| Rowling's Spectacle Substituted for Story ll Creve Cour ll 11.19.05
**spoiler alert for Harry Potter: the Goblet of Fire**
It's the 12:01 AM showing at the neighborhood multi-plex. The buzz of the cloaked and scarfed Hogwarts' clad want-to-be-wizards and theatre goers murmurs in anticipation of J.K. Rowling's fourth movie installment. Even the rowdy teenagers whom I - if not the entire law school crowd surrounding me - had been slipping looks of "settle-down-you-immature-ruffians" at for the past hour subsides for the fourth Harry Potter adventure.
While the various entertainment magazines and media shows no doubt have given much publicity to the Goblet of Fire, I haven't given into previews or summaries. Rather, opting for clicking through promotional pictures and watching the jam-packed theatrical trailer over and over - I can honestly say that I was highly anticipating this installment. Having rationed my re-reading of the book to coincide with the release of this movie, I had barely finished the last chapter only hours before curtain time.
Understandably, the nearly five hundred paged book was obviously going to be simplified and formatted to fit the under three hour requirement of an engaging movie. However, the quick paced drama of the trailer was unmistakably missing and numerous storylines deleted or altered to lose the charm that had made them so interesting in the first place.
The most reasonable way to break up how this movie panned out is to narrow down the five nicest surprises and the five biggest disappointments from my expectations of the Mike Newell directed production:
TOP FIVE SURPRISES:
 
(1) The Durmstrang Entrance. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) asks Hogwarts' students to "Welcome our neighbors to the north, the proud sons of Durmstrang!" Upon entering the Grand Hall, the Bulgarian school's army of boys with shaved heads and high-collared uniforms enter stomping their staffs like a military color guard. Finishing off with a blast of fire, Karkaroff (Predrag Bjelac) and Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski) acknowledge the applause with a macho superiority unrivaled by anything made out in the book. Awesome.
(2) Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis). Neville assist Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) in the Second Task by giving him the Gillyweed to breathe in the lake (and fight the Mermaids), which was the original plan of Prof. Moody in the book. This makes loads more sense than the whole Dobby-overhears-McGonagall-talking-to-Moody fiasco that was contrived as the actual method in the book. Additionally, Neville surfaces as a sympathetic, if not slightly humorous, character when he first incorrectly imagines that his advice leads to Potter's demise and then dances the night away at the Yule Ball.
(3) Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). Providing comical relief with the whole Hermoine-Viktor and Harry's-Name-In-The-Goblet arguments, Ron had the funniest lines and scene stealing images: dancing with McGonagall (Maggie Smith), receiving his package of dress robes, getting rejected by Fleur ("You know I like the way they walk, at least from behind"), and sitting bored out of his mind at the Yule Ball.
(4) (tie) Nixing Dobby, Winky, and S.P.E.W. As any Lord of the Rings or Star Wars fan will tell you, the most annoying part of any fantasy movie is when a CGI-character bumbles about with the lines of a fictional character. More amusing than comical in the last installment of HP, Dobby and his now-freed Winky would have most likely continued to bother the audience with pointless tear-jerking, running-into-the-walls, and computer-animated acting. Subtracting the whole "civil rights"-ish Elf Liberation project of Hermoine also saved the audience from having to be lectured about inequalities and indentured servitude in today's society.
(4) (tie) Nixing the Dursleys. As the Dursleys were a standard opening for each Harry Potter series, it was nice to see that the fourth installment took out the entire subplot of the Dursleys since it did not add anything that wasn't covered in the first three movies. Plus, it was probably too tiresome to see a magical Harry embarrass the heck out of his small-minded Muggle aunt, uncle, and cousin.
