Review of GoF; spoilers

[nicholas dean]

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I saw the film twice over the weekend; once with BW (beloved wife) 
who isn't a big HP fan but is in luuurve with David Tennant and Ralph 
Fiennes; and once with our eleven-year old, whom we thought would be 
the only one of our kids who could cope with the material.

I found GoF very much of a mixed bag. Yes, the special effects were 
great; the tasks were spectacular, it was action-packed; yet, halfway 
through my first viewing, I found myself wondering whether I really 
wanted to see it again the following day. Bad sign.

The pluses:-

- The second task; brilliantly done, flawless special effects, and, 
as a diver (amateur, of course), I take my hat off to young Radcliffe 
for what he went through in filming the sequence.

- Moody; Gleason was excellent, and although I had never imagined 
Moody with an Irish accent,  it worked very well.

- The greater emphasis on Neville and Ginny; presumably after OoP was 
published  the writers saw where things were heading...

- Ron given a greater range of emotion; no longer just comic relief, 
this time around he was played much closer to his character in the 
books.

- The scene where Ron had asked Fleur to the Yule Ball. Brilliantly acted.

- The graveyard scene.

- The snake-like facial tic which clearly identified the fake Moody 
with Barty Crouch Jr.

- The editing (in agreement with Richard), particularly the cut from 
the end of the first task to the Gryffindor Common Room. I smiled to 
think of what Chris Columbus would have done with the end of the 
first task; at least three laps of the stadium on the Firebolt, with 
everyone cheering (even the Slytherins and Durmstrangs).

However, I really disliked the camerawork in the Yule Ball sequence. 
Way too choppy.

-The acting; I thought all of the kids did well; Emma Watson a bit 
OTT on occasion.

- The first task until the dragon broke loose; then it just got silly.

Neutral;
- The script. I find Kloves very uneven; in some scenes he does 
excellent work; in others I wondered whether he had flunked the 
George Lucas School of Scriptwriting. Cases in point; both of 
Dumbledore's final scenes, and, toe-curlingly bad, the scene in the 
dormitory when Harry and Ron first fall out.

Minuses;

- The ending was very weak. It was never going to be an easy thing to 
film,  as a sense of anti-climax, combined with grief and foreboding, 
is not a great way to end a movie. What they came up with was just 
too wishy-washy. I would have preferred to see Hagrid's (book) speech 
about 'what will come will come', and the jinxing of Malfoy and Co by 
Harry and his supporters (on the train in the book, but it could just 
as well have been done at Hogwarts), which  would have added a 
lighter touch while at the same time illustrating that Harry is 
indeed 'not alone'.

-The maze. I thought it was incredibly badly done.  To get through 
the movie's maze, you didn't have to have much wizarding talent; all 
that was needed was a good sense of direction and the ability to run 
fast. I found the moving hedges faintly ridiculous. Was Fleur 
supposed to have been caught by Devil's Snare?  What was that wind? 
And why was the maze so large? It was said that the teachers would 
patrol around the outside...hopefully on Firebolts, as they would 
have taken a week to walk around. I didn't really expect there to be 
all of the challenges of the book, but a few would have been nice. A 
boggart /dementor would have been a useful bridge between PoA and 
OoP, and we really needed to see Harry casting some familiar spells 
at that stage.

A related point; we see throughout the books that the kids are 
learning spells in their classes at Hogwarts, and then Harry puts 
them into practice in the various challenges he faces. There was none 
of that in GoF, and there really should have been. Harry used 'Accio' 
twice during the film, both at really significant points; it would 
have been nice to see him learning Summoning charms, as we did in the 
book, to appreciate the spell when it was cast in the first task and 
in the graveyard.

But my main objection to GoF is with the storytelling.

The plot of GoF is considerably more complex than that of the 
previous novels, because there are two main plot strands interwoven 
throughout; the primary focus of the Triwizard tournament ,  and the 
secondary, but crucial, 'Voldemort's threat to Harry' plotline which 
comes to fruition in the graveyard. Of course, both plotlines are 
interlinked, and the book does a good job of letting the reader know 
that things are going on behind the scenes and that Voldemort is 
indeed closing in on Harry. The movie, however, fails to do this, to 
such an extent that the graveyard scene explodes like a deus ex 
machina into the action. If the intent is to shock the audience, then 
it works spectacularly; but there has to be sufficient foreshadowing 
of this kind of surprise to make the final showdown logical. Two 
references to Polyjuice Potion are not enough.

This is the reason why it was a mistake to all but write out Sirius 
from the movie; because in the book, it is he alone who keeps his 
focus firmly on Harry, and it is Sirius who keeps reminding the 
reader that something else is going on.

Bizarrely, more of the foreshadowing does seem to have been filmed; 
on one of the 'making of' programmes, and on one of the trailers 
currently being shown on British television, there is a voiceover 
with Harry saying 'Something's getting closer...I can feel it'; but, 
as far as I remember, that didn't make the final edit into the movie 
itself.

Quite apart from the damage to the internal logic of the story, how 
in the world are they going to explain Harry's devastation at the 
loss of Sirius at the end of OoP? They have done nothing to show the 
ongoing relationship and to persuade us that Sirius has become a 
father-figure to Harry.

A film adaptation basically needs to achieve two things; a competent 
telling of the story, and the same emotional journey for the 
protagonist *and the viewer* as was achieved through the book. I have 
explained my concerns about the story-telling above; and with the 
emotional journey GoF also falls short, as did PoA before it.

It is bad enough that  the backstory of the Marauders' Map, 
particularly the identity of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, was 
omitted from PoA. No, it doesn't add to the story, but it does add 
immeasurably to the emotional satisfaction gained by Harry and the 
reader in knowing that Prongs rode again that night. Did the director 
perchance think that Oldman (Oldman!) wouldn't be able to get that 
line across? It would have had far more impact than 'You really are 
the brightest witch of your age, Hermione'.

But to fail to give more information on 'Priori Incantatem' in GoF is 
unforgivable. The fact that Harry's and Voldemort's wands cannot act 
against each other is crucial to the plot of GoF and, unless I am 
much mistaken, will probably reappear in HP7. Why wasn't it 
explained? The groundwork for it was laid by Ollivander's speech way 
back in PS/SS; why not give Dumbledore thirty seconds more dialogue 
to bring that to completion in GoF?

These may seem like minor points; but again, it's all about the 
important sense of completeness for the audience at the end of the 
films. Take that away and you leave a huge hole in the heart of the 
movies.

When one first views a film adaptation of a favourite book, there is 
always a tiny worm of disappointment that it is not, and never can 
be, one's own personal vision. With a good adaptation, however, one 
usually gets over that and can appreciate the movie for what it is. 
With GoF the lack of build-up towards the climax of the film meant 
that, for me at least, the worm assumed 'Tremors'-type proportions. 
Unless you have the coherence of the underlying threat to Harry shown 
throughout the movie, you end up with five setpieces strung together 
with a lot of teenage angst.

So did I enjoy the second showing of GoF after all? Yes; by ignoring 
the holes in the plot and concentrating on the special effects.
Shame.

Cheers,
Nicholas
(also posted on D'warts)

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