HP Movie "Chapter-a-Day" DVD Discussion V2

[Tabris93]

I like the Owlery-scene. I think the Owlery is believable, and the actors are cute. I have a bit more trouble with the fire scene, though. I didn't like the way they did it. It should have been his real head in the fire. Apart from that, I liked the dialogue and the newspaper (she insisted on writing he was 12 instead of 14...)

[DarwinMayflower]

Originally Posted by Tabris93

I like the Owlery-scene. I think the Owlery is believable, and the actors are cute. I have a bit more trouble with the fire scene, though. I didn't like the way they did it. It should have been his real head in the fire. Apart from that, I liked the dialogue and the newspaper (she insisted on writing he was 12 instead of 14...)

I think it is somewhat believable as well, but the look it kind of makes me think that sometimes the wizards and witches (or even students) don't even care about their animals; especially ones they treat as pets and employees of the post to stuff them in such a hard and drafty looking place. I guess I'm just too used to seeing animals being pampered even better that some humans too much...at least in film only to find the owls being just left with what looks like an abandoned turret from a war lost long ago. But they're wild animals as well, they have warm feathers anyways so I guess it's all to me.

[KlausBaudelaire]

I agree with you, having Sirius's face as embers of fire, was a genial touch.
I watched the movie 6 times in the theater, and every time the fireplace scene was shown, everyone was like: 'oooooooh, what is that?'
Something like the Wizard of Oz would have been cheesy as hell.

[lindaluna]

Originally Posted by Tabris93

It should have been his real head in the fire.

Absolutely - how are embers supposed to eat a piece of toast? What is Umbridge's hand going to feel around for? A pattern in embers?

But real head = face money, while voice is less
partial appearance = no money owed.

I wonder if Newell hates Gary or if his agent was too tough on terms.

I did notice the castle was getting bigger. I thought I saw the owlery in movie 3. The towers are too high (far more than 7 stories) and windows to ... perchy ... for my liking - but I do like the look in general.

Originally Posted by KlausBaudelaire

I agree with you, having Sirius's face as embers of fire, was a genial touch.

What does "genial" mean ? I really don't know how you are meaning it.

[KlausBaudelaire]

it means a stroke of jenius, sorry, english is not my motherlanguage

[jammi567]

Originally Posted by lindaluna

The towers are too high (far more than 7 stories)

Well, duh, i hope that towers that have entrences on the hightest floor (in this case, the 7th) are much taller then the fllor they have an entrance on, otherwise, they wouldn't be called towers.

[lindaluna]

Maybe that's my bad, but I assumed the whole place was max 7 stories high. I like the look - but it is totally massive!

Back to the DVD - beautiful photography of the snowy scenes. Gorgeous!

I think we're up to Dean told Parvati. I liked Neville in the water and that it was changed to Magical Plants of the Highland Lochs. A lot more fitting. I wonder if JKR ever watches the movie and slaps her head & says - that would have been easier / better.

I also liked that Dan & Rupert (Harry & Ron) are trying to be friendly with non-normal friends (Neville & Seamus) and finding it a bit heavy going. Very nice!

Bonnie Wright must have the best temperment in the world. There are so many scenes she's in where she's just watching.

Originally Posted by KlausBaudelaire

it means a stroke of jenius, sorry, english is not my motherlanguage

I think genial means friendly, amiable. But you are a fan of the embers.

[jammi567]

Personally, i don't see the problem of the head being made of embers, and there not being a real head. Seeing as the issue of eating whilst in the fire doesn't come upin the movie, i don't see it as a problem.

[lindaluna]

What did he mean by "keep your friends close but your enemies closer?"
Is that just a throw away line or does it foreshadow anything?

[yoshi2542]

Originally Posted by lindaluna

What did he mean by "keep your friends close but your enemies closer?"
Is that just a throw away line or does it foreshadow anything?

I though he just said "Keep your friends close, Harry." I don't think he mentioned enemies at all.

I liked the head made of embers. I thought it looked good and felt more magical than Sirius' head just sitting there.

[kerri]

Originally Posted by yoshi2542

I though he just said "Keep your friends close, Harry." I don't think he mentioned enemies at all.

I liked the head made of embers. I thought it looked good and felt more magical than Sirius' head just sitting there.

In the book Sirius says "Keep your freinds close but your enemies closer." The movie shortened it down. I really hated the whole face in the fire pit look. It looked...sloppy. I always pictured it as a hologram type of thing.

