A Midnight Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2005)

Before I hear the "You can't expect it to follow the books", the people who seem so firmly set on this was a good movie, best yet, and that it did the book justice I have to ask why.
In the first scene, it comes to the house of Riddle, as in the book. But instead of it just being Nagini, Wormtail and Voldemort in the room, there is also Barty Crouch Jr? What? I know that they had to cut things out but to manipulate the plot line so that things fit the way that the director wanted and not how many avid fans would want is beyond me. He had the option of making it a two part series, and in that I think he would have been able to do a lot more justice to the books then chopping it all to an atrociously choppy film. It was choppy, and for people who don't read the books it will be confusing and misleading, especially if they read them later on.
I had the, unfortunate idea that I should read the GoF before seeing the movie, as I was excited about all of the things that would happen. Some people don't miss the Dursleys, the Weasleys, and the opening feast, but I did. What happened at the Dursleys leaves things open for what happens in book/movie 5. At the Burrow we lost Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Charlie and Bill. Each of which did a lot of growing in the book and would affect later plot lines in the story. I know, they are lengthy, but the slow start to the story is put there for a reason. There is a reason for each of the scenes as they are written as per the book.
I understand that they would not be able to fit everything in, but to cut out people from the story, manipulate it as they have, what is going to happen in the sixth movie? In this story Fleur and Bill would have met by chance, but nothing. In this story, Sirius was a bigger piece of the plot, and one of the few that was holding on to Harry. They cut out a lot of Rita Skeeter and the effect she had on the book, the other characters involved. It was like this movie was not to be about the story, but simply the Tri-Wizard cup. Alright, let me try it from that angle.
In the scene with the dragons, someone was really CGI happy. This is obvious in the long, drawn out, far from the story line, Hungarian Horntail chasing Harry around the grounds of Hogwarts. Did I miss something in reading the books? The mer-people and the scene there was closer, a lot closer and yet still things were missing. The seats weren't over the water, they were on the shore, and one of the mer-people, the Cheiftaness no less was to be there. And lets not forget the champion eating hedges for the maze, instead of blast ended skrewts, the spider, the traps, and the Sphinx.
OK, I am dragging on.
Overall, acting was alright, not spectacular, but not frighteningly far from the story. Voldemort was played with a particular flair that left some to be desired but at least it was true to him.
What I am most disappointed about though, is simply the lack of the story in the movie, the choppiness of scene to scene. The missing characters who are in later books as well. It just makes me worry that if they cut this much out of GoF, what are they going to cut out of OotP? At least there was a bouncing ferret.