diskobolus

Except that they don't. That's one of my main complaints, basically: They don't explain anything. Yes they do, that's the point I make in my post. Harry thinks he can bring back his parents, and that needs to be remedied.

Yes, it is a guess, and an incorrect one. Neither I or any fans I know in person or through fan sites feel that way. It's probably harder to judge if you haven't seen the movie. I've been also questioning certain decisions, but when I think more deeply about them, it becomes clear that alternatives are less effective. Ending the film just after the graveyard doesn't make sense for several reasons, even if you reveal Moody there and have him somehow be captured. Obviously the film's conclusion is emotional, a student has just been murdered. You can't depict Cedric's death and ignore how his father reacts, or how Harry reacts. That's just bad storytelling. Then there's the fact that Priori Incantatem needs to be explained - Harry also has a false hope that he can somehow bring his parents back, and Dumbledore is there to confirm that he can't. The most important point of the film's ending is to show that Harry isn't alone, despite what Voldemort says in the graveyard. Why do you think Harry walks past the courtyard during the departure and smiles? It's because he realizes these friendships can counter the coming darkness, and that people love him - Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione. Yes, Voldemort's return is obviously significant, but even more important is how Harry initially copes with it. A powerful scene from the book is when Harry arrives back at the train station and Hagrid tells him that he will have to face what will come, there is no way around it. Omitting these scenes strips away all of this crucial development. A good idea in theory, but you have to think about whether it would actually work, aside from the time issues. What purpose would these extra scenes serve? They can't just be fillers put in for the sake of it. The lesson in Moody's class is a perfect example of how such scenes can be used well - it shows us magic, and it introduces important spells. Too many of these scenes and they become ineffective. There aren't many other classes where Harry learns something crucial. Maybe Accio, but can you imagine the scene where he's just practicing the spell? It would slow everything down, and people would complain that the film's too slow. The same pacing issues would arise from other such scenes. There are little scenes like the study hall with Snape and the scene with students running through the rain into the Great Hall that are effective. Absolutely agree. I shut my eyes during the first Cocker song, and the Flitwick maneuver is idiotic. If you're looking for something to cut, this is it.

An updated version of my review that went to print follows: In the very first shot, a giant snake slithers from the mouth of a human skull, sinisterly poised at the entrance to a pale tomb. It leaves a spoor of mucus in its wake as it glides over gravestones and fallen crosses, making its way to a dark, neglected house on the hill above. Moments later, whispered words bring forth a flash of green light, and as a body falls lifeless to the ground, Harry Potter is jolted awake from his nightmare. With “Goblet of Fire,” a fatal darkness creeps silently through the halls of Hogwarts, from the pages of perhaps the most popular installment in J. K. Rowling’s ubiquitous wizarding saga. No longer is Harry able to start his school year in the relatively safe confines of Privet Drive, to cope only with the castigations of his cruel Muggle relatives. Rather, the beginning of his fourth year is punctuated by murder and hints of a dark plot that involves his own abduction at the hands of the most evil of wizards. In fact, there is hardly a moment in this film when Harry’s life is not in immediate danger. Harry awakens from his first nightmare to join his friends, Ron and Hermione, at a Quidditch match. Soon after, as hundreds on the campgrounds celebrate into the night, dozens of masked wizards called Death Eaters, Voldemort’s followers, terrorize the camp and burn it to the ground. Nearly trampled in the stampede, Harry barely survives the destruction, and his perils have only begun. Soon after he arrives back at Hogwarts School, Harry is shocked to find himself selected as a Tri-wizard Champion, one of four students competing in a magical tournament involving two other schools. The champions must compete in three challenges over the coming school year, each an increasingly difficult test of their magical prowess and ability to cope with danger. If that weren’t enough, Harry struggles to uncover the spy at Hogwarts who is planning for his death, when all the while the school thinks him a liar. On top of everything else, he is confronted with the most difficult task of all — asking a girl to go to the dance with him. For the first time, this Potter film doesn’t feel like it’s missing crucial scenes from the book. Like a third-year discovering the sweet shop Honeydukes, director Mike Newell chooses from Rowling’s marvelous source material and creates an enormously satisfying film that is equally delicious in its dangers and thrills. The three Tri-wizard tasks provide relentless action that brings cohesiveness and flow to the picture. In the first task, Harry confronts a vicious dragon on his broomstick in an exhilarating chase over the Hogwarts grounds. He must later survive the treacherous waters of the black lake and navigate a dark labyrinth full of magical predators. It’s better paced and far more believable than anything in the first three films. Interspersed with these action-driven sequences are humorous moments that keep the tone of the film balanced. Fred and George Weasley are especially marvelous as comic relief. The film’s centerpiece is the Yule Ball, the traditional holiday dance accompanying the Tri-wizard Tournament. Harry, Ron, and Hermione (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) play their characters wonderfully well as they cope with all the horrors that accompany such an event. Harry entertains as he nervously asks out his crush, Cho Chang, but unfortunately misses the mark on the best line in the book, “Wangoballwime?” Meanwhile, Ron masquerades his growing feelings towards Hermione as jealousy and bitterness when he discovers she’s going to the ball with someone else. Although it’s fun to see their famous quarrel at the end of the ball, only a grindylow couldn’t feel sorry for Hermione, who has her night ruined and ends up devastated on the stairs in front of the Great Hall, in a beautiful evening gown. The rest of the talented acting ensemble is as eclectic as a bag of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Madame Maxime (Frances de la Tour), head of Beauxbatons Academy, share a bonding moment while watching dragons. The rest of the Hogwarts staff, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) lend their enormous talent and experience with delightful results — in Snape’s case, with sardonic hilarity. Newcomer Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), who teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, is creepy and scarred, encouraging his students to tend towards paranoia, yet also displays a paternal side as he guides Harry through the tournament. It’s a joy to watch Gleeson portray this convincing mixed persona. From the opening scene, the image of a snake protruding from a skull’s mouth is a central icon in this film. Known as the Dark Mark, Death Eaters cast Voldemort’s symbol into the sky to mark the sites of their victims. When the Dark Mark appears early on in the film, the inspired terror is as real for the audience as it is for the characters on screen. All Death Eaters have the Dark Mark tattooed onto their forearms, where the dark etchings of the snake writhe across their skin like living diseased veins. This effect is one of many visuals that subtly express the magic of Harry’s world, instead of detracting from the experience as something clearly computer-generated. Those who have read the book widely acknowledge that the climactic graveyard scene in “Goblet of Fire” is the most crucial and pivotal moment in canon. The success of the film hinged on the quality of this one scene, and thankfully, it was done spectacularly well. There had to be blood, and torture, and death, and genuine fear, otherwise the whole film would have been completely false. Ralph Fiennes’s Voldemort is bone-chilling. It recalls his mutilated, gasping character from “The English Patient,” except imbued with pure evil. My only complaint is that the editing could have been tighter, because his confrontation with Harry is slightly too short, and there isn’t enough of a desperate struggle just before Harry portkeys. Other than that, Daniel Radcliffe delivers an extra cauldronful of emotion. From Priori Incantatem onward, the tragedy is physically overwhelming. The closing shots of the trio walking off onto the beautiful Hogwarts grounds are a severe contrast to the growing danger of the world around them. Easily the best film of the series to date, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” captures the essence of the novel without being burdened by the need to fulfill every written detail.

