This past weekend has been pretty lazy, the only highlights being Harry Potter and a potluck dinner. Of course, Harry Potter came first, but I'll relate my views on the movie at the end of this post so that those of you who don't want to read spoilers can skip it.
The potluck was insane. There was so much food, all Chinese(!), that it would have been fit for an army. Well, a small army. I pigged out as usual, spooning myself samples of everything, but something strange happened - I felt full after my first helping! I figured something must have been wrong with my senses, because I've never before been full after one helping at a potluck. Thus, I took a break, then took 2 helpings of desserts - I really couldn't have stopped myself, it was all so tempting! Anyway, after all that food, I was close to bursting. Literally. Afterwards, it was all I could do not to "burst".
Question - does this mean my eating capacity has forever been compromised by my daily exercise routine? I've been consistently doing crunches every morning and going to the gym 3 times a week, so my ab muscles have definitely seen some improvement. But does exercising mean I can't enjoy pigging out once in awhile? Food is my life!
Oh well, without further ado, Goblet of Fire came out on Friday, and I went with a couple of coworkers to the evening show. For those of you who haven't seen it, you can stop reading now.
My first impression of the movie was that it was very dark - maybe even more so than Prisoner of Azkaban. Although this movie didn't have any dementors, death eaters and Voldemort were mentioned constantly. Speaking of which, the death eater outfit reminded me a lot of the KKK outfits - did anyone else notice the resemblance? When I read the book, I always imagined the death eaters wearing simple black hooded robes with a plain mask - definitely nothing like the detailed costumes in the movie.
Besides the evil overtones, I felt the movie was very rushed. Granted, it must have been painful deciding which scenes to exclude from the 2-hour-and-30-minute movie, but the removal of those sections disturbed the flow of the story. It seemed as if events were introduced, then occurred almost immediately afterward. Take the Yule Ball for example - McGonagall mentions it, and the next instant, it's happening. Yes, I know - there were a couple of jokes in between, but it felt hurried.
The Ball itself was decent though - I loved the bird's eye shot of the students dancing. It was so elegant and grand... right up until the rock concert bit. This scene also showed Emma Watson's ability to act - which she did pretty poorly. The hinting towards Hermione and Ron's relationship was way too obvious - something which the book cleverly kept from its readers.
Oh - did anyone notice Cho Chang's (Katie Leung's) weird accent when she declined Harry's offer? She said that she couldn't go with him, but she felt really bad about it. When she said the word "go", it sounded like "goo". I know, picky detail - but it made me scratch my head.
The Triwizard tournament was very well done though. I liked the chase between Harry and the dragon - especially at the end, when Harry was urging his broom to the egg. Also, the special effects that transformed Harry when he ate the gillyweed were pretty cool too - in the previews, it didn't click with me that the boy jumping up from the water was Harry! Did anyone else think that the merpeople were much scarier than the book depicted them to be?
I think one of my favourite shots was of the giant maze. It was so vast, and I felt that the dangers of the task were shown pretty well by the champions - the hysteria, anxiety, determination. Viktor Krum portrayed an Imperius victim to perfection, while Cedric Diggory was excellent in his hero role. They picked the ideal actor for that character - I almost cried when he fell from the Avada Kedavra curse and then when Harry brought him back to Hogwarts. I think tears would have fallen had I not known what was going to happen.
I wish they had concentrated a bit more screen time on the Quidditch World Cup - that seemed unnecessarily rushed too. And Harry seemed to be completely clueless as to where they were going! Didn't he know about it in the book? I was really looking forward to seeing professional Quidditch players, but I guess it wasn't really critical in the plot.
Overall, it was a good movie - I want to see it again (after I re-read the book) to see if I missed anything. Now, my anticipation lies solely in the 7th book!
The potluck was insane. There was so much food, all Chinese(!), that it would have been fit for an army. Well, a small army. I pigged out as usual, spooning myself samples of everything, but something strange happened - I felt full after my first helping! I figured something must have been wrong with my senses, because I've never before been full after one helping at a potluck. Thus, I took a break, then took 2 helpings of desserts - I really couldn't have stopped myself, it was all so tempting! Anyway, after all that food, I was close to bursting. Literally. Afterwards, it was all I could do not to "burst".
Question - does this mean my eating capacity has forever been compromised by my daily exercise routine? I've been consistently doing crunches every morning and going to the gym 3 times a week, so my ab muscles have definitely seen some improvement. But does exercising mean I can't enjoy pigging out once in awhile? Food is my life!
Oh well, without further ado, Goblet of Fire came out on Friday, and I went with a couple of coworkers to the evening show. For those of you who haven't seen it, you can stop reading now.
