I haven’t read the books, but have seen all the films, and I personally take the first sign of quidditch as a chance to run to bathroom, but was wondering what more hardcore fans think. Totally absorbing sideplot? Minor nusiance? Welcome break?
Agree. I’ve read all the books and seen all the movies. IMHO, #1 and #2 were poor efforts, #3 and #4 were pretty good, but not great, films. But one thing none of the movies did well, again IMHO, was integrate the various subplots (including Quidditch) into the main stories. Rowling’s diversions and tangents add a lot to the atmosphere of the books; she paces them well and integrates them just enough into the main thrust of the plot so that they don’t seem superfluous. A movie is a different medium and needs to be a lot more streamlined, but the Harry Potter filmmakers seem hellbent on not disappointing fanboys by dropping anything from the books, and the end result is a disjointed and momentum-challenged film.
To be fair to the directors, I think their problem is that some stuff needs to be dropped. They’re long books. And generally the directors seem to have gone about cutting by dropping either entire sideplots or links between them; so it ends up looking more jarring and jumpy than the books, where there’s more room to flow between situations.
It’s the opposite for me. The quidditch matches make the movies richer. The first couple of movies the cgi for the matches was horrible but I still loved it. It’s exciting to watch. In the fourth movie and the match with Krum and all the people in the stadium and the whole intro to the match made me feel all giddy. It is one of my favorites scenes from the movie.
Quidditch in general just bugs me because the rules are complete idiocy.
Agreed. It is a game in which one aspect renders every other aspect of the game functionally irrelevant.
Which part do you feel doesn’t make sense?
Well, what’s the point of even trying to score through the opposing teams “goal” if those points are worthless? Once the Snitch is caught, game over, that team wins.
The part I don’t get is when one person gets the snitch, they win. Making the whole other part of the game meaningless. I haven’t read the books, so unless there is something I am missing that fact just ruins the whole game for me. Why not have two games, broom ball and catch the snitch?
Catching the snitch does not mean you win. Each goal made with the quaffle is worth 10 points, catching the snitch is worth 150 points and ends the game. It is perfectly possible to catch the snitch and still lose the game.
Remember the World Cup in GOF? Ireland wins by scoring the most goals, even though Bulgaria (Krum) catches the Snitch–it’s very much a game of strategy, to see if you can hold off the Seeker long enough to score enough goals to win.
I love watching the Quidditch games, and I was miffed that they took out the World Cup from the movie, but I can understand the director’s decision to drop it in order to save time.
Edit: Curse you, Antinor! 
Exactly.
There have been games in the past where they lasted for days so its reasonable that one team has 360 points while the other only has 200. So even if the team with the lower points catches the snitch they would not win because they would still be 10 points beyond.
You beat me to the best example of how it works though, I timed out on my edit, but I’ll say what I had anyway…
A prime example is the Quidditch World Cup final between Bulgeria and Ireland in The Goblet of Fire. Krum caught the snitch while Bulgeria trailed by 160 points, meaning that Ireland won by 10 points even though the Bulgerian team had caught the snitch. (good grief, we are HP geeks. 
)
Krum was a complete moron for catching the snitch in that case and it made no sense considering he was supposed to be a premiere player.
Considering how far the Seeker can fly in pursuit of the Snitch, it’s entirely possible that he’d be unaware of a recent quaffle goal. or even two if made in relatively quick succession.
Actually, that still doesn’t make sense. It’s been shown that the game is not at al balanced on either the amateur end of play (snitch catching happens to quick) or the pro play (scoring happens so fast that the snitch must be caught within minutes).
But this is Harry Potter we’re talking about. Rowling has enver in the slightest degree demonstrated a desire to remain logical or consistent.
You’re right.
However, are you saying that there aren’t athletes that put their own glory ahead of their team’s?
-Joe
Which doesn’t make it any less stupid. It is clear that the game is contrived to make Harry into the hero of the match as often as possible
I’m just bugged by the inflated points. You can score 10 points, or 150 points, period. Why not just make it 1 and 15?
If I was to improve the game I would deflate the points first. Then I’d put a time limit on the game. Whoever holds the snitch at the end gets the 15 point bonus. Then I’d make the snitch a tadd easier to find, but a whole lot harder to hold onto. So the the seekers can duke it out over who’s in possession of the snitch.
Maybe give out points on how long you hold onto it…
(cough)Tennis!(cough)
-Joe