Goblet of... smoke

[vettecat]

We went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight, and I didn't like it nearly as much as I'd hoped. (Background: Since we hadn't yet read any Harry Potter when the first movie came out, we decided to adopt a routine of "see the movie, read the book" for this series. It's worked very well so far, as this way we can enjoy the movie without knowing what's going to happen next, and then we read the book for the added background and character development. So we didn't know what was going to happen beforehand.) I felt that it was drifting too far over from fantasy into horror. I don't like horror. And though there were only a few really creepy scenes, they strongly affected my enjoyment of the movie; sdavido had to spend some time coaxing me out of a sour mood afterwards. Other people's opinions may vary, of course, but I really wonder how this is going to affect all the little kids whose parents assume it's fine for them to see. (Yes, I know it's PG-13, but not everyone will pay attention.)

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Both my kids loved it. One's 14, but the other's only 10.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Those ages should be OK. We saw people there with much younger kids, though, and I was wondering how they were handling it.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Probably OK.

Best quote along those lines ever....a few years back, sitting in the theater with my then-6 or 7 year old son watching "Fellowship of the Ring" and the balrog was charging them in the Mines or Moria. "Is this too scary for you?" I asked.

"Daddy," he said, "It's only a movie. It's not real."

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Cute! Sounds like you've balanced them well. :-)

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

The book has a lot of horror in it. piccalilly and I thought it strayed too much from the book and it cut too much and if you hadn't read the book certain things wouldn't make sense.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Could be... I was sorry (after I read it) that they'd left the whole map subplot out of the third one, but I guess they can only fit in so much. Now I have to decide whether to read this one, though...

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

Well, the books get progressively darker. But they are also progressively better.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Other than Harry Potter and the Dire Need For Editing Order of the Phoenix ;)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Better in what way?

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

They get more integrated.

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

I took my son, a friend of his, and a friend of mine. We all enjoyed the movie very much and recommend seeing it. My friend, who has read this book about 15 times did not like how it strayed too much from the book. Fortunately, I have only read the book once and that was a few years ago, so I didn't notice the differences so much.

It was a good ride - very exciting. It was a bit scary for the kids, but they enjoyed it nonetheless.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Glad you all enjoyed it!