My first impression of the movie was that it was very dark - maybe even more so than Prisoner of Azkaban. Although this movie didn't have any dementors, death eaters and Voldemort were mentioned constantly. Speaking of which, the death eater outfit reminded me a lot of the KKK outfits - did anyone else notice the resemblance? When I read the book, I always imagined the death eaters wearing simple black hooded robes with a plain mask - definitely nothing like the detailed costumes in the movie.
Besides the evil overtones, I felt the movie was very rushed. Granted, it must have been painful deciding which scenes to exclude from the 2-hour-and-30-minute movie, but the removal of those sections disturbed the flow of the story. It seemed as if events were introduced, then occurred almost immediately afterward. Take the Yule Ball for example - McGonagall mentions it, and the next instant, it's happening. Yes, I know - there were a couple of jokes in between, but it felt hurried.
The Ball itself was decent though - I loved the bird's eye shot of the students dancing. It was so elegant and grand... right up until the rock concert bit. This scene also showed Emma Watson's ability to act - which she did pretty poorly. The hinting towards Hermione and Ron's relationship was way too obvious - something which the book cleverly kept from its readers.
Oh - did anyone notice Cho Chang's (Katie Leung's) weird accent when she declined Harry's offer? She said that she couldn't go with him, but she felt really bad about it. When she said the word "go", it sounded like "goo". I know, picky detail - but it made me scratch my head.
The Triwizard tournament was very well done though. I liked the chase between Harry and the dragon - especially at the end, when Harry was urging his broom to the egg. Also, the special effects that transformed Harry when he ate the gillyweed were pretty cool too - in the previews, it didn't click with me that the boy jumping up from the water was Harry! Did anyone else think that the merpeople were much scarier than the book depicted them to be?
I think one of my favourite shots was of the giant maze. It was so vast, and I felt that the dangers of the task were shown pretty well by the champions - the hysteria, anxiety, determination. Viktor Krum portrayed an Imperius victim to perfection, while Cedric Diggory was excellent in his hero role. They picked the ideal actor for that character - I almost cried when he fell from the Avada Kedavra curse and then when Harry brought him back to Hogwarts. I think tears would have fallen had I not known what was going to happen.
I wish they had concentrated a bit more screen time on the Quidditch World Cup - that seemed unnecessarily rushed too. And Harry seemed to be completely clueless as to where they were going! Didn't he know about it in the book? I was really looking forward to seeing professional Quidditch players, but I guess it wasn't really critical in the plot.
Overall, it was a good movie - I want to see it again (after I re-read the book) to see if I missed anything. Now, my anticipation lies solely in the 7th book!
Comments
I thought that it was comparably dark during the scenes that are supposed to be, but lacked the general darkness undertone that went through all of three. They did sadly but necessarily rush the HELL out of the thing.
First thing I said in the theatre upon seeing the death eaters was "wow, a klan lynch mob, who knew?" In retrospect I kind of like this idea. These guys are supposed to be evil, but exist in a world where they would likely be wearing daffy wizard costumes. The Klan imagery hits people in the face RIGHT away and you feel instantly uncomfortable. So even though the costumes are objectively kind of silly, they really get the job done with the evil vibe.
I thought Hermione's dress was awful, and didn't do much for her "im a blossoming young lady moment" . I can also forgive the blatancy of her reaction to ron's apathy and the revealing of her feelings so overtly and so quickly.
The movies really have to skip the ancillary parts of the books, where most of these little relationship indicators lie. As such, in the movies, if it werent for the occasional OBVIOUS part, really there would be little indication of their budding connection at all. If it werent for that scene you could really make an argument for Hermione going after Harry just looking at her actions this movie alone.
I have similar concerns about this effect on the impending-though distant harry-ginny hookup. They are REALLY gonna have to step up her presence in the upcoming movies or you're just not going to want to buy them comin together.
Oh yeah and that WEIRD accent of Cho's is Scotish dammit! Yes it does tend to come out moreso in some phrases than others, but she certainly wasnt faking or anything. So feel free to stop spitting on the bones of my ancestors :)
I didn't at all like the eye-glaze of imperius'ed Krum, that seemed stupid.. I mean the whole deal about figuring the liars from those who were really under the curse, just ask if they were wearing glazed contacts, easy!
Overall I'd say Brendan Gleeson stole the show.
First, sorry about the accent comments! :) I had no idea Katie Leung was Scottish - was Cho Chan supposed to be Scottish?
Yes, I definitely noticed how Ginny had at most one or two lines in the whole movie. Maybe there were more, but they weren't very significant. I guess it sort of follows the books because I didn't really think about a Harry-Ginny relationship until really late in the series.
OK, I lied - one more thing - you bring up a good point about the eye-glazing. Imperius isn't supposed to be so easily detected, but I guess it was important for the audience to know what was going on. I think most non-Harry Potter fans would be confused by the rest of the movie, but not having that distinction at the end would probably throw them off even more. I know - I'm trying to excuse the direction.
I'll have to go see it again.