My GOF Movie Review - Part 2 - very minor spoiler

[Steve]

Just saw the movie for the second time. It was nice because as others
have said, the movie moves through each scene so fast it's easy to
miss stuff.

Echoing LunaLovesHarry, Dan has really grown as an actor. The scene
when he returns with Cedric's body is very moving and very touch.
Harry/Dan is really crying in this scene, and is thorougly convincing.
Certainly nothing like the pathetic sobbing we get in PoA. 

Again somewhat echoing LunaLovesHarry, regarding Gambon. I think it is
true that he really doesn't get Dumbledore, but I can't place all the
blame on the actor; he is reciting the lines as written and in a way
consistent with the Directors wishes. So, if anything, it's Steve
Kloves and the current Director of the Day who truly don't understand
Dumbledore. Note, Steve Kloves in NOT writing the screan play for the
next movie. Perhaps that will bring a nice change to an already vastly
improving franchise.

Stan/Viktor, once again I was very impressed with Stan as Viktor. He
has wonderful stage presents, and creates a real strong character as
Viktor. Not exacly like Viktor in the book, but a most excellent
interpretation. All the Durmstrang boys are excellent. 

As a slight side note, I think Igor Karkaroff was very well played too.

The French girls of Beauxbatons Academy are OK, no complains, but they
certainly don't have the stage presents of the power Durmstang boys.

Overal, I think they did a decent job of weaving and re-weaving
together the plot so it worked in the movie. With the exception of
some minor points regarding Dumbledore, and of course the movie being
several minutes too short. I think all the changes are acceptable and
within reason. Movies simply aren't books, and no matter how good a
writer or director you are, that fact simply holds true.

Now to cover some new ground-

Holy [long string of expletives deleted], Voldemort's return and the
whole Graveyard scene was stunningly spectacular. To some extent the
background to the wands connnecting is down played, but that actual
emergence of Voldemort from the cauldron was breath-taking -- really
spooky. 

And Ralph Finnes as Voldemort was equally breath-taking. Despite the
fact the he probably didn't do a lot to prepare for his role, I think
he did an excellent job of capturing the essense of Voldemort. Again,
everything was too short and too fast, but I gues that can't be help.
The one thing that would have enhanced it, would have been for
Voldemort to have red eyes, but I guess you can't have everything.
Still, all of the various aspects of the graveyard scene were brilliant.

As a final note; once again the level of acting improvement is
stunning. Whenever any of the primary characters is on the screen, the
really reach out and grab you. I found nothing lacking in any of them
that wasn't the fault of the script and the pace.

The last, late note; Fred and George really stand out in this movie
too. They are much more prominent and far more dynamic in the scenes
they are given. We really do get some sense of Fred and George in this
movie.
 
Steve/bboyminn