Nov. 26, 2005 - 4:23 pm
so Jill and i spent Thanksgiving evening watching Harry Potter on the Imax. this was my first Imax movie in a long long time. there wasn't a lot of awe to the screen, i mean, yeah it was big, but do you really need that big of a screen to enjoy a movie? history says no. this also marks my first Harry Potter movie that i've gone to see where i had actually read the book beforehand. i've now read books 4 and 5 and i've just started working on the 6th one. it took me forever to get the cd book checked out from the library.
in this fourth movie of the series, Harry gets chosen to participate in a very dangerous and deadly wizard tournament in order to become the "Tri-Wizard Champion." the main problem comes from the fact that Harry didn't put his name into the running...someone else did. and even Ron starts to get upset with Harry, since he seems to have broken all of the rules and cheated to get into the tournament. there's also something very foul waiting for Harry on the other side of the tournament cup.
i think i'm just going to give the series an overall "9" rating unless something changes. i think the movies are pretty standardized now which is why i haven't worried too much about all of the changes in directors. have you heard that the 5th movie is going to have yet another, different, director? i think this one seems to have the least experience of the bunch. Mike Newell did an excellent job on The Goblet of Fire, though. his greatest movie other than this one, in my opinion, is Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which i adore.
so what did i enjoy the most about the new movie... I liked that the director decided not to chop it in half and make two separate movies (which had been suggested for quite a while). i liked the focus of the movie and i think that if he had to leave things out, i think he made the best choices as to what to leave out. all of the things that the fans really wanted to see were there. i didn't hear too many complaints after the fact. just a few about some minimal parts of the book. also, i'm glad that this one went as long as it did. 2 hours, 27 minutes. that's pretty sweet for the Harry Potter fans. i hope they can make the next one 3 hours.