- why does everyone have serious anger management problems that I’ve never in my life noticed before? Particularly Dumbledore, belting “SILENCE!” and “HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER!” Um, I never ever would have imagined Dumbledore speaking above a conversation level, ever.
- Mad-Eye Moody also suffers this: I never got the impression he was LOUD, or even particularly crazy; he just seemed serious, diligent, old, and very watchful. He was intimidating, not blond and crazy-haired. I thought he wore a pirate’s leg, too.
- When Mad-Eye performed the killing curse on the spider right next to Hermione, didn’t he think that maybe it could have aimed wrong and hit her? I mean, honestly, she was about one foot away from the other target, it wouldn’t have been hard. I just think the whole “first lesson” went way too out of hand…Moody seemed to like control, authority more than that—although they say he’s paranoid and mad, he seemed to have a firm presence of mind in the book
- Most of the acting has so far not impressed; actually, Dumbledore is probably the biggest disappointment. And how come the accents of the actors varies so greatly? Dumbledore almost seems American, whereas Cho is Irish (?), Malfoy sounds stuck-up, and Harry sounds like LotR characters.
- Um, Hermione, Ron and Harry don’t really act much like friends in the movie. Whereas the book has them joking and laughing and prodding at each other, discussing classes, making fun of teachers—the movie is so much more stiff. And what’s with Hermione’s bitter tones and pushing and shoving Harry? I don’t understand.
- Since when did Dumbledore get so violent? In fact, everyone seems violent except those who I expected would be more so…For example, Crouch seems quite reserved—he’s not at all like I imagined—Karkaroff doesn’t do very much (I thought he would be tall and thin, with a tapering goatee, not wild, ragged hair)—Snape hasn’t said a word yet. Oh, and McGonagall, encouraging Harry when she ought actually to be angry? …
- Why does McGonagall seem so stupid and empty-headed? And again, the diverging accents. Moody has nothing I can remember so far, Dumbledore’s American (apparently), Snape’s is rather tame, but McGonagall…reminds me of Ms. Tervit. Not a good memory.
- I don’t really like the acting at all so far. No one seems to react properly, and the whole thing feels unreal, as if every actor knows this is a children’s movie about magic, not to be taken seriously.
- Of course, the special effects haven’t been lacking. Quite impressive, many scenes. Too bad they don’t have the acting power to make up for it.
- What’s up with “Potter is a boy! Not a piece of meat.” (McGonagall) Okay, um, Ms. Brains, I think we figured that one out for ourselves.
- They implicate every plot development way too much and too early. For example, Hermione is already “noticing” Krum, after 15 minutes. Moody seems extremely suspicious. Harry never looks very surprised no matter what happens to him (although his acting, surprisingly, is far from the worst).
- Why does Dumbledore seem…kind of evil? And Snape…not very evil at all, not even menacing. Snape actually seems afraid of Dumbledore, somehow (and not afraid of Moody…um wth; they were actually buddying up side-by-side in one scene!). McGonagall too…she sounds like a goose. I don’t know why or whether that matters.
- Dumbledore acts like he’s drunk…why? Got anger problems, seems to mumble too much afterwards, looks tired, frustrated, and disgruntled.
- Okay, the three “friends” aren’t very friendly at all. Someone watching this movie as their first Harry Potter might not even notice they’re supposed to be friends. I mean, Harry tenses up when Ron calls his name…and they hardly ever smile at each other. I know I’m not like that around my friends.
- Ron says “Piss off” to Harry. Ha. I thought Harry’d flip him the bird back…. But unfortunately…this is a kid’s film after all…too bad. The whole argument scene is not very convincing. (whoa!! Outside, it is not raining…but thunder just rumbled, and lightning struck. Windows flashed white. That was actually, literally terrifying. I don’t have a single light on in here. I can’t believe this; it’ll rain on my birthday and be a thunderstorm on my party.) First of all, Ron doesn’t seem to have much reason for hating him at this point; secondly, Harry doesn’t look like he cares very much that his friend’s upset and thinks he’s lying. I think I’d be pissed off if my “best friend” accused me of lying, was jealous of me unreasonably, insulted me in front of other friends, refused to talk to me…
- (whoa, weirdly, it’s a thunderstorm in the movie too. This is quite creepy. We haven’t had even a spatter of rain in about two weeks. Maybe more. It’s just lightning and thunder…hope my computer stays on. Yes, it’s 4:45 AM at the moment, quite a strange atmosphere I’ve got going on: no lights whatsoever, a little tinge of brightness outside, a thunderstorm brewing, watching Harry Potter like it’s been my lifelong dream…Wow, another flash of lightning. I wish I could describe this in a piece of writing—a character stuck in the rain, with thunder rumbling all around, peering through the darkness. Anyhow, back to HP)
- Okay, as if they couldn’t have got another thing wrong… Rita Skeeter is pretty off so far (her first two or three lines). She looks about right (I expected less puffy hair, though), but what’s up with the violence, again? It seems British enjoy this… She slaps Fleur’s face, messes up Cedric’s hair roughly. Oookay. The timing is so wrong on some of these scenes, too. The “famous four” are frozen staring at Rita for about 10 seconds before realizing they’re not supposed to be so stiff. No one talks but Rita…ookay.
