saw the reviews i snipped from yahoo movies? i'm so impressed with the review talking about the movie being under the imperius curse and "dark and difficult times lie ahead- two and a half hours worth of it". haha!

i watched harry potter and the goblet of fire on monday. i went into the cinema not expecting to be blown away, not expecting it to be able to follow the book entirely, not going to be something i will definitely approve of. but hey, that's correct, cos we can't go in with such high expectations. but i did have some hope for it.

we start with the riddle house scene. the atmosphere was just right. frank bryce wasn't limping, but that's alright. the house was just what i imagined it to be. i feel my hopes rising. then, when frank peeps into the room... barty crouch jr? *jaws dropped* "huh?"

it's fine that they cut the front a lot, leaving out the part at the dursleys, at the weasleys, but it was rather sad they cut the quidditch cup so much. the set was pretty magnificient, but that was all they showed. no leprechauns, no veelas. they made krum look like he was so enjoying the attention. "yeah! yeah!" *pumps fist into the air* that was pure strange.

things start to go wrong at the part where they modified the death eater's merry making. no bouncing muggles, no drinking and laughing. the death eaters looked like KKK torching tents. the atmosphere was wrong. it was "get out of the way or you'll get burnt" not "the death eaters are here and it's reminiscent of the days of you-know-who so flee!" harry gets trampled on, faints, gets left at the camp site, barty crouch appears with a wand (wow i'm amazed they managed to simplify everything) and sends the dark mark into the sky. what?

i can accept some changes made to shorten the time. after all, cramming 700+ pages into 2.5 hours is a mean feat. but i would have expected them to cut out the unimportant parts. there were 3 things they could have done. (1) concentrate on creating that magical atmosphere. it's harry potter, they're wizards, and this is the magical community after all. (2) focus on the triwizard tournament. there is plenty of action. it is extremely interesting and engaging. (3) stick to the plot. this book has a very rich plot. the twist at the end is so delicious, the confession of barty crouch jr is highly revealing.

unfortunately, the movie did none of this. all magical feeling was lost, the plot is lost, and the triwizard tournament was distorted beyond recognition. instead, it wasted time on unfunny small jokes that contributed nothing to the plot.

things missed out:
(a whole long list, but i shan't be too particular about all details; i'll just stick to the "simplified plot")
why did mr crouch just drop dead in the forest? and no one was surprised? going by the simplified plot, his death was unnecessary, and they didn't even have to show that and confuse us.
what was the significance of the appearance of the death eaters at the quidditch world cup?
as a matter of fact, which team won the quidditch world cup? i don't remember hearing which the 2 teams were. maybe, we're supposed to recognise the colours of the ireland flag, notice that the weasleys' faces were painted white and green, and thus deduce from their celebration in the tent that ireland won. oh, and they seemed to like krum. what, krum is on the ireland team?
there was no explanation on priori incantatum. no one understood why their two wands would react and give that kind of effect. was it voldemort's intention? huh?
so we know moody was actually barty jr in disguise. so we know why he helped harry. but why did he treat malfoy that way? we know malfoy's dad is a death eater too..

