November 19, 2005 - After months of anticipation, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the 4th (and my favourite) book in the series, finally opened last night. Despite showing up almost an hour earlier, we still had a hard time finding good seats - and had to sit pretty close to the screen.
That didn't stop me from enjoying the movie though! This time, Harry finds himself at the Triwizard Tournament, competing for the coveted title against three other contestants (one of them is Cedric Diggory - see picture - and of course everyone knows who I support :P ). Besides facing the challenges of the tournament, Harry must also face the trial and tribulations of being a teenager: namely meeting girls and learning how to dance!
The movie was a visual stunner - the Quidditch World Cup scene that set the story up was simply amazing. The Yule ball scene was beyond what I had imagined while reading the book. Having said that though, I also thought some of the scenes went a little beyond than required, namely the first challenge scene with the dragon - was it really necessary to follow the dragon for 10 minutes?
Since the book was over 700 pages, a lot of it was cut out to make the movie into 2.5 hours. Everything with Harry's "muggle" family was cut out, as were the house elves. I was a little disappointed over the absence of the house elves, since they were quite important to the story. Besides cutting out sections of the book, the movie also had to reduce the role of some of the characters. As a result, some of the main characters, like Sirius Black, Professor McGonagall, and even Hagrid, had only cameo appearances. Even Cho Chang, Harry's crush, had only 2 lines in the entire movie!
Overall though, the movie was still very enjoyable. There was no way that the adaptation would be perfect and I felt that the director did his best to please both fans of the books and those who have never read the books. The rise of Voldemort was done really well and I can't wait to see Ralph Fiennes in the upcoming movies. Cedric Diggory, played by Robert Pattinson, definitely added to the visual appearance of the movie :) too bad he died in the movie though...perhaps Cedric has a twin brother, or a look-alike cousin?
Speaking of the cast, the Harry Potter movies feature some of the most well known British film actors. Among those who have been in a HP movie include Maggie Smith (Prof. McGonagall), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), Emma Thompson (Prof. Trelawney), Julie Christie (Madam Rosmarta), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Kenneth Branagh (Prof. Lockhart), Jason Issac (Lucius Malfoy), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid)...
The movie for book 5 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - comes out in 2007! I can't wait to see who they cast as Professor Umbridge, my favourite character in the entire series (well, after Cedric Diggory I guess). My choice is still Dame Judi Dench - but is she too old for the part?
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