(Excuse me if the writing / english sucks -- I'm tired and I have a lot of work to do, so I just kinda rushed through this and put things down as they came to my mind)


Mm yea so I was invited to the warner brothers studio to see it. I will take this opportunity to write a review, since I never seem to see any movie before anyone else

--
Overall, the movie was a lot better imo than the previous three. Then again, I've never seen any of the movies more than once, but this one seemed (comparing using memory) much more serious and dark, especially at the end.

While a good chunk of the book was cut out, I think they actually put in enough of the important / good parts to do it justice. Although, again, I haven't read the book for a really long time either.

Now for the good stuff:

The movie opens with nagini in a graveyard. Pretty much the same as the book -- the old muggle man dies.

Harry has this dream and wakes up at Ron's house (I don't think this is how it was in the book).

The group then goes to the quidditch world cup..
--NOTES:
>> Fred and George's whole betting that krum would get the snitch but Ireland would win thing was completely cut out.
>> They didn't show any of the actual quidditch match, leaving out those veela (?) too [the beautiful women things]
>> The death eaters look like the KKK, except in black hoods. I'm not even kidding on this one.

Following the cup, the movie cuts immediately to Hogwarts. I can't remember if there was much in between in the book, but whatever there might've been, it was left out.

The arrival of Beauxbatons and the other school that I can't remember the name of is the first thing at the school.

The intro scenes for the schools are AWESOME.
>> Beauxbatons have their whole "hawt girl" thing that wasn't that hawt (kind of comical), but it seemed cool haha
>> The other school was hardass and had a military entrance thing with capoeira and breakers (which is why I liked it :p)
>> Krum is badass
>> Fleur isn't nearly as pretty as she could have been

The goblet of fire scenes(s) followed.
Rita Skeeter was present, but she seemed to disappear by the end -- pretty much her entire side-story, including the stuff about her turning into a bug, etc. and Hermione catching her at the end -- was left out.

Following this is Moody's class on the unforgiveable curses. Nothing really interesting, just an abridged version of what was in the book.

Harry's talk with sirius was next, but the whole Sirius thing seemed really minor. Sirius pretty much only appeared/got mentioned once the entire movie.

By now I can't remember things in chronological order, so I'll try to list them as chronologically as possible, but with no guarantee of accuracy:

-Yule Ball. This was preserved pretty faithfully. The whole Hagrid/Madam something thing though was underplayed. None of the "omg you're a giant???" stuff. Also the sneaking around in the rosebushes afterwards was ommitted.

Kakarroff being the suspect for putting Harry's name in the goblet was also VERY insignificant. They had a total of two scenes really involving him: one with kakaroff closing the doors of the room with the goblet, and later him showing snape the dark mark. All that other crap was left out.

The challenges:
The dragon challenge -- they added this whole thing with harry flying off to the castle evading the dragon, falling off his broom, crawling around on the ledges, then finally getting his broom back and flying through a couple of arches so the dragon ran into them and died so he could go back and get the egg.

The mermaid challenge was to my recollection pretty fully represented. The only change they made was that Harry used some levitation spell (Accendio or something) that wasn't in the book to get himself out of the water at the end.

CHO CHANG WAS NOT AS ATTRACTIVE AS SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

After the mermaid challenge was barty crouch sr. recognizing the fake moody licking his lips. A SCENE LATER HE IS DEAD (it was very abrupt).

Then harry goes into dumbledore's pensieve, yadda yadda

The final challenge: THEY CUT OUT THE FREAKING SPINX!! Harry and cedric basically just reach the cup by blasting roots and running really fast.

The voldemort rebirth scene was pretty nice.

HARRY's DUEL WITH VOLDEMORT:
this is probably the only part of the movie that was almost exactly as I imagined it. Part of the duel was cut off, but the end (Priori incantum and the whole wands connecting / spirits coming out / golden web thing) was really really well done. It was pretty much exactly as it was in the book.

Again, Death eaters = kkk in black hoods.

**VOLDEMORT HAS HIS OWN NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! a la Vader SCENE. I laughed out loud when I saw this (this is when Harry grabs the cub and escapes the graveyard)**

The ending was pretty dramatic -- "first" ending was dumbledore giving his speech to Hogwarts about Cedric's death, actual ending was harry, ron, and hermione talking about keeping in touch and pan out to the boat and the flying carriage going away.


PEOPLE THAT REALLY DIDNT APPEAR MUCH:
-Malfoy
-Snape
-Kakaroff
-Hagrid
-Madam something


Another thing is that they really didn't show much of the other champions at any point. Pretty much only in the final challenge, and that was them failing.




