HP4

"Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" (or, as I more lovingly refer to it, HP4) was good. I'm still not jumping out of my skin with excitement (but, really, how often does that happen where movies are better than the book), but it was definitely worth the time and anticipation. The movie was surprisingly funny -- funnier than the book -- but in a sort of dorky funny way. Nonetheless, dorky funny was appreciated...I liked it. I didn't like how Cho's dress was all stereotypical Asian cheong-sam dress, though!! What is up with that????? PC Police, where are you?

That aside, overall, a fun and action-packed movie.

P.S.: I really want a mini Hungarian Horntail for Christmas. :)

*** possible spoilers ***

They cut out a BUNCH of stuff in the movie, though! And a lot of the characters. I was a little taken aback from the very beginning b/c, if I remember correctly, the first scene does NOT have anybody other than Wormtail attending to Voldemort. That kind of set the mood for the rest of the movie in an "Okay, so I guess 600+ pages aren't easily adaptable to movie form, so let's see where they've abridged it" sort of way. A lot of the changes/removals were pretty smooth, but a couple made me wonder b/c they seem to make the next directors' jobs more difficult.

They got rid of the back story of Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban (and his father and mother's aid in doing so). Not only that, but the whole Barty Crouch Jr. background with Winky the house elf (who doesn't appear in the movie!) and and Barty Jr.'s overcoming and eventually using against his own father the Imperius curse.

They cut out Percy, Barty Crouch Sr.'s eager assistant (and soon-to-be estranged Weasley brother), entirely. That suggests any future Weasley family troubles will not be featured and could pose a problem b/c it seems Rowling is setting Percy up for something either evil or glorious by the last book. Hrm.

Also, they cut out the controversy over Madame Maxime's giant blood and the story of the giants in general. This omission seems important considering the peace mission Hagrid and Madame Maxime embark upon in the next books. It seems Dumbledore emphasizes that, in order to overcome Voldemort, the magical world -- not just wizards, but all magical creatures from elves to giants -- must come together and work with each other to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters, so why cut out this important tie?

There are a couple others that struck me as distracting, but for the most part, the changes/omissions still maintained the general story and made the movie work as a whole.