Scooter Chronicles

Last night Marcia and I finished watching “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, the latest of J. K. Rowling’s books made into film.

Here is a plot summary from someone that goes by the username “imann” at the International Movie Database:

Harry’s fourth summer and the following year at Hogwarts are marked by the Quidditch World Cup (that broom flying game for those that need to know) and the Tri Wizard Tournament, in which student representatives from three different wizarding schools compete in a series of increasingly challenging contests. However, Voldemort’s Death Eaters are gaining strength and even creating the Dark Mark giving evidence that the Dark Lord is ready to rise again. In the unsuspecting lives of the young wizard and witches at Hogwarts the competitors are selected by the goblet of fire, which this year makes a very surprising announcement: Hogwarts will have two representatives in the tournament, including Harry Potter!

At first, the movie had me scratching my head. Some of the scenes leading up to and after the Quidditch match seemed like some artsy-movie that was trying to symbolize things too much, or something that was supposed to be seen as semi-surreal (though the magic stuff can be rather surreal as it is). But soon we were off to Hogwarts for another year of wizard school.

There was less events in this one that were the typical hero-versus-enemy, like Harry dealing with Malfoy. As a matter of fact, Malfoy is hardly in the movie, and at one point after some taunting, Harry runs up and gets into his face saying in a nice young adult PG-13 rated movie way to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. Also, after Harry is miraculously chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the Tri Wizard Cup tournament, Ron Weasley is quite upset with Harry and won’t even talk to him directly, thinking he cheated, since the tournament is only supposed to be for seventh year students. It made for a more interesting and darker movie.

On an actor/actress standpoint, we see more English/Scottish/Irish actors paraded through. This time Brendan Gleeson (rather good), Miranda Richardson (her typical good humor), and Ralph Fiennes show up. And Fiennes should be sticking around, since he is playing Lord Voldemort. (Or should I have not said that?) ; ) Oh, come on people! Most anyone that is watching these movies are also reading the books. And since the books are two ahead of the movies, most know that Voldemort shows up at the end of “The Goblet of Fire”, and all logic says he eventually will anyway. So there. : P

Another actor point I want to make is about Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore. He replaced the late Richard Harris who portrayed him in the first two movies. I think Gambon’s Dumbledore is more fierce. He doesn’t have the same scholarly aura that Harris had. But it isn’t totally stripped away either. As great of an actor as Harris was, Gambon seems to bring more life and realism to Dumbledore. Of course this is from a movie standpoint.

Anyway, as far as the “Harry Potter” franchise goes, the movies continue to get better. They get darker and more character driven. They aren’t the best stuff out there, but far better then most. Besides they are original. Hollywood continues to recycle old stuff, like the upcoming movie version of “Miami Vice” (like we need this, with Colin Farrell to boot) or the remake of “The Poseidon Adventure” (this time simply titled “Poseidon”). I may read the books someday. That is if Nigel wants to read them. (I should, so we can talk about them.) But I really have no interest. At least the movies are entertaining enough so that the two hours and forty minutes it takes to watch them isn’t a waste of time.