I know I'm late, but had my own Christmas celebrations with my better half and didn't get to even open the laptop. But hey, better late than never!
Sunday saw us at the IMAX theatre watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! Well, I can't believe I'm saying this but, the movie was a let down. Maybe because I've read the book atleast a gazillion times and found the movie not even close. Imagine - I found the Quidditch matches in the book more interesting than on screen!! (If you do not know what Quidditch is, chances are you won't understand even a single word of what's coming up - so..consider yourselves warned.)
SPOILER ALERT!! - If you haven't seen the movie yet, but intend to, please don't read on.
If you have read the book, you know what I'm talking about - the first scene in the movie with Harry's dream about Wormtail and Voldemort in the Riddle House - well, they also show Barty Crouch Jr (the one who impersonates Moody) in the dream!!! Can you believe that??!!! there's more - they did not show the Quidditch World Cup match - I was dying to see the Wronski Feint by Krum, but no..they just didnt show it! No Veela, no leprechauns - nothing!! There was nothing about Winky the house-elf (so you can imagine how distorted the plot is if there is no Winky tugging an invisible Barty Crouch who casts the Dark Mark in the sky).
The director seems to have taken a lot of liberty with the story line - in the second task, Harry gets the gillyweed from Neville - not Dobby! There's nothing about Rita Skeeter being an animagus. And the biggest lapse of them all - the third task in the maze was the letdown of the year!! They did not show any obstacles at all in the maze - just the scary looking maze and Krum trying to jinx Fleur and Cedric. No sphinx asking questions, no spider attack on Harry and Cedric, no fog that turns the world upside down, no Blast-ended Skrewts - nothing, zero, zilch! There was way too much dialogue between the characters and very less action.
But surprises that I liked - the scene with the Durmstrang ship coming was too cool. So were Victor Krum and Cedric Diggory and Hermione. Mad-eye Moody was ok - I'd imagined someone less fat though ;-) Snape did some comedy - shocked eh? Well, no comments on that one. Loved the scene were Malfoy is transfigured into a ferret by Moody. There was a scene were Prof McGonagall teaches the class to dance - it's not in the book right? It was good though - especially with Ron, Fred and George (who look cool btw). The last scene in the graveyard with Voldemort rising was really well-taken. Voldemort rocks! Looks just like the descriptions in the book.
The best part about the movie were the actors - they were absolutely amazing! Daniel Radcliffe was mind-blowing (forgive my choice of words for superlatives - I'm not such a good review-writer - I just write what comes to my mind). Emma Watson - she was really really cute (hubbie dear liked her the best!) . No comments on Ron. The coolest was Draco Malfoy - he actually looks handsome and..for want of a better word - yummy! Dumbledore was good, his costumes could have been better though - he walked around in what looks like a faded, old nightie for cryin' out loud! Madame Maxine was good too - she actually makes Hagrid look normal. The Beauxbaton girls and Durmstrang guys were awesome - the introduction scene for them was great.
I know its a 2.5 hour movie and you cannot have the full book in it, but some parts were outrageous. A person who hasn't read the book (like my husband) would never appreciate the true beauty of a Harry Potter tome if the movie is like this! Then again, I don't think any movie that's completely based on a book can do full justice to all aspects of the book and maintain the nature of cinema at the same time. End of the day, it's still a HP movie and I'm always a very faithful fan - so I can tolerate the movie!
The movie is worth watching only once - I say only once 'coz for me, the rest of the HP movies can be watched any number of times. Not so for the Goblet of Fire. Loved the IMAX experience though - but that's a topic for another post!
So long then...Buon Natale again folks! Hope you had a wonderful miracle-filled and jolly Christmas!
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