- Another flash of lightning. And why are they concentrating so much on this Rita Skeeter scene? Come on. Is this supposed to constitute humour? Because it’s not quite tickling me right. I’d rather they concentrated more on…say, classes, friendship, Voldemort, etc etc. If they left out Bagman and the rest, why spend so much time on Skeeter? She’s just a goddamned journalist.
- . . . . Do owls even squeal like that? It sounds more like a hawk to me. Don’t mind me, though, I’m just an avid ornithologist…I know nothing about owls screaming and calling like seagulls. Not to mention owls are not active in daylight, dimwits!
- Uh… “PS: the bird bites.” (owl bites Harry) How amusing! Not. That’s totally out of character for Sirius.
- Okay, so far, I’ve only seen Sirius’s disembodied face in the fire, but his voice does not sound right at all. Like many others (*cough sputter Snape*) he seems much too old. And kind of too “serious.” Come on, casting director, he’s only 35 for god sakes. That’s about younger than the charming Friends actors and actresses, yes.
- Why does Sirius sound kind of…dumpy? More like I’d imagined Lupin. Sort of stupid and like a nagging uncle. I thought he was cool and ragged and almost suave, like Aragorn. Very manly, rough.
- Jesus shit, that Hermione-giving-Harry-Ron’s-message scene was pitiful! No relevance whatsoever, and why does Hermione seem mad at Harry too, when she’s supposed to stick to his side all along? Ron doesn’t look mad at Harry at all. The three of them just do not seem like friends! They approach each other as if shyly asking for a date…um, no.
- Neville doesn’t look at all like I imagined. Much too tall, not chubby at all, not dumb or clumsy enough. He actually looked rather cool to me… Even his name is pronounced in a way that’s unexpected (NEH-vil; I thought it was more like “nuh-VELL”). All in all, quite disappointed.
- SHIT! It’s raining furiously. Man, I thought it was a noise from the movie! And that’s with headphones on. The clicking of my keys as I type seems totally dwarfed, and actually lightened, by the clamor outside. Literally, it’s enough to wake someone. I expect my mom will be up soon (it is 5:30). DAMN, on my birthday party! It’ll be ruined… Shit. I really didn’t want this to happen; it was supposed to be a great birthday party. My mom prepared furiously last night, until 1 AM, cutting meat, marinating things, dicing vegetables. I cannot believe this. After perhaps 20 days of unabated sunshine. Heavy rain. Thunderstorms. On my birthday! I can feel my spirits sinking almost tangibly.
- DAMN, it’s getting louder. I’d be surprised if my mom doesn’t wake up with this ruckus…it’s literally like a stampede outside, or if explosions were constantly occurring on our roof. I feel as if I haven’t heard noise like this from outside in years. The grass will be flooded, even tomorrow, if this keeps up.
- I cannot believe this. It is so loud, as if the sky were rampaging. Every time I think it might stop in a moment, it only gets louder. The lightning is really terrifying. Multicoloured flashes of light outside, a great tremor of thunder. … Forecasts say this’ll continue till “late afternoon.” Damnit, man. I really was hoping for a great, wonderful dinner party. Now all we’ll be is crowded into the house. …Tons of people were invited. This’ll be disappointing. I swear this sucks.
- Everyone always seems so out of it, no matter what. Dumbledore sounds half-crazed, wheezy, and tired of everything; he never seems to expect the unexpected, has no wisdom, and is rather rough with everyone. I think the most common expression so far is “swallowing and looking nervous.” Pretty much every character—from Diggory to famous Harry Potter right down to Malfoy—has done this repeatedly.
- This director is whack. Or else every single actor just sucks bad. I’m willing to bet it’s a combination of the two. Not every scene is terrible, it’s just the timing. This movie suffers from Tales of Symphonia/.hack//SIGN complications—the acting may be acceptable or even good, it’s just the timing that screws things up. I mean, the way Hermione said “Boys…” after Ron and Harry “made up” was just terrible; it made no sense unless you’ve read the books and thought real hard about why she was saying it.