NOTES ON ACTING:
- Emma Watson goes a little overboard sometimes for Hermione
- Dumbledore wasn't bad, but he seemed a bit out of character. He was pretty aggressive / loud.
- Moody was excellent
- Ron was ok
- Harry was mostly good
- Krum was badass
- Fred n george did pretty well

STUFF:
Sountrack: Good
Acting: Mostly good
Cinematography: Mostly good
Flow: The movie would make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE if you didn't know the harry potter storyline. It cuts out so many explanations and background scenes that you'd be pretty darn confused.
Special effects: You could tell the CGI was CGI, but it wasn't bad.

Overall score: 7.5/10

Moody was excellent? The shots of him looked terrible...

Wow, it sounds like everything important was cut-out.

Yet again, another lame adaptation.

Must... resist... highlighting spoilers...

I am Extremely jealous at this moment...but I will resist the spoilers because when I peeked at dud's Serenity spoilers it ruinded my life

I read the spoilers because I've read the book :I

same here. interesting stuff.

Meh. I go to see the HP movies as movies, not adaptations of the books, and I enjoy them.

They suck as movies. Seriously. Prisoner of Azkaban is so... empty. There's TONS of tiny details that I wished been in the movie, or things I thought needed to be explained, but no. It's like they just try cut away everything but the bare bones and pass that off as a film.

Look at Lord of the Rings. Hardly anything was cut out of them, and the things that were removed weren't major. Why can't they do the same thing with Harry Potter?

(Despite my apparent dislike of the films, I'm soo excited, because I'm seeing it tonight at 12:01!)

[QUOTE=Vincent Valentine]They suck as movies. Seriously. Prisoner of Azkaban is so... empty. There's TONS of tiny details that I wished been in the movie, or things I thought needed to be explained, but no. It's like they just try cut away everything but the bare bones and pass that off as a film.

Look at Lord of the Rings. Hardly anything was cut out of them, and the things that were removed weren't major. Why can't they do the same thing with Harry Potter?

(Despite my apparent dislike of the films, I'm soo excited, because I'm seeing it tonight at 12:01!)[/QUOTE]

Hardly anything was cut out of LotR?

Tom Bombadil
Barrow Wights

I think those two which take up 100-200 pages on their own are more than 'hardly anything'.

Harry Potter films are great...as just films. The books suck, and the films only improve them.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi] The books suck, and the films only improve them.[/QUOTE]

ewww - you're fired

Bombadil is so incredibly unimportant, it's hardly an issue that he's cut out.

[QUOTE=Connection Problem]Bombadil is so incredibly unimportant, it's hardly an issue that he's cut out.[/QUOTE]
Yeah... the only thing Bombadil does to affect anything is give them the daggers. I'd rather save half an hour of screen time by just having Aragorn give it to them.

[QUOTE=Connection Problem]Bombadil is so incredibly unimportant, it's hardly an issue that he's cut out.[/QUOTE]

You're going to hell.

How does Bombadil affect the overall story arc? He doesn't. It's just a way for Tolkein to make up more songs.

Didn't read the books, so I like the movies (loved the third.)

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]You're going to hell.[/QUOTE]


I'm going to hell? What are you talking about? Bombadil does not fit in LotR.

I have read the books and equally enjoyed the movies. Criticising the movies for having incompletely explained plotlines is kind of silly considering Rowling herself has had an inclination to leave some aspects of her plots unexplained, and I'm pretty sure she does this conciously. If anything, to lay everything out is to belittle the intelligence of the viewer/reader.

[QUOTE=Connection Problem]I'm going to hell? What are you talking about? Bombadil does not fit in LotR.[/QUOTE]

Bombadil > LotR. The Bombadil section is the only portion of the books I even drew any enjoyment out of.

I repeat--you're going to hell. >:|

Can't argue with that, I guess.

I know its the wrong book but...

Snape kills dumbledore!

I loved it, as I have loved all of the films, as well as the books. I make a point not to re-read the books before I see the films in order to maximize my enjoyment of the film. I remember things from the book that are in the film, but I don't necessarily notice things that were removed.

mwahahahahahahahaa!

The movie would have been fantastic if the flow of it wasn't so shoddy. I know they had to cut a lot out, but it was irritating how the movie jumped about so much; I bet it wouldn't make a bit of sense if you hadn't read the book.

Other than that, I loved it.

I thought this after seeing POA, but apparently the people I talked to who saw that movie without reading the book said they understood the movie just fine.

I know what you are saying though. You watch the movie, and something happens in it, but there are a bunch of details behind that happening from the book that arent explained in the movie, so you figure anyone who has not read the book must be lost. I dont think that is actually the case. I saw the first 2 Harry Potter movies before I ever read the books, and I followed it just fine.

Anyway, what I feel was ruined:

They ruined the big surprise at the end, where Moody, or Crouch in disguise tells the whole story. But I guess its hard to unravel an ingenious spider web like the one that was spun in the book, and put it into movie form.

