Mission: READ

Like millions of others this past weekend, I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is difficult, then, to write something that reviewers all over the world haven’t written already.  However, since I didn’t read any of the reviews before (or after) seeing the movie, you readers are getting an honest response from me, despite what others have said about the movie in their reviews.

Let me first say that I am so glad that this movie was rated PG-13.  As Harry Potter readers know, this fourth book is more intense than the others.  To try to cut things out to make it a PG movie would have been cheating readers/viewers out of the whole tone of the book and the seriousness of the events that take place. Thus, there is a fair amount of blood, truly menacing Deatheaters, and Voldemort’s rebirth scene which keeps you on the edge of your seat–and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Speaking of cutting things out, everyone knew from the beginning that there were lots of things that just wouldn’t fit if the movie was going to be under, say, five hours long.  I think some excellent choices were made. For example, although I would have loved to have seen some games played at the Quidditch World Cup (the stadium itself was breathtaking), this sequence was quite short because it really had only two jobs to do: 1) establish what a portkey was and how it worked and 2) show the Deatheaters wreaking havoc. A number of subplots were eliminated altogether or given a brief brush-by, but I didn’t think anything crucial was left out (unlike The Prisoner of Azkaban).

Another strength of the film is that it showed Harry, Ron, Hermione, et al. acting like teenagers. The “fights” between Harry & Ron and Hermione & Ron were quite believable. The way the ball (dance) sent everyone in a panic about whom to ask and how and when and a million other things also rang very true. Although I have read all of the books as an adult, I am glad that the movies have been “growing up” along with the readers.

This may be my favorite of the four films, and I am tempted now to read all 752 pages again so that I can catch all the little things that I don’t remember or weren’t shown in the movie. I give it five stars.

Those are just a few thoughts of mine about the movie. Now, what do you think?????

Mission: Accomplished