Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
I saw this last month and came away largely satisfied. Most of what was cut from the book was worked out quite well. But there were a few too many cuts which made it feel quite rushed in a couple of places. Specifically:
1) Fleur and Viktor had NO lines. I'm blown away that these two major characters were so shortchanged.
I didn't really notice this, but now you mention it is a bit weird.
2) We should have actually SEEN the Quidditch world championship. Given that it's the only Quidditch in the story, and it's supposed to be the greatest game of Quidditch ever witnessed in the seven year story arc (we don't even see the game in Book 5, we only hear about it) this was necessary ... especially for the development of Krum's character.
this was one of the biggest disappointments to me, the build up was great and then it just cut the whole match, especially annoying when the press was syaing 'the story has been cut down to make room for set pieces like the quidditch world cup and the triwizard tournament' and then we don't even see the match.
3) Something seemed missing between Harry & Snape's run-in in the potion storeroom and the final task.
I didn't notice, but the whole film jumped forward a lot so I felt that way a few times.
4) And lastly, I really wanted to see the scene where Harry gives his prize winnings to Fred and George. It added some levity to such a heavy ending, and it gave one last dig at Ron's dress robes, which were funnier on film than they were in the book. Plus, it sets up their glorious finale in Book 5. And if THAT gets cut, I'll lodge a protest.
a fair point but I did quite like the feeling of the ending.
So all in all a good movie, just a bit rushed, mainly because of these bits. For all the attention they gave to the Yule ball, these were some areas that were shortchanged. Haven't moviegoers proven they're willing to sit through abnormally good films, so long as the quality is good?
Book 5 can afford so much more to be cut. For such a long book, it had the most expendable material of all.
both good points
What I wish they'd do is what Peter Jackson did. Film the whole thing, figure out what to remove for the theatrical cut, then release both the theatrical cut and the extended cut to DVD. Then I wouldn't have so much work to do. :-)
I saw this last month and came away largely satisfied. Most of what was cut from the book was worked out quite well. But there were a few too many cuts which made it feel quite rushed in a couple of places. Specifically:
1) Fleur and Viktor had NO lines. I'm blown away that these two major characters were so shortchanged.
I didn't really notice this, but now you mention it is a bit weird.
2) We should have actually SEEN the Quidditch world championship. Given that it's the only Quidditch in the story, and it's supposed to be the greatest game of Quidditch ever witnessed in the seven year story arc (we don't even see the game in Book 5, we only hear about it) this was necessary ... especially for the development of Krum's character.
this was one of the biggest disappointments to me, the build up was great and then it just cut the whole match, especially annoying when the press was syaing 'the story has been cut down to make room for set pieces like the quidditch world cup and the triwizard tournament' and then we don't even see the match.
3) Something seemed missing between Harry & Snape's run-in in the potion storeroom and the final task.
I didn't notice, but the whole film jumped forward a lot so I felt that way a few times.
4) And lastly, I really wanted to see the scene where Harry gives his prize winnings to Fred and George. It added some levity to such a heavy ending, and it gave one last dig at Ron's dress robes, which were funnier on film than they were in the book. Plus, it sets up their glorious finale in Book 5. And if THAT gets cut, I'll lodge a protest.
a fair point but I did quite like the feeling of the ending.
So all in all a good movie, just a bit rushed, mainly because of these bits. For all the attention they gave to the Yule ball, these were some areas that were shortchanged. Haven't moviegoers proven they're willing to sit through abnormally good films, so long as the quality is good?
Book 5 can afford so much more to be cut. For such a long book, it had the most expendable material of all.
both good points
What I wish they'd do is what Peter Jackson did. Film the whole thing, figure out what to remove for the theatrical cut, then release both the theatrical cut and the extended cut to DVD. Then I wouldn't have so much work to do. :-)
My biggest problem is that you see barty crouch jr. in the first scene, and so there is never really any mystery as to who is doing things just how he is doing it, it would have been better if the first time you clearly saw him was in the pensive, he could have been in the shadows or just a voice before that, I'm already planning an edit but I'll have to wait and see what the dvd gives us, (and I still need to finish my azkaban edit).
the rumour is that at the US premiere Mike Newell (director) said he would probably put back ~15min for the DVD, so I'm hopeful, I know there was a lot cut, there was stuff shot with ron's owl Pigwidgeon, and i've seen other clips that didn't feature in the final cut. we'll just have to wait and see, but the film could have done with being at least 40min longer.