instead, the movie was plagued with some unimportant jokes from the book, as well as a whole lot of made-up nonsense:
filch was running and panting heavily up and down the great hall, looking secretive about the durmstrangs and beauxbatons arriving. what's new? yah, so filch is a squibb, but he can still stand at the door and announce the arrival. that'll do.
malfoy the white bouncing ferret. ok, this was in the books. but it didn't climb into people's pants for goodness sake.
the dragon animation was cool, but the whole process was quite stupid. if you wanted to chain the dragon in the first place (it wasn't chained in the book) then don't bother making it break out later on. you gave it wings, then don't make it scale the roofs of the castle like a lizard when chasing after harry. harry could summon his firebolt (accio firebolt!) from so far off, then he jolly well could do that when his firebolt was only inches away form his fingertips. and finally, if you made the dragon strong and big and powerful, don't make it faint/die/concuss just because it rammed into a bridge like any other it had destroyed earlier on!
mcgonagall did NOT teach them how to dance. what the?.. it was so stupid and painful to watch.
geez. i really can't imagine why they wanted that stretched stupid bathroom scene with moaning myrtle. MOANING myrtle. she is constantly in depression, she doesn't go about giggling and trying to tease harry. ugh.
grindylows looked like mini octopuses with arms, or just little creatures in frilly dresses. and harry used some unknown spell to shoot upwards from the bottom of the water. and we dunno why the four hostages were alive for so long, looking eerie, underwater. we dunno why the mermaids looked so different from the one in the picture on the bathroom either. strange, innit?
why did viktor krum start hexing people in the maze that had swallowing plants? why did he get cataracts all of a sudden?
what was that stupid band doing/singing at the yule ball? and the dancing was horrible. poorly chereographed. bleagh. why did hermione start sobbing like that anyway?
why bother stretching out the part on rita skeeter interviewing harry in the broom cupboard? it wasn't even important. the importance of rita skeeter is the animagus revelation. if you're not showing that, all rita skeeter nonsense is unnecessary. ludo bagman or dobby or winky would have contributed more to the plot.
i REALLY don't understand why they made dumbledore like that. he's supposed to be wise, calm and composed. instead, when harry's name came out of the goblet, he started yelling his own head off, then proceeded to try and rip harry's head off like a raving lunatic. it was totally wrong.... totally off!

this movie could have been made much better. i didn't come out with that "duh" feeling as i did after alfonso cuaron butchered the third movie, but still, this one is just a movie full of chopping, salah-editing, unfunny jokes and bad decisions.

posted by Yee 6:45 PM

. . .

some reviews from yahoo movies.

HP4 is under the influence of the Imperius Curse
by dmiller_32780 (movies profile) Nov 18, 2005
581 of 877 people found this review helpful
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a movie under the influence of the Imperius Curse, mouthing a spattering of lines from the book without emotion, with no sense of purpose.

Scenes fly by, stripped of depth or meaningful dialog. No single scene is given thorough treatment, and no scene is particularly memorable. The most inspired set is the field for the Quidditch World Cup, but the director abruptly cuts out of the scene before the game begins. It is then that we know that dark and difficult times lie ahead - two and a half hours worth. There is a hurried, stripped-down feel to the film. Everyone speaks their lines in double-time. There is no time to act. Even the score, an essential, haunting, other-worldly component of the first three movies, goes from andante to allegro.

The first three installments transported the audience to a magical world, a world of grandeur and awe, a world where goblins run banks, books bite, chocolate frogs hop away from hungry boys and giants fly motorcycles. The magic is gone. This most recent movie transforms into the setting of a contemporary high school, with teachers slapping students on the back of the head or throwing chalk at them when they are inattentive. They seem to have forgotten they have wands.

Dumbledore is simply a frazzled principle, Snape is a bully fitting the phys-ed teacher stereotype, and McGonagall is just another Miss Priss. Of the students, Hermoine suffers most in translation, going from a good-hearted, independent, and very useful know-it-all to a budding bimbo who simpers about her relationship with Krum being merely physical. Krum and Hermoine’s time in the library is replaced by the exchange of a few leering looks.

This movie leans heavily on the previous films. The audience is conditioned to know that Fred and George provide comic relief. Giggles begin before they finish their lines. We must be counted on to recall that the Hogwarts Castle is an enchanted school of magic, for there is no moving staircase or password-plying portraits. There is only a single classroom scene.

The movie is dependent upon viewers who have read the book. There is no Winky, no Dobby, no fat lady, no maurader’s map, no blast-ended skrewts, no goblins, no sphinx, no dementors. There is no Ludo Bagman, no Bertha Jorkins, no Percy, no Mrs. Crouch, no Mrs. Weasley, no Ms. Trelawney, no beetle Skeeter, and no Sirius Black in either body.

For anyone who has read the book, the list of exclusions above will sound startling. Can the story be told without these characters? Can the movie have mystery, drama, continuity without them? Can we make sense of the actions of the characters that remain? The answer to all of these questions is “no”.

Scraps of unfinished storylines litter the screen. A character is found dead in the forest with no cause of death and no murderer. In the closing scenes Dumbledore delivers a monologue about overcoming prejudice. The camera pauses on the half-giant Madame Maxime, but the scene is meaningless because there was no inflammatory news story about giants as there was in the book.

