Goblet of Fire &c.

[strange_complex]

Oxford lay buried in a deep, off-white fog all day today. But I didn't mind at all. The only time I had to go out of the house was to walk to and from seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with redkitty23, both of us wrapped in gloves, scarves, warm coats, long black skirts and, in my case, my new sexy boots. Especially on the way back, when it was dark and wintry and we walked across my bridge deep in conversation about the film, the fog only served to make the journey feel like a real-life extension of the Hogwarts experience. Perhaps a cut scene featuring two particularly attractive young teachers, set on the rickety wooden walkway which crosses the steep valley behind the school.

Since this magical experience constituted the first time I'd worn my boots out of the house, and they do feel just like the sorts of boots a female teacher at the school might wear, they shall forever after be known as my Hogwarts Boots.

What about the film itself? Pretty damn good, though I agree with others that it wasn't quite up to Prisoner standards. But then, neither was the book. I very much want to see it again while it's in cinemas, anyway. So, good enough to spend another £6.50 on.

It's too late to go into detailed commentary about it now, so, pretty much at random:

Top moments:

• Snape pulling back his cuffs with obvious enjoyment, ready to whack Harry and Ron on the head for the third time for talking during homework.
• The Yule Ball.
• Harry and Cedric's reappearance in the Hogwarts Grounds after the showdown with Voldemort. Especially the way everyone, including Amos Diggory, cheers wildly at first... until they realise what's happened.

Room for improvement:

• Snape and Karkaroff discussing the Dark Mark - I understand that, like a great deal in the movie, this had to be conveyed quickly and concisely, but who on earth would fling open a door just as they were discussing a highly dangerous and sensitive issue, so that any Tom, Dick, or, say, Harry who was walking past could catch onto what they were saying? Utterly ludicrous.
• The moment when Harry's name comes out of the Goblet. I didn't find his reaction, or almost anybody else's, in the book convincing at this point, and where the film could have improved on this, it didn't, really. The only slight improvement was that Barty Crouch Snr.'s insistence on following the letter of rules did sound more convincing and in keeping with his character. But otherwise, I really felt this could have been done a lot better.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I saw 1 and 3 without having read the books first, and had no problem following 1, but realised when I read the book of 3 that there was a lot of important stuff I hadn't really picked up on. I still enjoyed it, though.

As the story develops and the characters get older JKR needs to include more detail to show that they are growing up and becoming young adults.

Aye, but at the same time, she no longer needs to include material which works to set up the basic context of the Potterverse (e.g. how wands work, how come we never see witches and wizards, etc.), as that was pretty much covered by the end of book 2.

I do agree that there's a lot which can be edited out, though, as the film of Goblet of Fire shows fairly successfully in itself. And a lot of it is the jolly, comic stuff we're already familiar with by now - the Dursleys, classroom scenes, visits to Hogsmeade, etc. I'm happy to have that still in the books, as I take a the-more-the-merrier approach to them. But a film really has to be tighter, and focus on the plot.