[DarwinMayflower]

Previous Movie Posts
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Previous Chapter Post
GoF Chp 1: The Riddle House
GoF Chp 2: The Port Key
GoF Chp 3: The Quidditch World Cup
GoF Chp 4: The Dark Mark
GoF Chp 5: The Tri-Wizard Tournament
GoF Chp 6: The Goblet of Fire
GoF Chp 7: The Unforgivable Curses
GoF Chp 8: The Four Champions
GoF Chp 9: Let Events Unfold
GoF Chp 10: Rita Skeeter
GoF Chp 11: Sirius Conversation

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter 12: The Hungarian Horntail

SHE'S NOT AN OWLWELWELWELWEL.

Clear emphasis here. I actually like this scene in the idea as to how close they managed to show Ron and Hermione to be without having to do something cliche as to show their awkward love for each other. As much as I love the awkward non-hugs, the accidental hand-touches, the miscommunications of closnessesslessness and hamming it up of various pain sensations of the leg and the abandonment of said appendage(s); I really consider this scene to be more of a genuine R/Hr moment than most others. On the surface it just seems that poor Hermione is being forced by Ron to help Harry through a telephone network of advice...but what I personally see is just two close people bickering realistically and being closer to each other without seeming to be just friends. It's like they are a real couple, walking together, talking together, no hollywood garbage of forced on the spot conflict and presenting something that isn't exactly the most natural of human nature, but a welcome alternative to what we're used to.

Once again the problem I found is how muddy the light is in this shot. It might be just my monitor, but in general it looks pretty dark. Once again this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does some representative of an overcast sky; but it's almost too dark at times. It does make me wonder if the contrast was upped a bit further when Newall shoots outdoor scenes because in general the black and shadows really seem to stand out in his shooting style.

In an added note, I do love how Neville's book looks like. It's a shame that we don't get to see many text or even examples of school work in this installment because it's always neat to see the interpretation of certain text at times. What I love the most is how the cover looks like pressed sea-weed, something, aside from PoA's Monster Book of Monsters, we hardly see in the Potterverse literary section. We hardly get to see certain books that don't look like every other single book in the library.

So now we have the only instance of Harry's invisibility cloak for this installment. A little bit of exposition on being James' cloak...nothing too bad. However I've always thought how the dragons were presented were a bit uneventful. It's always been one of the things that stuck in my mind, whereas the shot of it once again shows how more of a from the ground/documentary feeling Newall is trying to get, where we actually get to see from a distance these dragons as Harry and Hagrid would; it still lacks a certain umph of Harry's shock towards seeing them. Granted Radcliffe does his best to show the danger of them through his own shock, but he doesn't entirely sell it. As much as I like the creatures, the way they were presented almost made them look like animatronic puppets than live CG characters. However overall it was pretty good.

Things of Note

• Music used in the scene: Track 9: Harry Sees Dragons.
  Music Cue list greatly supplied by The Harry Potter Lexicon
  

[CrazyMuggle]

I really liked the 3-way conversation between Harry, Ron, and Hermione ("Seamus told Dean...") because it always makes me laugh and does show the closeness of R/Hr and the tension b/w H/R (the look Ron gives to Harry at the end.) I wish Ginny could've had a line since she was there with them! I'm glad they included her though (and throughout the film.) The introduction to the dragons was alright...nothing special (but Harry's reaction to Hagrid and Maxime is priceless). All in all, it was a pretty decent chapter.

[Undrhil]

I always felt that the conversation between Ron, Harry and Hermione in this part is one of the hints of how much Hermione does like Ron. Certainly, if she saw him as only a friend, she wouldn't even have put up with being a third party in this game of Telephone. We know this because of her exclamation at Harry "I'm not a owl!" when he started telling her to tell Ron something.

I wasn't overly pleased with the dragon scene, but not because of the dragons, per se. Rather, I was miffed because they took the time to show Hagrid being concerned about Ron not telling Harry about the dragons. This scene would have made much more sense if they had included the similar scene between Hagrid, Ron and Harry in PoA when they were both mad at Hermione and not talking to her. Since that scene wasn't shown, there's no real basis for Hagrid showing this much concern over something as trivial as Ron not mentioning anything to Harry. For all Hagrid knows, maybe Ron thought it would be a bit of a laugh to imagine Harry's face the first time seeing the dragons?

Of course, there was that indignation in Harry's tone when he said "No! He didn't tell me anything!" I felt like calling him Anakin and saying "Wah wah! Mr. Potter! Would you like some cheese with that wine." and make it sound like Hagrid.

Well, I laughed at it, anyway. :-D

[DarwinMayflower]

Originally Posted by Undrhil

Of course, there was that indignation in Harry's tone when he said "No! He didn't tell me anything!" I felt like calling him Anakin and saying "Wah wah! Mr. Potter! Would you like some cheese with that wine." and make it sound like Hagrid.

