Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (spoilers!)

[Tenraisenpuujin]

Hey. Anyone seen this yet? Got a few friends together last night, saw it, and really enjoyed it. It's definitely not as solid or interesting direction-wise as, say, Prisoner of Azkaban was, nor is it as sappy as the first two in the series. But I think it holds its own. Points:

• Performances: Good, if a bit less consistent than in previous HP movies. But if there's one thing I can't say enough about, it's Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. Holy **** he nailed it, and it wasn't just the look (which rocked)-- he could have been up there without a lick of makeup, and he would have been the most creepy and evil motherfucker in the world.
• Pacing: Me likey. They pared the rather enormous book down to its bare essentials: the challenges, which were rightfully the centerpiece action sequences. Loved the dragon, really liked the underwater quest, maze was just okay but the real meat of that bit was Voldy's return, which was excellent and heartbreaking. There were a few things left out which either pissed me off or made me think that they're going to have to do some fairly major plot reworking in the next movie, but that's just the book-lover in me talking.
• Score: Holy CRAP. Definitely the best so far. John Williams understands subtlety as much as the Bush administration understands honesty, and I couldn't tell you a damn thing about the Azkaban soundtrack. But I was both pleased and unsurprised when Patrick Doyle's name came up under the composer credit. He's one of my favorite film composers. The music blended perfectly with the visuals, never trying to draw attention to itself over what was going on, but setting mood and complementing things excellently.

All in all, thumbs up.

 

[UltraMatt]

Hopefully going to see this with 3 of my mates tonight and two hot girls. Which I really shouldn't be saying I guess cos ickle Rider Knight's in wuv. h34r:

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Just got back from it like 20 minutes ago...it wasn't a bad movie. Way better than the last, though it did go by a bit too fast.

 

[Keith Justice]

Bloody well loved it, I did. I liked the first one better tho. But this is a good second.

Lotta interaction, action, plot development, sacrifice and all around magical goodness.

My showing was rife with shitty trailers. I was told I'd be able to see the teaser for Superman Returns, but all I got was a lot of crap.

And yeah, that was bloody well fantastic, but my showing got a weird cut and edit.

It was at the ball where Potter and Ron are talking to Hermoinee and then the next shot she's got tears in her eyes as if something had happened and was all the sudden upset at Ron.

Guy I went with said that at his showing you actually got to see the exchange that lead to hear getting upset and crying.

Very odd and very noticable edit.

I love me some Quidditch and was near cheering myself at that opening, so I was disappointed that the whole game up and got its ass nuked.

 

[Tenraisenpuujin]

I love me some Quidditch and was near cheering myself at that opening, so I was disappointed that the whole game up and got its ass nuked.

Hell yeah. After the movie, we were talking about things, and my wife said "maybe they could do an Animatrix-style DVD of shorts with animated versions of all the stuff they had to leave out."

And my immediate reaction was "...Square-animated World Quidditch Cup. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG *sigh* it'll never happen but I really, REALLY wish it would."