palace of winds

We went to a 2:20 matinee of Goblet of Fire today. It was sold out, as was the showing after ours. Cutting for spoilers:

So much to say. So incoherent. At random, as I remember, before I forget:

Dumbledore was not working for me in this one. Like, at all. I loved him in the last movie so it’s not the actor switch I’m all huffed about. I just…felt like he was totally off from bookDumbledore. And DUDE the eulogy at the end? It almost came off as insincere. It was bizarre. I expected the camera to pull away from him to reveal that he’d been practicing what he planned to say and it just wasn’t going right so he was just dinking around and greatly mucking it up in an effort to relieve some stress.

Ralph OMG awesome. So wonderful as Voldemort. Though he was less frail than I’d expected — his neck and shoulders were very strong, which was unexpected but I thought awesome. I loved the emphasis on how strong he is embodied. The robes were perfect. The everything was perfect — the way he moved (swept, really), the expressions, the — everything. Favorite scene. He was totally captivating.

Hermione and Neville in the Unforgiveable Curses scene OMG awesome.

Neville in general, pretty much every second, OMG unexpectedly awesome.

Draco felt a little shoehorned in. Or…completely shoehorned in, now that I think of it.

Everything felt a little abrupt, like they were just trying SO hard to cut it down to two and a half hours that they started shaving out vital transition bits.

I know everyone else bitches, but I was fine with Fleur. They didn’t bring up the Veela thing at all, and honestly? She didn’t get much screen time. I thought she was beautiful and graceful and poised and just a touch haughty, which was all good to me. I didn’t feel like I ever got a good long look at her or anything.

Victor wasn’t ugly enough. He wasn’t my cup of tea, but I wanted his face to be kind of messed up, I dunno. Didn’t he have a broken nose? I thought he was waaay too confident too. In the book I remember him being surprisingly retiring, not all WOO GO ME I AM TEH CHAMPION! Not that he wouldn’t've been all pumped at the World Cup, but I remember him being sort of averse to the spotlight.

LOVED the Death Eater get-ups. Totally wasn’t expecting the skull half-masks. They rocked.

Harry clutching the body of Cedric? Perfect. OMG. Might be my favorite moment in the movie. Beautifully beautifully done. Man, that whole scene, how jarring it is to have everyone cheering and making a ruckus because they haven’t realized yet. Wonderful.

I’m a little cranky about the opening, especially the shot sweeping up to the boot. I know what they were trying to do and it would’ve been awesome if they’d pulled it off, but it felt like an amateur film where they’d gotten this shot in crappy lighting but couldn’t be arsed or didn’t have the budget to do it over correctly. It was just bad. Luckily things improved from there.

Ron’s dress robes? Awesome.

I felt like the explanation of the TriWizard Tournament was botched. It was just…not good. I don’t know how anyone who hadn’t read the book would really understand the essence of it. I also think it was a poor decision to have Durmstrang and Beaubaxtons show up before it had been announced. All the Hogwarts students were just like Hey, cool! rather than OMGWTF is going on?! the way they should’ve been, not yet knowing about the Tournament.

I loved the way they worked in the Barty-posing-as-Moody storyline — the hints they dropped everywhere without bludgeoning you over the head. Moaning Myrtle’s mention of the polyjuice potion in the prefect’s bathroom scene; Snape mentioning the stolen ingredients; Moody’s constant drinking from the hip flask; and of course the weird Barty tongue thing. LOVE the scene between Bartemius and Moody, where Moody/Barty does the tongue thing and Barty Sr gets freaked out and just leaves.

I was amused at how Harry managed to get attractively injured in every competition.

I liked the return to the kids wearing uniforms sometimes. I don’t remember exactly but weren’t they cut out entirely in Prisoner of Azkaban? I do like the mixing in of modern clothing, but I liked the kids being in their school uniforms sometimes for this one.

As always, I demand more Snape. (Though it was MUCH improved from the last movie. We did get some quality Snape in this one.)

Overall: Some bits, especially the beginning half, felt rough to me. I was seriously starting to get disappointed. It perked up in the end and on the whole I liked it. I’d like to see it again to pick up the zillion smaller things I’m sure I missed.

Also? Woah, Ron’s starting to get hot. WEIRD.