(l-r) newell, pattinson, richardson, poesy, radcliffe, ianevski

yesss! caught sight of my most awaited Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (illegally, if ya know what i mean!) and it was, as ron would say, "Bloody Brilliant!" being (i have to say yet again) a terrible amnesiac, i could only remember this one to be the most elaborate of the HP films so far... almost everything was like what i would imagine them... and i would agree with most of you that indeed daniel radcliffe has improved his acting (he carried most of the scenes, so due attention was focused). so with most of the lovely things, i'd give props to the chap on the left of pic, mike newell for mightily squeezing a thick book into 157 minutes with wonderful results. (i honestly will hate it if they had to cut GoF in two.) many things had to be sacrificed, like privet drive (but that's ok), the burrow, the quidditch world cup (arrrgh how sad! -- more of that later), the house elves (don't exactly miss them though), and sirius black (gary oldman's molten face in the fireplace is unsatisfying..), but i have to understand. c'mon, you can't win 'em all! =p

i'm planning to watch again next sunday (one viewing's not enough!), but thus far these are my nitpickings / kudos for the saga's 4th:

The Quidditch World Cup
sad thing that they had to scrimp a huge chunk of my favorite sequence in GoF (reread episode)... the whole widescreen thing with krum (ha, krum... why only him? oh, ok..) and the irish leprechaun cheer was beautiful, but i really wanted to see the veela! and the workings of harry & ron's omnioculars (the play-by-play thingy)... that would be cool. and a little qualm with the fast segue into the "dark mark"... i wish i could've seen more of the tent...

the Boys, among many things
in the world cup, i felt the scene where draco & lucius were taunting the weasleys together was gorgeous because of their height and blondiness (but ack, i still find tom's matured features terrible) ... "Draco Malfoy, The Amazing Bouncing Ferret"... hilarious scene... although ron should've uttered that line (most memorable for me in this book) to make me laugh harder... anyway, i'm beginning to like ron and all his fantastic blurts (since reading HBP). i also liked neville in the film, in the scene with moody, and the gillyweed. oh, fred and george! i'm looking forward to them in the next film (due hopefully in the summer of '07) because they are the most terrific twins ever! =)

Rita Skeeter -- my new favorite character on film
miranda richardson is dead-on with her portrayal of the nasty daily prophet writer... had to tell you i was so irritated by her in the book, but how i love every inch of her in the screen! from her curls to the glamorous green dress to the nail polish to the quick-quote quills... so damn good. miranda gets into my list of good character acting (in HP), alongside emma thompson (trelawney), maggie smith (mcgonagall), and alan rickman (snape -- my fave in loving denial!)... i am (again) a bit disappointed though that snape was mostly relegated to the background, and the "hitting ron" scenes (would love to post a pic of that here..) but don't i worry, because m'dear's going to be the star in 6! ;-) ... about moody (brendan gleeson)... he made me forget about Troy's king menelaus with his whole getup... such a scene-stealer... loved the "unforgivable curses" part, and of course the ferret...

the Yule Ball
it has got to be my absolute favorite scene on GoF. the great hall was so magically created to become a winter wonderland... and everyone changing from drab robes to fab dresses! it was so... heavenly. i loved how everyone looked... in between ogles at cedric's very rosy cheeks (prince charming!), i thought cho (katie leung) was her prettiest here, with her hair made up. and ron looked adorable in his "ancient!" dress robes... and hermione was lovely & cute in the dance.. and omg! i especially am interested in the "weird sisters" band! i thought they were made up of psyched-up punk women, turned out they were male rock stars! i will have to say the song playing in the madame maxime-hagrid slow dance background was so rockin' hot... i wish it were a real song! :)

the Cedric Diggory lovefest
as you would expect from my earlier posts, i definitely kept my eye on robert pattinson almost the whole time he's in... he was (again, i reiterate) not the handsomest man on the planet, but i'll say he's good enough for the role, since he's "pretty" (makeup-wise) and nice that got him to be so charming (right, girls?) ... ok, i've mispronounced his name while reading ("see-dric" instead of "sed-ric" ... but who cares?!), and he may have died a little too soon... but dumbledore's tribute was the best about cedric (the irony! *sniffle*) ... so bad robert only gets one film... no more pretty boys.. (so i better watch GoF again!)

the "Biwizards"
since i talked too much earlier about prettyboy champ ced, let's clump in the other two.. fleur delacoeur from beaubatons and viktor krum from durmstrang. to start it off, i never actually expected the two wizarding schools to be solely composed of girls in one, and boys in the other. oh well. their respective descents to the school grounds was true to the book, wonderfully created. i have a bit of a reservation about the beauxbatons girls' entrance... pretty weird winding dance, right? (with the little flying things when they exhale... what's that??) although it was where fleur was at her most elegant. not veela-like as i initially thought, but simply lovely. and viktor honestly looks good... the book made me think he was one hulky vulture-faced creature (ha!), but turns out he's hot with the mink hat and staff... (nooo! i still love cedric!!! =p)

Lord Voldie... eh?
as this was the first time harry (and we) will see voldemort in the near-flesh, i was still a bit doubtful about ralph fiennes' portrayal of the Evil One before watching... as i read, the producers really wanted him for the role, what with all the baddies he's perfected in. i have (unfortunately) forgotten most about the graveyard scene, though i found voldemort so... ghastly looking. he looked like a sallow convict of azkaban (ok, more like a dementor without the hood..) ... don't remember whether i saw red eyes... but anyways... he moves with a quiet menace, and i love fiennes' voice... the way he says "again"... ah.. man, i'm more excited about book 6 than book 5 to be on the screen, since i really like the pensieve parts with tom riddle! **villain loving strikes back**

...that's about it (for now, i guess) for my little HP revue. for those who haven't watched, go and grab a ticket! nothing's more amazing than make-believe magic and special effects galore right before your eyes. ;)

---