The Imperius Curse, the curse most crucial to the fourth book, manifests itself in the movie as Morse Code-like eye twitches in one victim and cataracts in another. In both cases, the unenlightened moviegoer would not know that Imperio was the curse that inflicted them, who had cursed them, or why they had been cursed.

For all that is missing from the movie, there are odd inclusions; inconsequential scenes (Mad Eye Moody asking Neville if he’d like some tea), incomplete subplots (Harry’s infatuation with Cho Chang), and curious additions (Neville relishing in the ball).

Too much of what is in the movie is sloppily, unfeeling, out of character. Patiently paternal and unflappable Dumbledore screams an unfounded accusation at Harry. There is no emotion in Cho crying over Cedric, or Barty Crouch’s “I have no son.” When Dumbledore uses the name of he who should not be named, students don’t shudder. The moviemakers are careless about maintaining the proper scale of Hagrid. He looks hairy and heavy, but it is not clear that he is a giant. Voldemort flits around like a ballet troupe’s take on Dracula, his abbreviated dialog mouthed as quickly as rap, dancing to his own song with an amputated nose. He is disturbing, but not in the way intended.

This is more than a drop-off from the first three films. This movie fell off a cliff. It will be a difficult task to rebuild characters from the names, and to reassemble a story from the wreckage.

From someone who hasn't read the book
by enfant_terribel (movies profile) Nov 21, 2005
30 of 37 people found this review helpful
Harry potter 4 just wanders away like a lost fly in a forest. I must admit I haven't read the book, but I still found the movie to be mediocre to say the least, it's a piece of crap compared to the previous three installments.

SpOiLers ahead

To start with, Neville is scared of the spider shown by Mad eye moody but I never got to know why? n hermione just gave a scream telling him to stop it, didn't make any sense at all!

Moody then invites Neville to have a cup of tea with him, someone tell me what is the importance of tht scene????

We're only shown harry fighting the dragon n not the other championz, i donno if it's the same in the book too.

I was startled at Dumbledore'z character. I've always imagined him as a man who is calm, patient, someone who has a cool head but this movie proves it otherwise..... He's a maniac who starts panicking at every other thing.

There is no substance or depth in the movie, it just doesn't feel like a Harry Potter movie anymore, nothing magical, most of the scenes seem like they have been hurried thru.

The WOrld Cup stadium was awwsummm but that was it, they didn't show any games or nothin... just death eaters coming n torching everything in their wake. It would have been more exciting to show the Qudditch( or whtever its called ) world cup actually taking place

Voldermort looked real funny to me... I wonder where he lost his nose!

The romance in the movie is in parts n pieces n we never really get to know the new characters they just come n go like extras.... Harry has only a few words exchanged with his new crush... In the end his friend passes away but everyone seems to act like nothin happened..

Hermione does nothing but weep n cry n scream... she must be the worst of the cast in this movie...

This movie may be worth watchin in the theater (c'mon its harry potter after all) but prepare ur self to be disappointed at the end of it.

Harry would be ashamed
by romuluslupin1226 (movies profile) Nov 26, 2005
22 of 25 people found this review helpful
After waiting anxiously for months, I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. That was a mistake. Everything in the movie was either too little, too much, or not important. And of course, there was plenty that should have been in the movie that wasn't. I'll work chronologically.

First off, Harry doesn't even start off at the Dursleys. I suppose that was just to quicken the pace, and could be needed. However, scenes like Dudley and the Ton-Tongue Toffee could have provided some much needed comic relief (and probably more effective than teaching Ron to dance). Anyways, Hermione abruptly jumps awkwardly on Harry and Ron says something idiotic to set his character.

As for the dream itself, the directors decided to fix something that wasn't broken. They decided to add Barty Crouch Jr. to the scene, just to make sure people watching the movie don't receive any of the Rowling's mystery. The directors easily could have left it as Rowling wrote it, but they couldn't help themselves.