... But Crouch wasnt even supposed to be thought of as alive. They put him in the opening scene and I was like "who is that???" then it dawned on me and it was like "noooo! They ruined the big ending!"

But then I tried to put it out of my mind and enjoy the movie. I think it worked for the most part.

I just saw it last night.

Let me be honest.... I didn't like it.

I mostly agree with Pommy's review. The movie focused too much on the tasks in the Triwizard Tournament, and not enough on the underlying plots throughout the book, which were the most important parts. Less romance between Hagrid and Madame Maxime, no Rita Skeeter animagus thing, and even less with Karkaroff. I especially didn't like how they cut out Barty Crouch Jr.'s explanation of how he escaped from Azkaban. Plus, they should've focused more on the Barty Crouch thing overall. That's only the MOST important part of the story. Too many little things that were omitted made it seem more like Lord of the Rings than Harry Potter.

The movie seemed hollow. Least favorite of the four. Also, Voldemort was very disappointing.

He needed a nose.

To K@VU:

Basically everything you listed seemed unimportant to me. The Rita Skeeter thing has really no real significance relevant to the overall plot of the story, which was the return of Voldemort . THAT was the main storyline, and that's what the movie focused on. Personally, I would rather not sit through an extra 30 minutes of exposition just to settle all these little plot points. I'm glad they trimmed the fat and gave us the core of the story.

[QUOTE=Darth J]To K@VU:

Basically everything you listed seemed unimportant to me. The Rita Skeeter thing has really no real significance relevant to the overall plot of the story, which was the return of Voldemort . THAT was the main storyline, and that's what the movie focused on. Personally, I would rather not sit through an extra 30 minutes of exposition just to settle all these little plot points. I'm glad they trimmed the fat and gave us the core of the story.[/QUOTE]

Exactly. It was very much of a "Lord of the Rings" situation, where people complained why The Scouring of the Shire wasn't in the movie. PJ said that you just spent 9 hours investing your time into the character and destroying the ring, and when it's finally over, you just can't introduce another storyline. It would've killed flow.

i've only seen the first film? has the acting improved at all? it was god damned awful in number 1, like a crappy low budget kids tv series.

saw harry potter at the navy pier imax in chicago yesterday.

I REALLY REALLY LIKED IT.

and hermione is yes.

When? I saw It at the AMC River East at 10:30 last night... just a fiew blocks from Navy Pier...

Yes, but...

As Warlord said, Voldemort was very disappointing. He looked pretty cheesy and his acting wasn't all that great either. Maybe you're right, because an extra 30 minutes would've made the movie too long. Perhaps there'll be an extended edition DVD. It's just that all the little things are what MAKE Harry Potter. It would make the movie feel so much more immersive. It seemed like all the kids did at Hogwarts was watch the bloody three tasks. Not to mention they completely omitted a character - Ludo Bagman. He wasn't a critical character, but would it have *killed* them to give him even 10 seconds of screen time?

[QUOTE=West Wind]When? I saw It at the AMC River East at 10:30 last night... just a fiew blocks from Navy Pier...[/QUOTE]

wow crazy. i must've walked past you then, because my friends and i (we were a huge group) walked past that theatre to get to the el station and saw a pretty long line coming out of it (probably for harry potter?).

I just got back from it and the film was great, I love how they're getting progressively better. Defying the theory of sequels.

I watched it last night with my girlfriend, both of us thought it was great.


Neither her, nor I have read any harry potter books. I'd like to, but I just can't see myself reading 5 500+ page books.

I've seen all of the harry potter movies, never read a book, and I understood the plot and everything of this movie completely.

My girlfriend has never read a book, and has seen only the Prisoner of Azkaban and this one in full, she has only seen about 5 - 10 minutes of each other potter movie.

Thus, I have no idea what you guys are talking about when you say that you won't understand the plot/anything if you havent read the books/seen the other movies.

Well I've never watched a harry potter movie before but decided to take Jess to see the fourth one nonetheless and after aout a 2 minute debriefing from Jess before the movie, I understood the plot quite easily. And I found it great and amusing too. Of course theres some stuff she needed to explain to me after the movie like Harry clutching his forehead but that didn't take long to catch.

Overall I found it was a great movie and I just love Ron hahahah he's hilarious.

[QUOTE=Darth J]To K@VU:

Basically everything you listed seemed unimportant to me. The Rita Skeeter thing has really no real significance relevant to the overall plot of the story, which was the return of Voldemort . THAT was the main storyline, and that's what the movie focused on. Personally, I would rather not sit through an extra 30 minutes of exposition just to settle all these little plot points. I'm glad they trimmed the fat and gave us the core of the story.[/QUOTE]

Rita Skeeter is unimportant? Except possibly for the fact that her being an animagus, which is discovered be Herione, has quite a big influence in the 5th book.

yeah, I would hope one could catch on to that at least by the end of the flick :p