Harry Potter IV - Spoilers welcome!

[Rykion]

The best proof of Harry's power in the first 4 books, besides the Patronus, is the Priori Incantatem scene. When Voldemort and Harry cast a spell at the same time, their magic formed a connection because they both have wands with a magical core from the same source. It then became a battle of wills to see who would gain the upper hand. Harry won that battle. As he drove Voldemort's magic back on itself, Voldemort's wand began casting its spells in reverse. Harry won a straight up battle of will with the someone who is one of the most powerful dark wizards ever. I would have to call that exceptional for an adult let alone a 14 year old.

I also believe there is a good chance Harry won't survive the 7th book. It will be up to Neville to save the world.

 

[buzzard]

I just talked to a buddy of mine who saw the movie last night, has read none of the books, and he thought it was the best of the lot so far. He didn't feel that it was rushed, nor did he really feel that he missed out on much. In fact, he felt it was a good enough movie that he intends to go out and read all the books now.

This was a review I was waiting for since I feel that my view that the movie felt rushed was predicated on how much I knew was missing from reading the book.

buzzard

 

[Jeremy]

Haven't read the books.

Favorite movie so far.

Little confused at the end at the "Ministry doesn't want me to tell you this..." and Hermione's seemingly unprompted "Everythings going to be different now"

Wished the movie was 3 hours longer just because I was having such a great time all the way through the movie.

 

[sniffles]

I enjoyed it quite a lot. I think it's the most cohesive of the movies so far. I always felt the first two films were trying a bit too hard to put in as much as possible from the books.
I did wish there had been a bit more time for characters like McGonagall and Snape, but there was just too much going on.

I also realized one tiny feature I wish the costumers had focused more on: in the books folks from the wizarding world dress very eccentrically by Muggle standards, but they've lost that in the films - the Weasleys, for instance, dress in a quite ordinary manner. Oh well, minor nitpick.

 

[Crothian]

Little confused at the end at the "Ministry doesn't want me to tell you this..." and Hermione's seemingly unprompted "Everythings going to be different now"

I think it made sense since Voldomort is back and everything is going to change knowing the greatest evil is back. I do think they should have gone into the Ministry side of things a bit more though

 

[Jeremy]

I would have understood it in that context. If it had gone straight from Lord V has returned to Everythings going to be different.

But it went from Dumbledore to schools out for summer and goodbyes and lots of little people giving hugs and such then to Hermione. I guess I'll draw that line now, but it's a stretch and at the time it was confusing to me in a 'where'd that come from?' type way.

 

[Dakkareth]

Woah, this is a first time.

The first time I really liked a book, wanted to like the movie too, and then the movie adaption went WAY past the acceptable suck-factor*. Incredibly rushed, more important parts left out than I can count and the distinct feeling of NOT being a real Harry Potter movie at all. A good thing, that the director won't be doing HP again if I heard correctly, apparently our ideas simply clash too much in this.

After a 'well, it was ok, I guess' first movie and a somewhat better second one there came PoA, which I veritably loved - and now I wanted Goblet of Fire to be a repeat of that, wanted another great movie. And thus I was much disappointed .

Oh well,

-Dakkareth

(* there is of course the normal factor in any book-movie adaption, but usually it's tolerable and most importantly offset by other qualities. There were many good scenes in the GoF movie and a few really great ones, but by no means enough for me to think differently about it.)

 

[Hijinks]

I'm not sure if I really thought Voldemort worked or not. I keep thinking there was something slightly off in his appearance or manner. I can't quite place it, though.

*cough* No Nose. *cough*

Why isn't Malfoy exposed? Why isn't Potter believed? When has this kid ever been wrong so as to dismiss him in this manner so out of hand?

Little confused at the end at the "Ministry doesn't want me to tell you this..."

What's made clear in the books, but not the films, is that the Ministry of Magic does NOT want everyone to know that Voldemort isn't dead. The general population of wizards and witches believe he is dead, and there is no fear, freaking out, etc. When he was alive and rampaging through the wizarding world, he caused a great deal of fear and panic, not to mention killing good witches & wizards every time he sneezed. He is a figure of much lore, rumor, and many wizards think he was 20 feet tall and made of iron and totally unkillable. Those who run the Ministry feel that if they release the information that he is still alive to the general public, they'll have mass hysteria.

Harry and his friends and professors know that Voldemort isn't dead, but the Ministry keeps covering their encounters with him and his minions up. Every time something has happened, those in Harry's circle know about it, but no one else does. Most of the students at the school have no idea Voldemort was in the back of that one professor's head, or living in the woods eating unicorns, or all of the other things that he's done. We are in the know because we've watched the films, and so it's easy to assume that everyone else knows, too, but only a select few do.

Harry and his cohorts are really working against the Ministry throughout the books. I think this will be more obvious in OoTP, at least I hope so.

Did Harry win? Did they cancel it b/c what's-his-name was killed?
Where's the eternal glory?

I was unhappy about the way this happened in the film. If I remember correctly, it's Cedric who turns back to help Harry finish the maze, not the other way around. So I've always considered Cedric to be the real winner, and Harry is only considered the winner because Cedric is dead. It felt like Harry won in the film just because he was Harry, and because Harry is always supposed to win. I found it much more tragic in the book that Cedric was the true winner, who was supposed to get the eternal glory.

We'll see the effects of him being the Triwizard Champion in the next book. IIRC, he won 50 gold Galleons, which he gives to Fred & George to start a joke shop.

 

[David Howery]

Finally saw this on Weds.... I have to think that this was a movie made almost entirely for those who read the book, because someone who didn't would have a hard time understanding everything that's going on. That said, they should really do these movies like LOTR... film extra scenes that go into more detail and put it in a special extended DVD version....

 

[Dakkareth]

Finally saw this on Weds.... I have to think that this was a movie made almost entirely for those who read the book, because someone who didn't would have a hard time understanding everything that's going on.

For me it was exactly the other way around. *Because* I have read the book (many times), I'm annoyed because of the parts left out. If I hadn't read the book ... well, I probably wouldn't have understood much of what was really going on, but it still would have been cool. Not understanding doesn't mean finding no enjoyment, while as a 'fan' it's easy to get riled ...