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Well, I have mixed feelings.
** SPOILERS ** From here on...
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I'd say it's decent overall but definitely not as good as the third - Goblet's flaws are pretty much all due to a weak screenplay adaptation (not so much the material covered in such a mammoth book, I thought that was done rather well, but in terms of dialogue - the 'show don't tell' rule is violated all over the place as characters always say exactly what they feel and almost none of the dialogue has much of the J.K. Rowling style to it) and a directorial vision that is kind of all over the place.
For the first 20 min. or so I was on board and thought 'this is going to be pretty good!' But once Ron got pissed at Harry for Harry being in the contest (which conflict was both written & directed pretty poorly, I thought), it went downhill from there. The Yule Ball was fun, though. Hermione's hissy fit at the end verged on a bit much - some people in the theater laughed at the end bit where she takes off her shoes in frustration on the staircase, Ron and Harry just having left, but I couldn't tell if it was 'ha, look at this funny teen drama moment' or 'wow, this is bad teen drama'. Maybe a bit of both.
The actors are all great, although I wish Rupert/Ron got more to do than grimace, look sullen, look pissy, get freaked out/terrified or be all smiles. Not much characterization for ol' Ron in this movie. The actor who plays Lucius Malfoy is still one of my favorites and is sold in every movie. Altough Rickman/Snape is always great, he gets less to do here and some of his bits seem pushed (would Snape REALLY smack Ron & Harry about their heads multiple times in class when they're paying attention a la the Three Stooges or Skipper hitting Gilligan upside the head repeatedly? I don't think Snape does this in the book, this slapstick seemed unfitting for Snape, who it seems to me would much rather give a cutting remark or detention or other intellectual/emotional humiliation than hit his students in class. though maybe someone can quote me a bit from a book where Snape hits children, I could be wrong I suppose, though I have read all the books but don't have amazing recall of each bit in them).
Rafe/Ralph (I just like to type "Rafe" as it helps me pronounce his confounding name) is OK as Voldemort but really left me going 'eehhh...' , although this I feel is more because the scene isn't directed/paced very well (I felt no suspense, Voldy rants a lot and shoots one beam at Harry with his wand which becomes 1 stream of dueling bolts that lasts 3 minutes; it's as boring as Luke & Darth locking swords only one time, but very intensely, in a climactic fight). The camera angles on him almost play up the fact that here's a regular guy with a lot of makeup on, presenting him in a way I found staid and boring, very hyper-real. They couldn't shoot him from some scary warped camera angles? They couldn't put an eerie glow around his body or his eyes? Or that bald head of his?
I went into this wanting to love the movie and especially wanting to love the debut of Voldemort with a body. I figure this is the villain we've built up for 4 movies, his entrance had better be on a par with Darth Vader/The Emperor/The Joker. And I found it pretty lacking...the way the scene was played when the spirits of his parents show up (and others that Voldy has killed) seemed blah to me, as did Cedric's death (although even in the book I felt like 'um, we're supposed to be all sad about this supporting-ish character who was basically introduced in this book and who's just a nice guy jock who we don't get to know all that well?' I do remember just feeling the fear that a student, a teenager with their whole promising life ahead of them was killed and that meant shit was really gonna come down now, it was war; but it being Cedric didn't make me care much more)
The final scene with our 3 leads wrapping up felt like the end of a mediocre hour-long TV adventure drama episode - 'well, we've had our adventure, a few lame lines and we walk off into the sunset.' (Director Mike Newell literally ends the movie with a sunset on a lake. Hardly a 'this is war, kids are getting killed and Voldy's back to terrorize us all' ending) I didn't buy Hermione's 'everything's going to change now' terror, that moment didn't work for me.
Oh, and I thought the eulogy for Cedric was the worst, most cliche, cheesy, unmoving, unemotional eulogy I've ever heard for a character in my life. And let me take this opportunity to say I'm not a big fan of Michael Gambon as Dumbledore - he's ok but lacks a paternal presence, or much presence at all, for me. His delivery of the eulogy speech (and the camera shots during it, boring boring boring) left me even more blah than the bad eulogy itself.
But the movie does fit in a lot of stuff, and I have to give Newell some credit, given that it's a damn hard novel to put into a 2-hour movie. And the CGI dragon bit was pretty cool. Brendan Gleeson ROCKED as Mad-Eye and Rita Skeeter was hilarious. Maggie Smith is always fantastic and classy and her stuff in this movie was no exception.
So that's my two cents. Worth seeing but you just might be thinking "aAaahh,the third movie was SOOO GOOD and this is just not nearly as good!" |
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