Like the dork I am I've now seen Harry Potter 4. So I figured I would give my opinion of the film.
Well my first thought is that they really shouldn't have made the third one good because it does set a standard. A standard that this one comes no where close to.
In comparison the cinematography is no where near as good. Alot of the special effects come of as very cheesy. There was not a set undertone theme that was as visible in tying the events together like any of it predecessors.
But mostly my problem with this film is that none of the story lines come to any sort of completion. It's like they just took a bunch of semi finished scenes and mashed them together in hopes that they could fit as much of the book in as possible.
For example. Harry finds Barty Crouch apparently dead in the forest and you might think he's gone off to get dumbledor, but why do that when they can use it as a prime opportunity to skip way forward in the plot. No one even wondered what happened to him anyway right?!
If you hadn't read the books, chances are you wouldn't have a clue as to what was going on.
All in all I thought it was crap, even compared to the 1st and 2nd book. And that they need to get the Director from the third movie back.
Full Version: Harry Potter 4
Spoiler Warning!
I rather enjoyed the movie. It was beautifully done. All in all, I think they did what they could. It was already 2 and a half hours long and they'd probably already hacked it to pieces. Taking anything else out wouldn't make sense. Am I unhappy with the how much was left out of it? Sure. But you have to realize, Book 4 was nearly double the size of any of the previous books. It was as big as 1 and 2 combined. And since so many children would be watching the movie, making it longer than 2 and a half hours didn't sound smart. I already had to deal with the little brats munching popcorn and kicking the back of my seat. Anything longer than 2.5 hours and I may have murdered one or five. Since I seem to have a lot to say, I'll go through the movie and point out what I like and what I dislike.
- The beginning. It all starts with Harry Potter in the Burrow. I would've liked to have seen more of the Burrown and been introduced to Bill and Charlie. We never got to see Harry at the Dursley's, which my friend was glad for.
- Quidditch World Cup. It was nothing like I imagined, but it was fantastic. Didn't get to see the actual match, just the before and after. Some details were left out, like the gold that would have a small part in Harry and Ron fighting in the rest of the movie. I did like the way they did the portkey.
- Death Eaters. Vile things. They walk around chanting and burning things. The costumes were something very unexpected. From the book, if I remember right, they were hooded robes with skull masks. In the movie they looked like they were wearing a black Klan outfit. Scary, none the less. One very important part left out from the movie was Winky, Crouch's house elf. Without her, the whole Barty Crouch Jr./Sr. storyline is gone.
- Entrance of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang. Both schools were done very, very well. The way they entered with their respective girly and tribal dances was fantastic. My friend did point at that the girls' hats looked like condoms.
- Everything with the Goblet of Fire was good. It looked just like I expected it to and nearly everything around it went with the books. Some small details were left out, mostly conversations, but all in all it was there.
- Mad-Eye Moody. He was very mad indeed. I always pictured him as being thinner (thanks to the pictures in the books) but the man who played him was a very good actor. The classroom scene where he was showing the students the three Unforgivable Curses was as dark as I had hoped it to be. But because of the omition of Winky, his whole story was left out.
- The Rita Skeeter storyline was somewhat chopped up too. In the movie she was only a minor annoyance. But she was a good annoyance, someone you loved to hate. She did start the rumors about Harry, but it never got into it.
- Everything dealing with the Yule Ball was done quite well. The scene where the Gryffindors were learning to dance was one of the funniest ones in the whole movie.
-The Three Tasks of the Triwizard Tournament all went very well. Only small, minor details were left out, as expected. You never learned how the others did against the dragon, Dumbledore never spoke to the king of the merpeople, stuff like that. Nothing important. The most notable thing is that Dobby didn't help Harry with the gillyweed, Neville did. I liked how they made Moaning Myrtle. She was annoyingly funny.
- Lord Voldemort. Holy. Crap. Cocky, evil, everything I could've hoped for. The way he looked was just perfect. And I really enjoyed the way he pranced around after he was reborn. Now, this is where my friend disagreed. He didn't like the way Voldemort acted, all happy and moving quickly. In his words "The slower the bad guy, the better." But, in my opinion, if you've just gotten a brand new body with new powers thanks to your enemy, you'll have reason to be happy. And the moving quickly part? Well, he's the second (soon to be third?) most powerful wizard to ever live. Of course he would be able to act like nothing's happened.
So, that's...almost everything I could say. I won't say more because, it's the longest post I've ever made and I don't want to make it longer.
I rather enjoyed the movie. It was beautifully done. All in all, I think they did what they could. It was already 2 and a half hours long and they'd probably already hacked it to pieces. Taking anything else out wouldn't make sense. Am I unhappy with the how much was left out of it? Sure. But you have to realize, Book 4 was nearly double the size of any of the previous books. It was as big as 1 and 2 combined. And since so many children would be watching the movie, making it longer than 2 and a half hours didn't sound smart. I already had to deal with the little brats munching popcorn and kicking the back of my seat. Anything longer than 2.5 hours and I may have murdered one or five. Since I seem to have a lot to say, I'll go through the movie and point out what I like and what I dislike.
- The beginning. It all starts with Harry Potter in the Burrow. I would've liked to have seen more of the Burrown and been introduced to Bill and Charlie. We never got to see Harry at the Dursley's, which my friend was glad for.
- Quidditch World Cup. It was nothing like I imagined, but it was fantastic. Didn't get to see the actual match, just the before and after. Some details were left out, like the gold that would have a small part in Harry and Ron fighting in the rest of the movie. I did like the way they did the portkey.