- Next, the dragon chase scene. Apart from making totally no sense whatsoever (why would they allow Harry to fly out-of-bounds? Worse, why would they allow the dragon?), it was just meaningless action and destruction that never took place in the book (thankfully). While I admit the dragon was oh, so well animated, and the scene was quite refreshingly exciting and novel—what was the point? And I dearly hope the judges won’t still say “Fastest of the four champions! Even though he flew about out of grounds for about 10 minutes of screen-time (which can be timed by 5 to get the real “in-movie” value), none of the 18-yearr old champions can beat his record-setting 45 minute job!” This movie makes everyone reasonably intelligent look dumb—yes, I’m sure Albus Dumbledore would’ve allowed this (the dragon snapping free of its chain)—and no one even looked very concerned or outraged at what happened (um, Harry’s life is on the line here…) Not even Dumbledore seemed concerned for anyone’s safety but his own (what was up with brushing off bits of the broken-down roof from their shirts? Is that all they care about? …)
- Why did they spend so much screentime on the Yule Ball and McGonagall? Wasn’t too interesting, if you ask me… Rather boring scene.
- Ano…again with the physical violence, temper tantrums, and just plain PMS. I thought the scene in the “study hall” or whatever it was supposed to be was going fine—at least they were acting like friends—but then Hermione got all snappy and angry at practically nothing…okay, with some reason, but she was definitely not so mad in the book. And then Snape slamming their heads many times…err, I don’t seem to recall him physically hitting any of his students even once. In fact, if I recall correctly, pretty much every class as described in the book is pretty normal—some old guy or woman at the front babbling on, a distant figure, maybe sometimes making a pass at a few inattentive students, but never looking for trouble—but here, in the movie, they’re all WILD and highly abusive environments. No actual teaching, just abuse. No thanks.
- What the? I thought the Weird Sisters, as their name aptly implies, were women. The transition from classical ball music to rock-n-roll was rather abrupt. In fact, even knowing the story myself, it took me at least thirty seconds to realize exactly what had happened. There was no transition. Most of this shit is horrible, really…. Why could they not have gotten Harry Potter right, I actually love the series (in print) now, I would’ve been loyal even to the movies if they got it right…
- Okay, now instead of Harry (as in the books), Hermione is the angst-magnet? Why did they play her up to be all broken down inside and easily hurt and angered and all emotional and shit… I thought she was supposed to be an ace at the “logic puzzle” in the Philosopher’s Stone—she sure seemed that way to me before. Now Harry has been relegated the role of “silent beat-up doll” who everyone turns against for no reason; and Ron, the squinting troublemaker. Really, why’s he always the one who stirs up everyone? And what’s with the perpetual squint? He looks like he needs a serious pair of glasses.
- Um, why are all high-budget movies these days like showcases of artistic (CGI) talent? Rather than showcasing the actors…who really overshadow the art anyway, in terms of importance and screentime. I mean, the mermaid painting is like this piece of art in itself, using a unique animating technique…but is that so important as getting the acting right? Is a fearsome, lively dragon, or sweeping panoramic scenes that follow a raven or owl—really that important? I think not…
- And why has Hermione been elevated to grand importance in the movie, anyway? She’s like Harry’s counselor or something…again, I think not. She seemed anxious in the book, but only mildly, and not in the serious, narrow-eyed, hissing way she’s famous for in the movie. Leave the scowling and urgent whispering to Snape, please.
- The screeching when Harry opens the egg is supposed to be terrifying and so loud it’s painful…yet I, who watches movies with the volume turned firmly up, do not even feel the slightest twinge of discomfort. I realize they didn’t want complaints from theatre-goers, but still! The sound it makes isn’t even unsettling in the least.
- Why is this movie so unexpectedly perverted? So, it seems childish and funny in inappropriate ways…yet the perverted moments were not censored—but actually added in? I don’t get this. Or appreciate it. Myrtle seems like some kind of player when I never found her that way…I always thought she’d be a bit more shy, and younger, and more mournful, as her name suggests (Moaning Myrtle)
- All right, WHAT is going on with Myrtle? I don’t remember any scene or passage even suggesting this outright pervertedness. And the mermaid’s song seemed pretty wrong, too—their voices are supposed to be kind of grotesque and distorted. (Wow, it’s 6:40 AM!)
- WHAT THE FUCK. This is nearly the last straw (I’d leave now if there weren’t only, well, 30 minutes left. Maybe I will leave…but then I’d never see the end of it, of this pathetic piece of tripe that insults Harry Potter!). They made Barty Crouch (I mean Mr Crouch’s son) into a raving lunatic who hates his father and looks like the embodiment of evil…um, NO.
