mercredi, décembre 14, 2005 Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter Part XI  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Considering that there are seven books, and probably as many movies (or more - look at the number of pages there are in the books now!) I think I shall start off by counting the number of posts which I have which feature the Potter, and there - this is the eleventh post in the history of this blog to feature something on JKR's amazing series. This post has nothing to do with the fact that I have just returned from watching GoF with my mom. (Yesss! Managed to catch it before it ran out on me...) Fast-paced, and including every major plot detail, the movie somehow managed to thrill and disappoint me at the same time. Rebonded Hairy/Harry Theory Rebonded hair is a Sign That You Are An Evil Character. Look at Saruman, from Lord of the Rings - beautifully rebonded hair - that is one evil customer. And hey, looky here! Lucius Malfoy, with his Luscious, Long Lovely Locks of EVIL. And we all can see that Snape is on his way there - although he seems to be wavering on the cusp of rebonding. Perhaps that's an unconscious clue given to us by the movie people! Perhaps JKR whispered something in the ears of the hairdresser! We all know that Snape's always had oily locks of hair (courtesy of the books), but we can see clearly now, that he is on the brink of a decision! We can see now, that he is standing at the front of the hair salon, just waiting for A Sign! We can see, that perhaps, the oily hair wasn't because he doesn't wash his hair, but because he always puts on anti-frizz non-rinse conditioner in an attempt to become evil! We can see his anguish! His desire to have rebonded hair! He hates his hair, which has reduced him to punish it by not washing it for whole semesters! We can see him, on the cusp of decision! We can see him on the lip of the soupbowl! We can see him on the edge of the frying pan! We can see... as much as Trelawny sees. :) (but it's a fun theory anyway right?)    Locks of Longing: Saruman, Lucius, Severus Snape When Voldemort (Voldie, Morty, Tom, Tommy, Riddle, Mouldy, and whatever other nicknames I've seen for him) grows out his hair, I certainly hope it will be long and sleek and nice and shiny as well. BEWARE THE SHINY LOCKS OF REBONDING! (There has to be a reason behind the name, right? Re-BOND? Eh.)  Draco Where Are They? a) Speaking of Draco... I missed him in this movie! He had three lines at the most - we see him at the Quidditch World Cup boasting to the Weasleys about their great seats, then again when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire, bouncing ferret scene, then again at the first challenge with the dragons, where he, Crabbe and Goyle have "KRUM" on their foreheads, and then...  Jar Jar and Dobby Where's the sexy Slytherin we all love to hate? b) No Dobby? Thank God. Just like Star Wars went without Jar-Jar Binks after Phantom Menace. I rather wanted to see Winky though. And the whole Bartimus Crouch Snr/Jr plot would have been a nice addition to the movie. c) Where's Wally? I mean, Molly? Where is Molly Weasley? (Where is Billy Elliot's ballet teacher?) She's such a lovely character to have around, and she gets lovelier by the book. Where is she in the movie? Couldn't they have shown her stuffing breakfast into the boys' hands when they were off to the Quidditch World Cup? I liked seeing her, plus she gets more important as the books go on. She's got to appear in the movies. d) Show Me The Money! Where were the winnings? Those 1000 galleons were to be the Startup Fund for Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley's WWW franchise, otherwise known as the Dumbledore's Army surplus store. I suppose its importance wasn't really shown until HBP, but still, Fred and George left Hogwarts in OotP because they had the shop to support themselves! Shouldn't that have been worthy of some mention?  Harry & Hermione Hermione certainly does love hugging Harry. (I love hugs - I think they're a much better gauge of how much a person likes you rather than the all out-kiss, and they look a lot better on screen. And Hermione hugs well - the whole body, grab-and-hold-on that she does is excellent.) I rather enjoyed watching her looking for Harry at the start of the Tri-Wizard Cup Competition - the look on her face is what I would have imagined on Hermione's face in the book when she was but between Harry and Ron's quarrel. It looked out-of-place in the movie though - everyone else was so excited, but she was so scared for Harry. All of which contributed (if you haven't read the book) to a sense that she was choosing between Harry and Ron. That's just wrong, wrong, I tell you, wrong. Improper handling of the romantic situation also manifested itself in the Yule Ball scene. Why linger on Harry's face when Hermione comes down the stairs in her gorgeous outfit? He looks gobsmacked, but that's not what we're supposed to see. Even in the GoF novel, we can tell that that's not the canonical pairing that JKR had set up. Yes, Harry does that goggly-eyed thing with Cho Chang, but he spends a lot more time looking at Hermione. They should have played up the Ron-jealousy thing a little more. Adding on to Harry-Hermione was that scene on the crossing bridge, when they're discussing her date with Krum, just before Cedric comes to give Harry the clue about the egg. She's concerned, but without the balance that Ron gives their trio, it really does look like she's just trying to make Harry jealous by talking about Krum, except that he doesn't react. (Although I loved the bit where she makes the faux pas with "he's more of a physical kind of guy"... then blushes as Harry smirks. Excellent piece of acting there.)  Ron & Hermione This will obviously sort itself out later, but I'm just unhappy with the way that the Ron-Hermione situation was handled. They really could have gone for a better conflict there. Conflict? What conflict? I really, really, really wanted to see Ron jealous, and jealous properly. There wasn't enough of it, I felt. I liked the way that JKR had written it in the book, and I really, really, really wanted to see it acted out on screen the same way - with Harry and Ron making up without words, and Hermione hugging both of them and running away crying. It was perfect in the book - very much how guys operate, I think. (Which is to say - unfathomable, and I emphatise with Hermione's bawling after hugging them. Harry and Ron's reaction to that is perfect as well. "Starkers," I believe they said.) (There is a rather alarmingly accurate prediction of how that relationship will progress on mugglenet, entitled: Ron Loves Hermione and He Will ____ Her. It's a very good read, and I agree with most of the points raised. Use and Abuse and then Disabuse, please.)  