- Death Eaters. Vile things. They walk around chanting and burning things. The costumes were something very unexpected. From the book, if I remember right, they were hooded robes with skull masks. In the movie they looked like they were wearing a black Klan outfit. Scary, none the less. One very important part left out from the movie was Winky, Crouch's house elf. Without her, the whole Barty Crouch Jr./Sr. storyline is gone.
- Entrance of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang. Both schools were done very, very well. The way they entered with their respective girly and tribal dances was fantastic. My friend did point at that the girls' hats looked like condoms.
- Everything with the Goblet of Fire was good. It looked just like I expected it to and nearly everything around it went with the books. Some small details were left out, mostly conversations, but all in all it was there.
- Mad-Eye Moody. He was very mad indeed. I always pictured him as being thinner (thanks to the pictures in the books) but the man who played him was a very good actor. The classroom scene where he was showing the students the three Unforgivable Curses was as dark as I had hoped it to be. But because of the omition of Winky, his whole story was left out.
- The Rita Skeeter storyline was somewhat chopped up too. In the movie she was only a minor annoyance. But she was a good annoyance, someone you loved to hate. She did start the rumors about Harry, but it never got into it.
- Everything dealing with the Yule Ball was done quite well. The scene where the Gryffindors were learning to dance was one of the funniest ones in the whole movie.
-The Three Tasks of the Triwizard Tournament all went very well. Only small, minor details were left out, as expected. You never learned how the others did against the dragon, Dumbledore never spoke to the king of the merpeople, stuff like that. Nothing important. The most notable thing is that Dobby didn't help Harry with the gillyweed, Neville did. I liked how they made Moaning Myrtle. She was annoyingly funny.
- Lord Voldemort. Holy. Crap. Cocky, evil, everything I could've hoped for. The way he looked was just perfect. And I really enjoyed the way he pranced around after he was reborn. Now, this is where my friend disagreed. He didn't like the way Voldemort acted, all happy and moving quickly. In his words "The slower the bad guy, the better." But, in my opinion, if you've just gotten a brand new body with new powers thanks to your enemy, you'll have reason to be happy. And the moving quickly part? Well, he's the second (soon to be third?) most powerful wizard to ever live. Of course he would be able to act like nothing's happened.
So, that's...almost everything I could say. I won't say more because, it's the longest post I've ever made and I don't want to make it longer.
it is a digusting and boring film it is a disgrace to the harry potter films. i am rather disappointed that this is my harry potter installment for the next year or so. 
I'll be going to see it sometime next week if my homework flood dies down. If not, I'll probably see it over Christmas break.
Why was it so bad, diddly? Was it too far from the plot of the book, or did you have other objections?
Why was it so bad, diddly? Was it too far from the plot of the book, or did you have other objections?
I have no intention of seeing it, though i might see it ramdomly anyway because it is one of those million doller films you end up seeing.
Again, spoilers and stuff.
The movie was very patchwork. It felt like they'd taken a much longer film and cut together arbitrary bits of it.
Rita Skeeter is introduced, set up, and then never again appears. She's only got two scenes, but they make it feel at first as if she's going to remain in the film as an antagonist.
After Harry finds Crouch Snr's body, everybody seems to forget about it. It wasn't really mentioned again.
Everyone also seemed to forget about Krum being bewitched in the maze during the last trial. It happens, and then it's gone. Also, apparently the Imperius Curse makes your eyes go all milky! Who knew? That's useful to know when trying to figure out who's under it - Moody was going on about how impossible it was to know when somebody was acting under their own will or not, and there's Harry, who only has to look at Krum to know...
Also, nitpick: Diggory hit Krum with Expelliarmus, and it knocked him unconscious but his wand stayed in his hand. The whole point of Expelliarmus is to disarm your opponent.
One weird change from the book is that, according to Dumbledore, it "destroyed Crouch [to send his son to Azkaban], but he had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming." They made Crouch much more sympathetic, and I'm not sure why.
Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) is trying to choke down his Irish accent throughout, but it keeps getting the better of him.
They foreshadowed the crap out of the Polyjuice Potion thing. I mean, really.
The movie was very patchwork. It felt like they'd taken a much longer film and cut together arbitrary bits of it.
Rita Skeeter is introduced, set up, and then never again appears. She's only got two scenes, but they make it feel at first as if she's going to remain in the film as an antagonist.
After Harry finds Crouch Snr's body, everybody seems to forget about it. It wasn't really mentioned again.
Everyone also seemed to forget about Krum being bewitched in the maze during the last trial. It happens, and then it's gone. Also, apparently the Imperius Curse makes your eyes go all milky! Who knew? That's useful to know when trying to figure out who's under it - Moody was going on about how impossible it was to know when somebody was acting under their own will or not, and there's Harry, who only has to look at Krum to know...
Also, nitpick: Diggory hit Krum with Expelliarmus, and it knocked him unconscious but his wand stayed in his hand. The whole point of Expelliarmus is to disarm your opponent.
One weird change from the book is that, according to Dumbledore, it "destroyed Crouch [to send his son to Azkaban], but he had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming." They made Crouch much more sympathetic, and I'm not sure why.
Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) is trying to choke down his Irish accent throughout, but it keeps getting the better of him.
They foreshadowed the crap out of the Polyjuice Potion thing. I mean, really.
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