Goblet of Fire, before

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Last time a Harry Potter film was released, I posted my comments on what I expected to see in it beforehand. As far as I can remember (as I’m struggling to find what I wrote) I was vindicated almost completely.

So, putting my predictive skills to use again, I announce that the following things will happen in the Goblet of Fire film (which I am seeing this evening):

Dan Radcliffe will act better.
The film will have a vague feel of Lord of the Rings in some places.
The film will be darker (this one is reasonably obvious I feel)
The film, now it has a 12A certificate, will be even less aimed at children – it will grow along with its audience.
Erm.
It’ll be good.
Er.

To be honest I don’t think I have much to predict. It looks darker, it looks better, it looks more interesting than the previous ones. Regular readers (from way, way back) know that I enjoyed the third film quite a lot, but thought the first one dire and the second one not much better. Perhaps I had too high expectations that the universal appeal would continue with the films. Anyway, as the books get darker and more adult, so will the films, and that in my opinion can only be a good thing.

Matthew @ 07:22, November 18, 2005 to Miscellaneous | Comments (8)

Comments:

Rory

Having just seen it last night at midnight (yeah, I’m a geek), I’ll share some of my thoughts…

Daniel Radcliffe acting better? I can’t remember what the last one was like to be honest. He was alright, but nothing special.

It was darker.

It was pretty good, but there was so much they missed out (of course), as the book’s so big.

Also, no-one ever said “10 points to Gryffindor”. Or even mentioned the points system. And there was almost no classroom scenes.

It was pretty sweet at the end, with Voldemort. But then it was cheesy, shaking his fist, screaming “nooo!” I could just see him saying “I’ll get you next time, Potter!” or “curses!” or “and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids (and their blasted dog)”.

Comment added at 13:18, November 18, 2005

Matthew

I was thinking along those lines as well…

Now, did you like the fact we saw Crouch Junior in Harry’s dream, unlike in the book – or would the denouement be too complicated? (I personally felt it lost dramatic impact due to such a short end scene with Crouch/Moody.)

Comment added at 20:47, November 19, 2005

Cat

Even though I’m not such a HP fan, I saw this for the fun of it… and the only two things I could think about all day were:

Draco Malfoy in that black-suit-black-shirt-black-tie combo at the Quidditch and
How irritating Hermione is.

I’m sorry, those are my only opinions on the whole thing.

Comment added at 20:49, November 19, 2005

Pisces Dubitatio

Heh heh heh. Matthew’s a Hermione fan. This should be entertaining. popcorn?

I haven’t yet seen it, but I certainly intend to… for the fun of it. Not because I’m an HP fan, of course. Indeedy.

Comment added at 21:14, November 19, 2005

Mr E

I didn’t like the way Dumbledore pronounced “pensieve” as penseeve. Surely it should be a homophone of “pensive” or the pun doesn’t work.

And I didn’t like how they didn’t mention the Marauder’s Map. It’s one my favourite things in any of the books.

I thought the way they reduced the beginning, i.e. Quidditch world cup etc., was good, though, and didn’t seem like they were missing too much out.

Comment added at 21:18, November 19, 2005

Rory

Matthew: I’ve only read the book once, and it was ages ago, so little discrepancies (like seeing Crouch Jr in the dream) went past me unnoticed.

Mr E: “Penseeve” seems to me to be the only way to pronounce it. I’d consider it a stretch to refer to it as a “pun”. Rowling enjoys little lexical correspondances – but I wouldn’t call them puns by any stretch of the imagination.

Cat: Ooh, you made me realise that Malfoy hardly played any part in the film at all. Which is good, as his and Harry’s childish fighting always annoys me.

Comment added at 15:52, November 20, 2005

Matthew

The ferret scene is better in the book.

Comment added at 17:01, November 20, 2005

Mr E

“Sieve” is pronounced /sIv/ so why shouldn’t “pensieve” be /pensIv/? That’s how I’ve always read it. Rowling clearly loves her puns, e.g. Diagon Alley.

Comment added at 21:21, November 20, 2005

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