Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Magic - Olivia Newton-John
I went thru Platform 9 3/4 today!!!! Really! See the pic on the left - it was taken at King's Cross Station in London!!!!Ok, ok. Seriously, I watched me very first movie in a cinema here in Colchester! I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!
Yeah, hard to believe that I had gone more than 2 and a half months without watching a movie in the cinema - seeing that it was my weekly ritual back home to be found either at Summit or at Mid-Valley (for International Screen movies) every Wednesday without fail to take advantage of the RM6 (less than 1 quid!!!!) a movie.
I guess the main reason is that the movies here cost 5 quid!!! Steep-eh? Especially if you convert it back to M'sian Ringgit (RM33 for a movie????)
But I finally did it - and paid 5 quid for a ticket (see below).
I was supposed to watch it wif a mate but he wasn't feeling well this morning - so it was all by meself. but then again, what's new? i always watch movies on my own. Almost always!!The verdict? I loved it! It was magical! Maybe I've been long deprived a cinema experience but I truly enjoyed it and found the 5 quid to be well spent!
I had my reservations initially. While I enjoyed reading the book immensely, I never got over the fact how bad the story was forced out!!!!!
Look - at the end of the day, the whole Tri-Wizard Tournament was rigged for the sole purpose to get Harry to touch the Goblet of Fire - which was in actual fact, a port-key to send him to Voldemort *gasp* - ok, ok, "he-who-must-not-be-named"! If a port-key could be anything like an old boot, why go thru all the trouble? Barty Jr (under the disguise of Mad-Eye) could have easily made Harry touch almost anything to transport Harry to Voldemort. Why all the hard work to enter Harry into the competition, helped him to overcome great odds to win it so that he could touch the GOF???
The most satisfactory answer (which left me most unsatisfied) was that it wouldn't have made a very interesting story, would it? ;-P
Sorry - plenty of spoilers above and plenty more to come - if by now you haven't read the book and/or seen the movie, you prolly won't mind anyways...
But once I got over that story-flaw, I found the movie to be truly satisfying!
The negative points first (mind you, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for this!!!!):-
1. My main complaint is Mad-Eye Moody's fake eye. It was sooooo fake!!!! I mean, it looked truly like it was a fake eye planted ON to the face of Brendan Gleeson. The fake-eye was supposed to be in his eye-socket, not on top of his face!!!! After all the wonderful visual effects, couldn't they get this right???
2. The Quidditch World Cup match was not shown. Neither was the other contestants' attempts at getting the golden egg from their respective dragons. I understand that this was due to time constaint and fully justified.
3. Katie Leung has sooooooo little screen time! :-( And so few lines!!!!!! Did you hear her Scottish accent? *swoons* The brilliant Alan Rickman oso had a very small role.
4. I did not like Michael Gambon's potrayal of Dumbledore. Dumbledore has always been cool and dignified - and Gambon's performance was not that at all.
That's it. Other than that, it was brilliant. It was like how I imagined it to be. The Stadium where the Quidditch World Cup was help was excellent. The dragon was impressive. Katie Leung is so sweet! The scenery was breathtaking. The acting was competent. The editing was seamless. It did not feel like the 157 minutes that it was. The showdown wif Voldemort was all I expected it to be. I had tears in my eyes when Harry had those few moments wif his parents!
Just to complete this review - I watched it at Odeon, Colchester (the pic on the left is of Odeon, Leicester Square where the premier screening was held).The cinema was quite good. The seats were extremely comfy, the heater was brilliant, there was ample leg space, the picture and sound was fine.
Still, I'm proud to say that the standard of the cinemas back home (in particular, the new GSC at 1-Utama) is just as good!
Oh, some things are universal, I guess - a mobile phone went off, not once but twice during the movie!!!! Oh well... It din spoil the movie for me, tho. It was truly magic - and as Harry said, "I love magic"!!
Now for Kong and Narnia! Oh dear, that would be another 10 quid! Sigh...
p/s - I know certain Christians have strong views against Harry Potter. I may agree with their reasoning but I do not agree with the stand that we should NOT watch nor read such stories. Why? That's for another post, another time.
# posted by imissw : 7:12:00 pm