Next, the Quidditch World Cup. A beautiful, well-crafted set greeted the viewer at the Quidditch Cup and everyone was poised for an exciting match. But wait! Then we can't watch Myrtle molest/violate/rape/attack Harry in a bathtub. Let's skip it! Not only do we miss a perfect chance to introduce Winky and Ludo Bagman, but we also lose a chance to show Krum's skill, as well as the winner of the Quidditch World Cup. Apparently, it was decided to show that the Weasleys were poor again, so the directors also deemed it necessary to chance their seating for no reason.

Finally, we get to go to Hogwarts! We're rushed onto the Hogwarts Express, sit on that for thirty seconds, and arrive at school. Apparently, two or three months at Hogwarts isn't important though, so we skip ahead to the Triwizard tournament. First, the students from Beauxbatons arrive, and do their very.... interesting dance with the birds. Then the Durmstrangs boys do their rhythmic gymnastics routine, so everone gets a false impression on how Beauxbatons is all-girls and Durmstrangs is all-boys (we actually don't know for sure about that).

Now we get to the Goblet of Fire. Everything goes predictably innaccurately until Harry's name pops out of the goblet. Dumbledore proceeds to throttle him, throw him against a wall, and vioently interrogate him on whether he put his name in the cup or not (in the book, "he asked calmly"). It seems as if a calm, collected, and wise Dumbledore is not cool enough for the target audience (which I will address later), and a violent headmaster is much more agreeable.

Now, Ron gets angry from some half-explained reasons of jealousy. Some more unforgivable errors occur and we arrive at the first task. Fifteen minutes of the movie are spent with Harry sitting on a roof and the dragon ripping apart the roof of Gryffindoor tower and its new bulbous tumor (the three weird towers probably lacking in structural integrity). We just had to see that.

Terrible things happen, and we arrive at the Yule Ball. We waste about ten minutes teaching Ron how to dance that could have instead been used in telling the story that Rowling wrote. Then the ball arrives. It is by far the longest and most important (to the directors) scene in the entire movie. This is where we get to see Hermione's hormones (and physical relationship with Krum) kick in, as well as see Ron and Harry becomes Hogwart's new pariahs.

The emotionally scarring bathroom scene occurs, and we go to the second task. The merpeople are obviously more gruesome than they need to be, and apparently octopii are better than grindylows, but otherwise everything is okay. We hardly see the scoring or Dumbledore's conversation with the merpeople (which is referred to in the sixth book).

We get a very confusing or egregious (depending on whether you read the book or not) scene with Barty Sr. and go to the third task. Instead of interesting magical creatures that Rowling wrote, we get to see violent shrubs! There is hardly anything more poignant than Harry saving Cedric froms some ravenous branches.

Now we can go to the graveyard. We get to see the performance of Voldemort and his Death Eater henchman. Voldemort pirrouettes among the graves while rapping, throwing out unforgivable curses, and showing off his very unique nose. We get no explanation of Priori Incantatum and just think that it can happen any time two spells respond.

The movie goes on... We don't learn about Dumbledore's plans or Fudge's reaction to Voldemort's return. However, we do learn that Dumbledore let fire to curtains in his fourth year at Hogwarts.

Just to finish off, I'll go over somethings I feel are important. First off, I want to point out that this film has no targeted audience. Anyone who hasn't read the books can't understand the plot, and anyone that's read the book cannot help but be appalled.

Next, I want to point out the missing characters. We get no Winky, Dobby, Bagman, Trelawney, Sprout, Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Dursleys, and a bunch of other people. The directors decided to rearrange roles and try to carry on with no actors. They fail to convey the plot, and the actors they do have are terrible. We get Dumbledore and his beard full of rubber bands, spoons, and probably fleas, as well as very wimpy, boring-looking Mr. Crouch, who shows no emotion at all, other than always seeming scared.

I think I've ranted long enough, so that can conclude my review. The directors of this film failed, the actors failed, and the only good visual scene at the Quidditch World Cup was cut short.

I honestly don't want to know what will happen for the rest of the series and the plot holes that this travesty of a film has created.

posted by Yee 11:15 PM

. . .

On 10 Nov 2005,
my beloved ah boy died.

posted by Yee 9:57 PM

. . .