(no subject)

[icarus]

Happy birthday, cursive! (There's one I'll never forget.) ;)

Hooray, you get to see GoF after all!

WG took me to see GoF. Well, I paid for the tickets and the candy. And the parking, come to think of it. But he drove.

Our verdict?

Forgetable.

We were talking about dinner and what videos we should pick up on the way home. I was looking forward to creating a spreadsheet for my winter classes.

Yeeah. Not exactly earth-shaking.

I think when you cut all the low points out of the story and string together all the tense moments, it falls a little flat. WG called it "an action movie" and I agree that the story was reactive, driven by the plot rather than the characters. It wasn't funny or playful like PoA (or the books).

But I did like the new Hogwarts, the Scottish hills, and this is Daniel Radcliff's best performance yet. For the first time I believed him as Harry Potter. Also, Rupert Grint stopped mugging for the camera, and Emma Watson is playing a character instead of just herself (thank goodness).

So, I'd dump the director (he's known for light comedy, Four Weddings and a Funeral, what?) and look forward to Order of the Phoenix. With the improvement in the acting all bodes well for the next part.

Oh, and I'm so slashing Harry/Cedric. ;)

Comments

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

I think Cuaron had way more "style" than Newell, and PoA was darker, but I liked the humor in this one. And there was a feeling of depth to the wizarding society that I never got in othe movies. (That might just be cumulative, but I don't think so.)

I'm going to see it again on Sunday so I will see if I am squeeful then.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It was more British, and the storyline of GoF where we get a sense of the larger wizarding world -- that would have to happen or else you've filmed the wrong book. ;)

The humor was sitcom-ish. It was all broad and obvious, and lacked the clever observations from the other films, largely because the writing was just terrible. Not even Maggie Smith could save that bibbity-bobbity-boo line in the dance class for example. And Rita Skeeter's lines would cause me to hit the Back button if they appeared in a fic. She's a hard character to ruin but they managed it. The way Dumbledore was written he came across more like Merlin the magician than twinkly Dumbledore (though maybe that was Michael Gambon's performance). GoF wasn't clever and unique. It was a standard romantic comedy/B-horror film.

I don't understand why they dumbed the writing down to this degree.

There was one really good moment with the spider, where Moody (Barty Crouch) had the spider dangle over some water ("shall we have her drown herself?"). That choice to call the spider Her gave the whole sequence power.

But on the whole, no, this was a return to the Christopher Columbus days, minus the sense of magical playfulness.

Icarus