Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Once again, we turn the page to a new kind of Harry Potter movie. Not only do they switch the director to Mike Newell, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the first book that is quite literally too big to fit into one movie. So the tightrope walking begins here, in exchange for chopping up the book we finally start seeing some real action and real consequences in this world.

To bring Goblet of Fire in under two and half hours, they broke out the hacksaw so let’s sift through the debris. First of all the Dursleys do not even appear in the movie which was odd. Then the Quiddditch World Cup was skipped, although they took the time to do the team introductions then blew past the actual match. But worse than that … no Winky! Damn you I want more house elfs. On top of that, Hermoine doesn’t even start up SPEW. And where the hell is Dobby? Why do the movies hate house elfs? Going back to the World Cup, Ludo Bagmen is completely removed from the plot. Another character cut from the film is Bellatrix Lestrange which just delays her awesomeness for one more movie. No Bill or Charlie Weasley again and this time no Percy … damn it these brothers exist! For some reason, they brought Gary Oldman in for some voiceover work instead of actually using one of the best actors working today in any actual acting scenes. Finally, the climatic chapters of the book are just completely missing from the movie. I understand that Harry can’t recount the whole story to Dumbledore on film after we just saw it happen, but this was a great chapter of the book. Ah well.

We are four movies in of casting great actors; who is left? Goblet of Fire answers this by bringing in a Dr. Who, David Tennant, as Barty Crouch Jr. A completely unknown Robert Pattison as Cedric Diggory. The new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is Mad-Eye Moody and Brendan Gleeson puts on the mechanical eye and growls for a couple of hours. Miranda Richardson is brought on as the horrifyingly annoying Rita Skeeter and captures all of that quite well. And in the most important piece of casting for the entire series going forward, Ralph Fiennes gets his nose removed and is the reborn Lord Voldemort. What an inspired choice and a man who is actually able to live up to the buildup.

I may have detailed about a dozen detours from the book but that does not mean that I have a negative opinion of the movie version of Goblet of Fire. There are some phenomenal moments in this movie. The dragon battle is the first legitimate action sequence in the franchise. It is a complete reimagining of the book version of the First Task but who the hell cares!?! That was a fun chase. To bookend that early sequence, they were somehow able to capture the creepiness of Voldemort’s rebirth. Much of this was Fiennes’ performance, but they didn’t shy away from the killing of Cedric or Wormtail cutting his arm off or Harry’s desperate battle for his life. And although it is another add-on that doesn’t exist in the book, but I love the scene where Hermoine hugs Harry before he faces the dragon. Awwwwww.

My main complaint is that the movie grinds to a halt and spends about half hour on the Yule Ball. This is about 2 chapters in the book, but takes up the entire middle portion of the movie. It ruined the flow of the movie just so Hermoine can wear a pretty dress and yell at Ron. Thanks. And someone needed to cut Daniel Radcliffe's hair.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire may be my favorite book in the series so it would be impossible for me not to like the movie version. This is where Lord Voldemort finally appears and that is the only thing they had to get right and they passed with flying colors. I'm pretty much rating the entire movie based on that one scene. I have that right.

9 out of 10

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