I watched the first day first show of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I was not at all disappointed. In fact, I was delighted with the movie: the casting was perfect, the story, though condensed, was all there. and there were quite a few laughs too, for all of u comedy fans!
I need not elaborate the plot, because most of u would have already read the novel. There are quite a few changes in the movie version, but if u have to condense a mega book into a 2 hour long movie, changes are inevitable! (I wonder how they will manage to make a movie of The Order of the Phoenix)
Unlike in the book, Barty Crouch Jr. makes an appearance in the beginning itself. Also, the house elves Dobby and Winky have totally disappeared from the story. Wonder how Harry performs the second task then? Don’t worry, it is taken care of very well; watch the movie to find out.
The entry of the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students is a real cool scene, and symbolically represents the nature of the two schools. But I feel that Harry’s fight scene with the dragon was unnecessarily prolonged. The underwater scenes were also beautiful, though the merpeople were quite ugly. The third task was really cut short, and there were no blast ended skrewts or sphinxes in there in the maze!
About the casting, I feel almost everyone was perfect. The Weasley twins were really great! Professor Moody had a plump good natured look, and was not at all like the picture I had got from the book. Harry, Ron and Hermione were good as usual, and Professor Snape continues to be one of the best cast members. (In fact, Snape is my favourite Harry Potter character). Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum are also well cast and do their job well. Voldemort is really scary with his slit nostrils and all!
The only character that was sadly out of tune with the book was Professor Dumbledore. He is supposed to be calm and composed, whatever be the situation, but the movie Dumbledore is easily excitable and is screaming most of the time. And almost no jokes this time from Dumbledore!
Altogether, a great movie, but recommended only for Harry Potter readers!