Where Art Thou, O Dumbledore? Or rather, what's up, Dumbledore? They should not have shown us the Teachers' Conference when Harry's name was pulled out of the cup. They should not have shown Dumbledore angry at Harry when his name was pulled from the cup. They should not have had Dumbleore SHOUTING in his school. Not when all the books take pains to remind us that when Dumbledore stands up, the hall quietens, and students listen. They also should not have had Dumbledore admit that he was unsure to Harry, when Harry was in the room looking into the pensieve. I hated GoF's Dumbledore. He was weak. He was familiar. He was (and imagine me spitting this word out) common. He showed weakness. He moved too fast - and in the wrong direction. There is NOTHING in the novel that shows Dumbledore as accusing Mr Potter of putting his name in the cup in the horrible fashion that Michael Gambon did - NOTHING. He was flustered. He meandered. He was on the verge of a hem and haw session. And what is with the doofy bathrobe that he was wearing? And the HAIRBAND FOR HIS BEARD?! If the beard bothered Dumbledore, HE WOULD HAVE CUT IT OFF, NOT TIED IT WITH A BLOODY RUBBER BAND! It would have gotten the snip, or he would have braided it - here's the headmaster who eats Bertie Bott's All-Flavour-Beans, and holds his position on Chocolate Frog Cards in higher regard than his Order of Merlin! Where is the stately Dumbledore of PS? Where is the nobility that Richard Harris gave the character? Where is the slow step, where is the sureity, where is the GRAVITAS? What happened to Dumbledore? Where's Dumbledore? I miss Dumbledore. Michael Gambon, YOU HAVE KILLED DUMBLEDORE in this movie. (Oh, and by the way, dumbledoreisnotdead.com is an excellent piece of detective work, one which I would have replicated, given more time and inclination. This guy's amazing. Read it!) Excellent spot of casting... Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. Brilliant. Stroke of genius. Amazing. Have you seen his eyes? Clear. Gorgeous. Gemma Jones as Madame Poppy Pomfrey (in CoS), aka Bridget Jones's mother, aka Mrs Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, which incidentally... Alan Rickman, aka Severus Snape also acted in, as Colonel Brandon, whom Marianne Dashwood eventually married. Adding on to the Sense and Sensibility connection is... Emma Thompson, who played Elinor Dashwood, who marries Hugh Grant, who is (sadly) missing from the Potter Franchise. I hold a small hope in my heart that he'll turn up as one of the minor Aurors in Book 5. Sirius and Lupin are out, maybe he could do a small part as Horace Slughorn in the 6th movie? I wonder who will play Tonks? (Perhaps Marianne Dashwood, aka Rose, aka Kate Winslet?, to complete that pesky S&S connection? Might as well make it a full set... although I imagine a more offbeat character playing Tonks, although I cannot imagine who.) Oh, er Emma Thompson plays Professor Trelawney. (ETA: I just watched Love Actually, and there's a connection there as well - where Snape is married to Trelawney! It is SCARY to see a moderately attractive Snape - which Alan Rickman is. And the Hugh Grant Cluetrain is there as well... this proves one thing: there are too few British actors and actresses that are getting their time on screen.)  iCovet Hermione's gown was perfect - not over-the top princess-like, yet dressy enough to be lovely. A little cold, though - wasn't it winter? The boys look all nice and snug in the tuxes, but the girls - bare arms! Legs! Necks! All exposed! Brr. The things we girls do. Harry looked like a little boy playing dress-up in his tux. They could have made it slightly more proportional to Daniel Radcliffe's body-type; it just looked like it didn't fit. What fit though, was the jacket-jersey thing he wore when fighting the dragon during the first Tri-Wizard Tournament task. I love that jacket. It's fantastic. I love it. It looks like nothing I've ever seen in sporting arenas - like a cross between a long trenchcoat and a soccer jersey. I love the jacket. I want the jacket. If I were my boyfriend, I'd get hold of that for my christmas present. I love the jacket. Love it. If it were a guy, I'd want to marry it. It's the sexiest piece of clothing in the whole movie. The desire for said jacket is probably a tribute (or a throwback) to my X-Files days. I love trenchcoats. *contented sigh* Ron's dress robes were perfect. Perfectly horrible, that is. Exactly as I imagined them to be when I read the book. Gross and yet, perfectly suited for the occasion.  Bad Hair No, seriously. Even Harry. Especially Harry. I just watched all three movies before heading out to see GoF, and oh my goodness, Harry was so cute when he was in the first movie! So short! So adorable! So want-to-pinch-his-cheeks! Now, we see a guy with a pretty good physique, not overly muscled, all in all, very normal, and very hot. No wonder Moaning Myrtle wanted to... peek. Hermione's gorgeous. She looks beautiful, but not in a total-knockout way - her front teeth are a little too pronounced for her to be really drop-dead gorgeous, and she looks like she's in that rather awkward stage where clothes don't really seem to fit right from anywhere, but it's perfect for the role. Ron's also hot, but in a different way. Singlet in his first (hilarious) scene with Hermione waking them up for the QWC - those arms! are growing mighty fine. Pity about the hair though - what is with the long, bedragged look with the Weasleys? Fred and George are also going the way of the dogs.  Cedric Diggory (right) channels Voldemort (left) [You couldn't tell, could you?] Actually, come to think of it, Cedric Diggory looks like Tom Riddle from CoS. Now THAT'S scary. The movie sufficed. Two and a half hours of entertainment. PLUS! Snape in a comic scene! Who would have thought that it could be managed? Libellés : harry potter [Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter Part XI] |
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