succession. Personally, I think Emma’s best movie was PoA–her acting is uneven–she came off shrill and giddy (which isn’t all that easy, maybe I should give her more credit!) in this one. Rupert has come a long way-as has Daniel. I liked when he stood up in the graveyard. Kinda like an eff it-bring it on, scum. Almost Clint Eastwoodish.
I really didn’t like Dumbledore–when he sits down in his office and looks lost–no way! (can’t remember actual scene-am seeing movie again on Monday with my 7 year old) And then he says to Harry-what have I missed? Huh. As if. AB is deep and knows much more than he lets on–PLUS, his reckoning doesn’t come until OotP where he confesses his fondness for HP and explains alot. More and more he seems like a cantankerous, failing old man to me–I cannot believe Gambon as someone whom Voldemort fears.
I miss Mrs. Weasley as well.

Parts I liked: the twins–every scene. Neville’s growth and success. Harry’s interactions with Snape. Snape’s “disciplining” of Ron and Harry. There are many more, I’m sure.

If only the director could have gotten the darker sides of the movies portrayed as well as the comedic bits…

34

I found it unbelievable that Ron and Harry weren’t paying more attention to the Patil twins during the ball, who were CLEARLY WAY HOTTER than either Cho or Hermoine.

[sub]Or is it just my East Indian Princess fetish acting up again…?[/sub]

35

I made the mistake of watching the first three on DVD prior to seeing the movie at midnight Thurs/Fri. Now, reading about the movie, I can’t keep clear which what happens in which number movie.

Oh well. Must see it again.

I did some poking around on IMDB – can you believe that Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson) will be turning 40 this Christmas? She looked like a real schoolgirl to me. Hmmm. Perhaps I just pay more attention to guys. Link

Also, it really struck me as odd that Cho would have a Scottish accent. Took me out of the movie for a moment, it was so jarring.

Also, having watched all four movies in a row, I noticed that McGonagall’s accent is becoming more pronounced each movie. In the first one it’s barely there, in GoF, it’s almost a full brogue.

I also don’t like the new Dumbledore.

36

I can’t contribute much of anything to this festschrift of Rowlandiana, just popped in to comment that I misread the thread title as “Harry Potter and the GOP – might be spoilers” and had the irked reaction that they’re bringing American politics into everything now.
:o

37

I thought that was a “NOOOOOOO” at first, but it turned out to be a “NAAAAAAA!” Which is better, I think.

38

I was mildly disappointed with the movie. TGOF is my favorite of the books for the very reason that many people dislike it - because it rambles on and on, with tons of detail about stuff that doesn’t really relate to the plot. So the movie necessarily left out the things I love most about the book. PoA remains my favorite of the movies.

** SPOILERS **

For this movie, I thought they did a good job condensing the plot. The World Cup looked great, and so did the dragon, and so did Mad Eye. I liked the Durmstrang costumes and their entrance. The argument between Ron and Harry was handled well. I liked the ball despite the fact that the boys all looked like vampires, especially Neville. The entire second task at the lake was good. Many nice scenes with Neville, and Cedric’s scenes were all good. I liked the special effects for the portkey and the pensieve. I’m lukewarm about the portrayal of Voldemort; he looked good but his voice wasn’t evil enough. The scene where the wands join was pretty good. Fred and George were great. The Gryffindors were a hairy bunch, weren’t they?

I would have liked to have seen more of Krum and his crush on Hermione. I missed the Weasley family - in the book I liked how they showed up for the last task as Harry’s “family”. I didn’t like Sirius’s head in the fire at all. I would have liked to have seen Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape show up in the Foe Glass at the end, just before they burst in and rescued Harry. Why spend time introducing the thing if you’re not going to use it later? I had always pictured Madame Maxime as being buxom, not thin.

I liked Gambon’s Dumbledore in PoA. In this movie I thought he was a little too aggressive. Dumbledore should be more aloof and harder to ruffle. And Gambon *flinched *every time the Goblet of Fire flared up. I just don’t see Dumbleore flinching at anything.

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Yeah, but it was much less embarrassing than the “NOOOOOOOO!” I had in mind when I made that post.

40

For Vicar of Dibley fans - wasn’t it hard to take Barty Crouch Sr. seriously? I kept expecting him to start talking about his cows.