TOP FIVE DISAPPOINTMENTS:
(1) Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski). Give the guy some lines!! The smoldering Champion of Durmstrag said barely anything in the entire movie, albeit Stan gave many fleeting glances to Hermoine (Emma Watson) and had an eye-popping transfiguration into a half-shark in the Second Task. Yet, the character that was introduced as the athletic, socially shy, warrior that couldn't pronounce Hermoine's name got little character development. Sure, the dashing Stan had the good looks and the potential to be that character - as seen in spectacle at the Yule Ball in his Imperial-Russia-esque red uniform and his working-out-while-avoiding-hoards-of-girls was very much welcome. However, where was the depth as a romantic-lead with Hermoine and where was that ACCENT ("Herm-on-ney-nee)! Finally, he was supposed to have Karkaroff murmuring over his shoulder the entire time - especially in his fight in the First Task with the dragon that was supposed to be the Chinese Fireball. They DIDN'T EVEN SHOW THE MINI CHINESE FIREBALL DRAGON!!! What gives!? No invitation to Hermoine to go visit Bulgaria, no autograph signing for Ron, and no "hey-we-are-equals" relationship with Harry! Appreciating all of Stan as a physical embodiment of Viktor, it was unfortunate he wasn't allowed the liberty to show it off as a character.
(2) Cho Chang (Katie Leung). Katie beat out hundreds of other Asian-Brit girls to play Harry's first crush and Cedric's girlfriend. While Katie had more lines than the Patil twins (the actresses who looked nothing like twins), more scenes like the fleeting glances on the train, in the Grand Hall, and whole fiasco at the Owlery was to be welcome. Plus, Katie's (Irish?) accent could have been further used. I mean, there hasn't been a single Chinese-British character in the entire movie series and here's the FIRST and ONLY in the book. Using Katie in the promotional material raised expectations, but since the Patil twins didn't even get introduced (except for being acknowledged by Dumbledore) - it seems there's still an edge to Western dominance that denigrates the Asian role (even if it is in the role of a romantic female interest). Still, at least she was sporting a cheongsam-looking dress (and the Patil's had on what was probably inspired by saris). It would have also been nice to see her romance with Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) so audiences could understand why she was Cedric's hostage in the Second task and why Katie was crying upon Cedric's death. FRUSTRATION!
(3) Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy). Again, give the character some lines!! The part-veela character that arrogantly paraded around with her fellow Beaxbatons girls, tossing her silver hair was supposed to be strong and developed character. However, Fleur only had the chance to show off her French accent twice upon the rescue of her sister Gabrielle and upon leaving Hogwart's at the end of the movie. Expecting fireworks with the boys, jealous run-ins with the girls, and the part about coming back to study English, the attractive Poesy was denied the ability to bring Fleur to life. Furthermore, they should have shown Fleur at least getting past the dragon or something so she doesn't look completely incompetent in the TriWizard Tournament. After all, readers were supposed to be sympathetic to her out of respect, but not pity. Having removed Bill Weasley from any screen time (despite mentioning him), I wouldn't' be surprised if Fluer doesn't come back in the next installment since her role is to play Bill's romantic interest.
(4) Overall pace. At times, the movie was quite slow. A departure from the ominously quick-paced teaser and trailers, the movie seemed to drag. Maybe there was just too much to cover and the decision to include sweeping images of the Castle and grounds went overboard. However, even as Dumbledore gave the GRAND ANNOUNCEMENT of the tournament, there was a limping Filch that stifled the entire force of the news. Building up the scene at the World Cup was great, only to backtrack and cut to the Celebrations was a complete rip-off. The order of the guests arriving and the announcement made little sense. While the deal with simplifying Beaxbatons as all girls and Durmstrag as all boys was understandable, there was no development of their Champions, Headmasters, or overall schools.
(5) (tie) Dumbledore & Staff. Did it seem like Dumbledore resembled the sheet-wearing hippie that Dustin Hoffman played as Ben Stiller's dad in "Meet the Fockers"? For a reason that can't (or won't) materialize, the teachers - namely McGonagall and Snape (Alan Rickman) (since everyone else is missing) were still consistent, but not as good as I remember them to be.
(5) (tie) Missing Weasleys. No Mrs. Weasley, No Percy, and No Bill. The Burrow is missing some people. Percy played a pretty substantial role that would have made the connection with Crouch. It would have been odd to see how Percy went to the bad side of the Ministry in the next installment if he's missing from this one. He didn't' seem present at the World Cup either. And Fred & George never got the prize money from Harry's winnings so how are they going to start the Joke Shop? FRUSTRATION!
CURRENTLY: Studying non-Rowling items. |