Nice! Wish I could be there. Cool that he's doing other stuff from Jaws other than the main theme.

An 8. The line "No, it's because I'm so in love with you" alone takes it down from a 9.

Looks good so far! Now I go listen to Superman.

They're all amazing films... HPPS would be the least great of all of them.

24 hours to go now. I can just feel the excitement.

Are people mostly seeing GoF on Thursday or Friday night? I'm going again with friends late Friday night.

With the real soundtrack in hand, it seems that a few seconds of the beginning of "Magic Works" were cut, where Crocker is introducing the piece. This is probably because he says, "This is for all the lovers out there." Sigh. Yay for censorship... Then again, it may have been the way the AOL listening party was ripped and separated into tracks.

I was lucky enough to see it this weekend at a press screening. Easily the best of the four films thus far. Formal review follows. I don't discuss the score at all, my review for that is coming next week. -------------------------------------------- See post #55 for an updated version.

Nice clip.

Yes. I'm really excited about this film now. It's time Spielberg came back to the Oscars.

I wonder if Stone and the studio plan to distribute every cent of profit to 9/11 victim charities and funds. Otherwise, I consider it blood money, as did Spielberg regarding taking payment for directing Schindler's List.

This is so cool, I'm extremely impressed. I suppose we will have Ep3 and WotW quite soon.

Interesting lists. My goal from all this is based on my reasoning that I'm likely to also like the music that's been listed here but just never got exposed to it. So I'm going to obtain as much of this music as possible, hopefully finding new gems. I've decided that my list is going to have a fixed size of 12, so new tracks will replace old ones, thereby elevating the totaly level of beauty to new proportions. Yay. (Fairy Dance is going to go first, I suspect.)

Likewise.

Hey, nice find! Doyle takes the corner notes, and connects them by filling in the notes in between: Yep, that is cool. Any more similar finds? If you have time, it would be great to have the altered harmonic progressions of Hedwig's theme, in "The Story Continues" for example. That would be really interesting. Nice Finale screenshots, by the way!

The song is utter crap it makes me nauseous this is being slapped onto a Harry Potter score. It's horrific. For "The Story Continues", it's alright, it does sound like Elfman and a bit like Don Davis's Matrix stuff in terms of orchestration and rests, the worst part is the usage of Hedwig's Theme - simply because of its awkwardness. It was obviously put in out of necessity and wasn't well thought through. I think its rhythmic and harmonic bastardization is just all wrong. Why turn a chord from diminished to minor, for example? Williams got it right the first time.

I just made about a dozen playlists in iTunes, each with a different theme, for example, "Adrenaline" or "Dimmed" ... "Heavenly", "Holiday", "Slumber", etc. The playlist "Heavenly" is reserved for only the most beautiful of all the music that I have. In short, these are the tracks that make me drop what I'm doing and close my eyes because they are so beautiful. Excluding movement-long Classical works, there are 12 tracks on this playlist currently. They are, in random order: Buckbeak's Flight The Face of Pan The Girl Who Fell From The Sky (Hisaishi's Castle in the Sky) Theme from Il Postino (Bacalov, played byPerlman) Fawkes the Phoenix Tokimeki (Hisaishi's Howl's Moving Castle) Schindler's List Theme Fairy Dance (JNH's Peter Pan) Nemo Egg (Newman's Finding Nemo) Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) Cinema Paradiso Love Theme (Morricone) The Letter that Never Came (Newman's Lemony Snicket) What would you put on your list, restricting it to a dozen tracks?

I'm surprised at you, Neil. No, HPSS should not have won, because he wrote A.I., the other nominee, the same year.

I can't get the video to show up, just the audio, i do have Quicktime 6, can someone mirror this? Thanks!

Hmmm...

Aww thats nice, Ray.

Don't worry...I found the original track titles for PoA, and they were clearly re-thought before the album's release: Ray Barnsbury Well done.