A Disaster

Rating: 2/10 (8 March 2008)

Where to begin? This movie started off a disaster and ended a disaster.
I understand that given how long the fourth book was, some editing needed to be done. But to this extent? The whole movie was altered so drastically from the book, it almost seemed like a whole different story altogether. What was left of the original story was far and few in between and was filled with plot holes and inconsistencies.
The Dursley's were never shown in the beginning, Weasley's Wizard Weezes was never even mentioned nor was Harry giving the twins his Triwizard earnings. Ludo Bagman wasn't in it at all. There was no S.P.E.W. There were no Veela's. Hardly any of the classes were seen and we never actually see the fake Moody putting Harry and his classmatesunder the Imperious Curse or find out exactly why the Cruciatus Curse bothers Neville so much. Rita Skeeter was given very little to work with (almost all of her articles were not shown) We never found out about Hagrid's half-giant status or saw Hermione blackmail Rita Skeeter. Those are just a few of the smaller cuts in the film.
The larger ones include the trio not meeting Sirius in Hogsmeade and finding out about Crouch Sr. and Jr.'s histories, Harry never witnessing the Lestrange's and Barty Crouch Jr's trial. All we have is Kakaroff telling us during his trial that Barty Crouch Jr.was a Death Eater and then Barty acts all snakelike and his father stares at him blankly and says that he is no son of his.
In the book we actually see the trial. I'm saddened that it wasn't included. The original scene was done so well, it had so much emotion. I almost felt sorry for Barty Crouch Jr. when he is sobbing for his father to not send him back to Azkaban and his father is refusing to listen. Not to mention, that is when we are introduced to Bellatrix and she stands up and says that the Dark Lord will rise again. But of course, they had to ruin it all.
There is of course more. No Winky and Dobby (or any house elf for that matter) no testing Crouch Jr. under Veritaserum. So therefore we don't know how Crouch managed to escape Azkaban or exactly how he found Voldemort or anything like that. His father is killed and it is never elaborated on as to why. We don't see Fudge arguing with Dumbledore over whether or not Voldemort is back or get told that Barty had the Dementors Kiss performed on him. The whole reason that no one believed that Voldemort had returned in Harry's fifth year is because there was no one to give testimony to his having returned besides Harry. Barty Crouch Jr. obviously couldn't anymore.
I could go on but there is little point. The film as a whole was as I said before a disaster. Even the cast seemed to be horrendous. Michael Gambdon was off as usual and Alan Rickman was given limited screen time which is a shame considering how talented he is and how important that Snape is to the fourth book and indeed the rest in the series. David Tennant while a good actor, did poorly here. I don't blame him though, he really didn't have much to work with. Ralph Fiennes was laughable as Lord Voldemort. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson all did well as usual but even their performances were not enough to save this film.
Two out of ten stars.