I saw the midnight showing last night.
The movie was great. Visual effects were superb, including the dragon, merfolk, Voldemort's face, and the
Priori Incantatum, which was almost as cool as the
Expecto Patronum effect from PoA. The acting keeps getting better. Fleur Delacour was sufficiently... distracting... for her role
. Don't look at me like that... the actress turns twenty-three in less than two weeks time. Cho was decent, but didn't get much screen-time.
Don't go in expecting to have the entire book layed out before you, though. There was a LOT cut from the books. The Dursleys never made an appearance, nor did Mrs. Weasley (unless I just missed her), and the movie starts the morning that they all go to the Quiddich World Cup. The Quiddich match itself is not shown; it jumps straight from the "Let the games begin" scene to the post-game celebrations. This of course cuts the Lepruchan Gold sub-plot, and the Harry-is-rich/Ron-is-poor arc, though the strife that is supposed to be in this book/movie between the characters is still handled adequately.
The trials were nicely done. The dragon was amazing, it moved well, was very believable. The merfolk trial was cool, too, and the hedge maze was extremely spooky. In one scene, the maze tries to close its walls to crush Harry - the entire theatre, myself included, let out a scream.
The gags in the movie were great. Fredngeorge's "advanced physical maturism" was funny, Ron and Harry trying to find dates for the ball had us all rolling in the aisles for several minutes ("Why do they always have to travel in packs?!"). My second-favorite funny moment was when Harry opened the Egg inside the prefect's bathroom... and Moaning Myrtle made an appearance. She kept coming closer... and closer... and closer... to our inadequately-clothed main character, who tried to keep his modesty by constantly piling bubbles around him. Top honors, though, go Malfoy's brief excursion as a ferret and Mrs. McGonagall's admonishment to Moody that "Transfiguration is
never used as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore informed you of that!" and Moody's reply of "Well, he may have mentioned it."
Mad-Eye Moody... He didn't look anything like the pictures in the book, but I felt that the actor did very well in capturing his mood. He was a little more on the "insane" side of things than the "gravelly-voice creepiness" that I imagined in the books. His evertwirling eye was nice. The demonstration of the three unforgivable curses came out very good.
Imperius on an enlarged spider-thingy, making it jump around on people (including poor Ron), had us all laughing. "Watch it, I can make it dance... I can make it jump. Perhaps onto Malfoy? Or maybe jump out the window," as it hit a lens in the classroom. The theatre seemed to realize that this wasn't quite funny, and silence came down when Moody continued with "Or maybe make her... drown herself" as he comes close to making the bug submerge itself in a bucket of water.
Crucio had us all cringing, and
Avada Kedavra garnered gasps and "NO!"'s from the audience.
Speaking of the killing curse, that brings us to the Graveyard. Voldemort, still in his pseudo-infant stage, is being carried by Wormtail, and instructs his servant to "Kill the spare." Immediately, Wormtail launces an
avada kedavra curse upon Cedric, and he dies. Just dies. There's no theatrics, no suspenseful pause while we all wait for What-We-Know-Is-Coming(TM). It's as quick as a gunshot, and completely without emotion from the murderer. So sudden, so final, so cold. They handled this scene perfectly. I teared up when they finally got back to Hogwarts, and Amos Diggory cried over the body of his son. It was quite emotional.
You know how the scene for the next three movies is going to be set, when at the end Hermione asks Harry "Nothing's going to be the same, is it?"
He puts his hand on her shoulder, and says "No."
Voldemort is back.
