Strange Brouhaha

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

"Goblet" Redux

After sleeping on it, I want to take back some of what I said yesterday about "Goblet of Fire".

Upon further reflection, the directing in the action sequences just stank. They were all fairly dull and lifeless. It seems pretty clear that Mike Newell's interests did not lie in that direction.

Also upon further reflection, when I said that the beginning was a little rocky, that was an understatement. A severe understatement. This could be the first 157-minute movie in the history of the world that actually needs another half-hour to make it flow a little bit more smoothly.

I somehow can't find it in my heart to blame Steve Kloves for all of the problems in the film, just because of the way he solved quite a few of the problems with the pacing and scope of the book. I was going to say that I want Alfonso Cuaron back, but I'm not sure what exactly that would solve. The movie would still suffer from the deficiencies of its source.

It would have been interesting, for me, if they had been able to keep the same director and writer for all of the Potter movies. (I liked Chris Columbus' Potter movies.) I understand that they don't really want to devote a decade or more of their lives to these movies, but it would have been an interesting thing nonetheless.

3 Comments:

  • (Mattk) My Harry Potter experience: UP to and including Goblet, I had only watched the movies. I really enjoyed Prisoner, but Goblet just didn't seem to hit the mark. I had a lot of questions after seeing Goblet. So I started asking Jenny (who had read all the books), what the heck was going on, because Goblet lost me. She did the best she could, but in the end, I took her advice and started reading the books. So far I am 2/3rds through Chamber and am glad I took her advice.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:38 AM  

  • It really is a shame that they didn't make a movie that could stand on its own this time out.

    By Blogger Robert, at 8:23 PM  

  • Haven't seen or read any book or movie since the first one in both media. I liked this one. :-)

    By Blogger David Adam Edelstein, at 11:41 PM  

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