Loved it... Hated it

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2005)

As an adult fan of the Harry Potter series, I have to say I walked away from the movie opening night with mixed emotions.
First, why I loved "Goblet of Fire". The imagery of the film surpassed all of its predecessors. Director Newell succeeded in bringing Rowlings wizarding world to life with the brilliance of the special affects. I have never seen Hogwarts more beautiful. The cast was wonderful. I was pleased to see many characters brought to the foreground and given more plot than before. Neville was a delight in the lighter scenes with Harry and at the ball and brought me to tears in the tense classroom scene where he obviously relived the moment of his parents torture by the Death Eaters during the demonstration of the Cruciatus Curse.Fred and George were a riot, who both most certainly lived up to their "mischief maker" status. And I have to say, Filch was a complete hoot, as his dim-witted, lighter side shined through. Brendan Gleeson gave a superb performance as Alister "Mad-eye" Moody, and of course, Daniel Radcliffe touched me throughout the movie, particularly in the graveyard scenes until the end.
Now, why I hated it. (pause) People will sit through long movies (ex. Titanic, Gone With the Wind, etc). Why in everything that is holy would someone try to cram 636 pages of story into 150 minutes? There is an old cinematic device called the "intermission" which worked quite effectively in movie making history. Why is an intermission effective, well, let's see.. 1)gives the story-maker the opportunity to tell the story correctly without RUSHING through it and DELETING critical information or wow..PERSONAL INTERACTION to help the viewer RELATE to its character and 2)is a marvelous tool to give viewers a break from the action and regroup and hey.. maybe even INTERACT about the movie and get worked up and come back looking more forward to the rest of the film than before.
I was physically ill in the first half of the movie due to the rushed, mushed together scenes that had no break or flow. Newell did nothing more than cut the most action packed scenes of the book and bring them to life (which he did brilliantly) however, why? Anyone who never read the book would be completely lost and uncaring about the characters and to why things where happening because they would not be able to relate. And Mr. Newell a word, people love Harry Potter books because we LOVE Harry, and all the characters.
Which leads me to the most important reason I walked away sick from the movie... the lack of respect by Newell for what Harry Potter is about.. and that is love and the relationship between people. I agree 100% that this film needed to be darker, absolutely. Harry has crossed into the world of Voldemort, adolescence and the beginnings of his adulthood. But as an adult reader and watcher of the films, if I don't care about the people... I won't watch the films or read any more books. It was bad enough that you cut out the Dursley's (by doing so, killing one of the most hysterically funny moments in the book, the chimney scene)and many other people you considered "bulking" subplot but there are 2 unforgivable deletions: Molly Weasley and Sirius Black. By thinking of them as "bulk" you destroyed pivotal connections(both personal and storyline)between both characters and the main plot points for the future films/books. Do you even read the books? By cutting out Molly and Sirius you cut a critical link to the next journey that Harry takes. So in film 5 "Order of the Phoenix" are you casually going to mention "Oh yeah, Voldemort is back and over the summer we reformed the order." or "Oh yes, Sirus and Molly were devastated over what happened to Harry in the graveyard but we don't need to know their reactions so that you will be lost through this film too.?
I think I made my point... and without having to say too much in ending I will leave you with this... Albus Dumbledore...please read the book and see that you have created a wizard that is as much as J.K.Rowlings Dumbledore as he is Voldemort. (sigh)