Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Woo hoo! Dan and I saw HP GOF last night - late last night. We went to an 11:20 showing of it - which didn't get out until 2:30! We were going to go to the 10:30 show, but we got there only an hour and a half early so the line was way long. So we exchanged our tickets for the next show and we ended up being first in line for that show - though people quickly came in after us. It looks like 2 hours is the minimum amount of time we can show up before an HP movie on the opening day. Crazy, huh? And that was a late movie. I can only imagine how the earlier showings were.

So a little bit about the movie - and be warned, there are some spoilers in here so if you haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, you might want to skip the following quote-block section:

I think the biggest complaint people have is that they left a lot of the book's subplots out and some characters, too. I didn't have a problem with that - after all the movie was already 2 and a half hours long. If they had included everything, it would have been insanely long. I thought they did very good streamlining the plot. Now, I haven't read the book in a good year so I don't have the details fresh in my mind - I can't say if that totally screwed up anything, but I don't think they did.

The movie was pretty dark. I think overall much darker than even PoA, even though PoA had the dementors. But I think that darkness totally fit into the feeling of the book - after all, this is the one where Voldemort comes back and the deatheaters regroup. Very dark topics!

And as dark as it was, there was some great humor, too. I especially enjoyed when Mad-Eye Moody turned Draco into a ferret as punishment. And there is part after Ron has asked Fleur to the Ball...the Beauxbaton girls were walking down the
hall - "And Harry, you know how I like it when they walk". Loved that. There's also a great study-hall scene with Snape. Very funny and one of Snape's best scenes in any of the movies, even though he didn't say a word.

The one disappointment was the musical score - it just wasn't all that hot. I've enjoyed the music of the other ones but this one was rather blah. It didn't ruin the movie for me, but it definitely didn't add to it as the others have. The final song in the credits was way funky - it didn't fit at all. But if a score is going to fail, I'd much rather it be unnoticeable (like it was in this) than be noticeably bad, so it could have been way worse. Ultimately, while it didn't add to the movie, it didn't detract.

All in all I thought it was a great movie. I am very tempted to go and see it again this weekend. I've heard it is even better the second time. Of course, I would not at all suggest it to people that haven't read the books or at least seen the previous movies - it is pretty steeped in the HP lore - stuff happens that isn't explained so people unfamiliar with the story would be lost. But honestly, who is going to see this movie that hasn't seen the first three?

Anyway, now that I've seen this movie, I'm all Harry Potter obsessed again. I just love Harry Potter. I feel like such a nerd - 27 years old and I think I'm going to have to make myself a Hogworts' scarf. Hehe. I can't wait to reread the series again. I am going to do that as soon as I hit book number 150 for this year (9 more to go, baby!), so next month or by January at the latest.

Oh, I also took a Sorting Hat quiz (okay, okay, I took quite a few of them). I was curious as to what house I'd go into - though I probably also did it because I'm a total HP nerd. The overwhelming response was that I should be in Ravenclaw.

"Here in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind."

So looks like I'll be making my Hogwarts scarf in Ravenclaw colors! (The sad thing is that I am not joking).