- “Very useful if, like me, you find your mind a bit stretched…” (Dumbledore) Um, okay. He sounds like a freaking stoner here. He actually sounds evil. I never, ever got the impression from reading that Dumbledore was the least bit “out-of-it”…I won’t even start with “evil.” Wow, that was terrible. Dumbledore, for some odd reason, did not look once at Harry even as he walked all the way up to him, nearly touching Dumbledore—this was a long cut—then, the next clip, he’s staring intently and leaning forward towards Harry. Riight.
- Ha? Sorry, I follow Snape well, and it’s made a point in the book that he always refers to Voldemort as “the Dark Lord.” Never once has he used “You-Know-Who” like he just did suddenly for no reason. And I, having memorized his lines at the point where this should take place in the book, disapprove of the way they’ve altered them. Not the same effect, I say! I really wanted to see that line acted…got it perfectly in my head… “Unless you watch your step you might find that my hand slips—over your evening pumpkin juice.” I loved the way I imagined that…Snape is supposed to be perfectly graceful and smooth, very subtle. In the movie he seems rather more clumsy…and why do I detect some sort of fear or nervousness when he speaks to anyone (least of all Potter!)? As I know it, he seems a rather forward, blustery, argumentative type in this regard.
- Err…continuing on with the last rant, why did they feel the need to change “slips” to “slip” and “evening” to “morning” here? I just don’t understand it. And the actor, “regrettably,” fell very short of justice to Snape’s character on that line…Just wasn’t quite focused enough. And Harry didn’t even react to being accused of stealing (unexpectedly), until he was given a chance to speak. Riiight.
- Somehow, once he opens his mouth, it’s quite easy to believe Snape’s evil in the movie…Not so much in the book. I dunno, why is he so forward about “I’m going to find out why”? He usually wouldn’t disclose that kind of information. And shutting the door on Potter? No thanks.
- Um, wth. The lines are just all wrong. When Dumbledore is telling the contestants to send red sparks into the air in distress, why is he facing the crowd (in the stands)? He only turns around to face the contestants afterwards. Secondly, he even mentioned that “members of the staff will be patrolling the perimeter”—who would those be, since the camera just gave a view of pretty much every teacher who would have been among those members (Snape, McGonagall, etc)? Lastly, why must this movie be so blunderingly obvious? Yes, Professor Moody, we’ll somehow allow you to be the one to carry the cup in…Oh, I’m sure. I’m so sure.
- The maze, oh the maze. Already boring in the book, how will they make this interesting? Again, the directing is as bad as ever, with cut-offs at inappropriate moments making you miss what the hell is going on, only to be thrown right back into the action too late, not seeing the true picture for a full ten seconds. But one touch I do quite like that wasn’t mentioned in the book is the mist. It’s pretty creepy…I like it.
- How come one moment, Harry and Cedric seem to be okay with each other; the next they’re mutually lunging and grabbing and shoving each other desperately—it took me a moment to realize that that’s how they portray their desperation to reach the cup. Too bad even I, who have just read the book, could hardly understand that. What abysmal direction.
- How come the opposite of what happened in the book applies here? In the book Wormtail screamed and moaned for what seemed like hours after—hmm, I dunno—cutting off his hand; Harry hardly flinched when the knife was put to him. Yet in the movie, Wormtail seriously doesn’t even flinch when he lops off his own hand, and then Harry is screaming and yelling after a tiny cut.
- Huh, Harry has blue eyes? How come he always looks sort of uncertain, fidgety, nervous, frustrated—somehow disgruntled, always—even among people he likes? His acting, putting aside these ticks, is probably the best of them all, though.
- Hey, I just realized—a mistake even in the book—why would Fleur Delacour’s younger sister even be AT Hogwarts? Unless they smuggled her in earlier, knowing she would be needed (but that’s impossible). Think about it: the only Beauxbatons students who came over were candidates for the champion—all seventh years, definitely.
- Er…that was disappointing. That’s all I’m going to say. Imagine if someone like me had actually paid money to see this at the theatres. So disappointing…and kind of insulting to a diehard Potter fan. Well, whatever. I’m sure some people were entertained. As for me, I’ll be sticking to my novels thank-you-very-much (I now understand where I got my terribly disapproving impression of Harry Potter from in the first place…watching the movie).
- Now, as it is 8:00 AM, I will promptly be going to bed. Yes, this time would have been better spent reading Half-Blood Prince…But oh well; the time for that will come soon enough. Good night then.