Well, I laughed at it, anyway. :-D

It is good that you bring this up because I always thought that this scene handled the madness that is anger between two friends pretty well. The idea that Harry wants to get in the last word to tell Hermione to give...um...the last word to Ron. But especially the part that you mentioned. In any other film in Harry's position, the protagonist will reflect on how they treated Ron or feel sort of puzzled at this act of kindness; but how Harry refuses to see that Ron still is looking out for him and rather stay angry at him is a nice realistic touch to how sometimes being angry makes us lose all our minds.

[lindaluna]

At the beginning Hermione says to Ron "just tell him yourself" which I thought (after) conveyed the truth of that whole tortuous episode. Then after Harry saying "that's mental - how could anyone work that out?". That whole thing was true Potterhead stuff to me - perfect!

I liked how Ron and Harry were making do with Seamus (in my mind the traitor to be) and Neville but not enjoying it as much.
I liked they changed the book name to Waterplants of the Highland Lochs. (although then you can't understand why they had to steal from Snape...did they make it seem he'd stolen from Snape..?)

I thought the dragons looked like someone spraying gasoline out of a cage. I thought the dragons were fire spewing puppets in that scene tho' - like at the premier - and not CGI.

Again, you called it ground level documentary style, but to me it was more - yes like that but I think that is a generous description. Stagey again I'd call it. Harry can't get too close, but it could have been more impressive. (ie Harry being in a tree as the crates pass underneath him) or something.

I liked Hagrid's dialogue with Harry on the walk over. It reminds one that Hagrid is an adult talking to children, and thus how kind he truly is. Not that he is a child-like being.

The other thing is - in POA outside the shrieking shack, Hermione said "do you want to move any closer", which Ron took the wrong way - Hermione was talking about approaching the shack. Ron said "no" of course. Then in GOF Maxine says "La c'est manifique! Can we get any closer?" and then they do get closer to the dragons (and each other).

Originally Posted by DarwinMayflower

[Once again the problem I found is how muddy the light is in this shot. It might be just my monitor, but in general it looks pretty dark. Once again this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does some representative of an overcast sky; but it's almost too dark at times.

This bugged me a lot in POA too - although I liked that they shot more outside. I'm wondering if this is just Britian & British weather (dark grey) - why the movie industry chose sunny california ... ?

[Tabris93]

I always liked the fight scene here, even though it is added. The owl-comment was spot on - and very hilarious.

What I really like about the movie is the subtle (and not so subtle ) humour. Dan Radcliffe is finally old enough to manage to pull it off - I laugh everytime he reacts to the mushy Hagrid/Olympe-scene.

I think the dragons are beautiful, and they are shown in a realistic way instead of that typical "show off"-style that they could have done.

[DarwinMayflower]

Originally Posted by Tabris93

I always liked the fight scene here, even though it is added. The owl-comment was spot on - and very hilarious.

What I really like about the movie is the subtle (and not so subtle ) humour. Dan Radcliffe is finally old enough to manage to pull it off - I laugh everytime he reacts to the mushy Hagrid/Olympe-scene.

I think the dragons are beautiful, and they are shown in a realistic way instead of that typical "show off"-style that they could have done.

Well about the humour one thing that I missed is the wonderful in joke they had between Hagrid and Harry. Mainly Hagrid combing his hair and how he told Harry he would like to try it sometime which is a pretty great reference to his always messy hair.

Another neat little thing is how disgusted Harry seems to be at the two half giants being cozy but he himself is trying to get with someone throughout the film.

[troryfan]

the scene is brilliant! The 3 way conversation is fantastic. I loved that Hermione went with Ron not Harry, and that Harry was forced to stay with Neville.

I loved Hagrid getting all smartened up for his date. And the sound of Harrys voice when he asks Hagrid what he has done.

Jo

[DarwinMayflower]

Originally Posted by lindaluna

I liked how Ron and Harry were making do with Seamus (in my mind the traitor to be) and Neville but not enjoying it as much.
I liked they changed the book name to Waterplants of the Highland Lochs. (although then you can't understand why they had to steal from Snape...did they make it seem he'd stolen from Snape..?)

That does bring up a good point about even Neville and Seamus' roles in the school community. With Harry now being an outsider, he teams up with another outsider with Neville (and with Luna in the next film of course). Ron being mad at Harry teams up with the rest of the accepted school body who is also mad at Harry.


