Potter Pans

On Black Friday, I went to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire at the local multiplex near my folks. Reviews had been, overall, positive, some placing this as the best of the four Harry Potter films.

Although I did enjoy it at the time, I felt the entire first half of the film was a bit of a muddle.

Let's see. There's a tri-wizard tournament, where two other schools are invited to Hogwart's. It turns out one is an all-girls school and the other an all-guys school, and they're appropriately stereotyped. The girls are dressed in blue, speak French, and flirt. The guys are lead by Victor Krum who's a complete non-character. Does he utter five words throughout?

The tournament is explained as something dangerous, and yet, there's nothing Amazonian about the women, and indeed, the female representative (each school has a single representative, except Hogwart's which has two. Harry Potter, whose name is mysteriously entered in the goblet of fire, and is spit up as a contestant, despite Harry being too young) wilts appropriately.

Mike Newell, who directed this film, is the first British director of this British fantasy series. Unlike the other directors, he grew up in a British boarding school, and infuses the story with little tidbits, such as a study hall where Snapes keeps whacking people who talk.

It's also the most international cast of the four films. There's East-European Krum, and the French whoever they are, and even the Indian girls who serve as dates for Harry and Ron (and Asian Cho, with an Irish lilt). They are suitably dissed, as Harry is too shy, and Ron pines after Hermione.

The ending is not terribly deserved because the character of Cedric Diggory isn't developed. Ultimately, if Goblet of Fire fails, it's because it tries to cram too much story, of an uninteresting sort, into two and a half hours of movie, and can't do its many parts justice.

Shortly afterwards, I saw an A&E special on Harry Potter, which is really the actors promoting the film, and pretty much summarizing it too. As usual, you see ideas the director had that, at least for me, didn't come across as I had thought. For example, I didn't really get the sense that Dumbledore wasn't all-wise and all-knowing, and that for the first time, he was unsure of himself. That's mostly because I didn't get a sense that he was all-knowing and all-wise from the previous films.

I'll also say that the kids looked really young in the first film. It's amazing to see just how youthful they were, much like the old Full House episodes.

Well, there's still Kong, Narnia, and Brokeback Mountain. Hopefully, they'll turn up better.