Previous Movie Posts
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Previous Chapter Post
GoF Chp 1: The Riddle House
GoF Chp 2: The Port Key
GoF Chp 3: The Quidditch World Cup
GoF Chp 4: The Dark Mark
GoF Chp 5: The Tri-Wizard Tournament
GoF Chp 6: The Goblet of Fire
GoF Chp 7: The Unforgivable Curses
GoF Chp 8: The Four Champions
GoF Chp 9: Let Events Unfold
GoF Chp 10: Rita Skeeter
GoF Chp 11: Sirius Conversation
GoF Chp 12: The Hungarian Horntail


Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter 13: Transforming Mayfoy

How appropriate that we'd come to this chapter the week that Transformers opens. However enough about huge awesome robots being more than meets the eye, onto HP.

We start off with close ups the badges. I've always had a different idea as to how those badges are supposed to look, in fact I've always sort of imagined them to be like the badges they wore on their robes to signify their house, sort of the coat of arms shape. But I do love how they are just like those pins you get at carnivals or supporting a political figure. I like it because it shows how the wizarding world sort of adopts modern day items; especially items as modern as the badges. Only problem is that "Cedric Rules" really doesn't appear for all that long for you to see it well enough. However it is sort of echoed by that one small kid who's running by saying Cedric Rules in a sort of offhand way...I guess being late to whatever engagement he has supercedes him rubbing it in Potter's face.

This is one of the first hall crowd scenes of just walking down the halls of Hogwarts which is done pretty well but still has that sort of unfocused feeling of it all like the QWC chapter earlier. What I do like the most of this scene is the symbolism of Harry being alone and picked upon from all houses in Hogwarts. Even the modest Hufflepuffs are being quite nasty bullies; something usually reserved for the most foul of Slytherins which only emphasizes how many people dislike Potter being the 4th Champion.

The thing that really symbolizes his ostricization is Harry not wearing his robe/cloak whereas everyone else he meets in this scene is. I find this to be very interesting because suddenly it's like he has no house to support him at all, even his own Gryffindor house which is only emphasized by Ron still being angry at him. Of course Ron and Seamus at the time are wearing their robes. The great thing about this symbolism is how much it plays into how the Goblet of Fire was tricked into picking 4 champions. Mainly it had to be tricked to think there were 4 schools instead of 3 and Harry being the only one qualified from that 4th school. One could say that Harry lacking any school colour in that scene could be interpretted as such; that Harry might as well be an outsider from another school to everyone.

As we meet up with Cedric, everytime I see Pattinson it shows how great casting they had for him as Cedric. He really does have that great charm and humbleness without being entirely too flashy and he is basically Cedric. It's too bad that in general there weren't more scenes with him although as few scenes he's in, he sells who Cedric is and what he represents.

As for the whole Malfoy Ferret scene, the CG is good, Felton acts wonderfully in this yet again but I just wish that it would have been a bit more physical in abusing the ferret. Considering that in the film there was a Snape slapping people in the head with books, having the ferret hit the ground a few times would be somewhat allowable. Kind of a shame that instead they had him float into the air like some weird balloon.

Gleeson's acting was alright. I've voiced earlier how I felt about his charterization of Moody which was a bit too off kilter and not angry enough. This is coupled with the most disappointing showing of the DADA office yet. The class earlier was filled with certain objects of interest, but with the DADA office, there were far too many magnifying glasses of a seemingly non-useful nature. It might be a slight homage to mad scientists of the heyday with vials and bottles everywhere, but even they had variety of different colours of potions, formulas and other mad devices. This time the inside equally represents the gloomy outside; dull, metallic and grey. There should have been more things that should have scared Harry than intrigue him, but I guess all that intrigue and fear was used up in CoS's Borgin and Burke's scene.

Things of Note

• Music used in the scene: Track 9: Harry Sees Dragons.
  Music Cue list greatly supplied by The Harry Potter Lexicon
  
  
• The funny thing about Moody's comment about Malfoy's greasy hair is that he hasn't used grease or even featured the slick back look since CoS. In PoA he has the au-naturale part in the middle as he also does here.
  
  
• There was a bit of added dialogue about how Moody describes the other contestants talents. The message was supposed to be reserved for Sirius during the fireplace chat to talk about the competition, but the interesting thing is that Moody talked about Diggory being able to transfigure a watch into a whistle. This isn't much to say but at the same time Moody did have this to say in the novel
  

  "Secrecy Sensor. Vibrates when it detects concealment and lies.. . no use here, of course, too much interference - students in every direction lying about why they haven't done their homework Been humming ever since I got here. I had to disable my Sneakoscope because it wouldn't stop whistling. It's extra-sensitive, picks up stuff about a mile around. Of course, it could be picking up more than kid stuff," he added in a growl.

  But that's just me reading in too much with the dialogue. Who knows? Kloves might have just added that in as an easter egg for the fans.
  
  
• The couryard has changed a bit again. Although the tree was always there, the metal statue of the planet is new. I'll post up pictures later.