Monday before Christmas, we did dinner and a movie with friends. The movie? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I’ve seen at least two of the three previous films; I think I missed Sorcerer’s Stone. But I didn’t feel lost at all. The appeal (and curse) of sequels and series is that everything is familiar. Not bland, necessarily, but comfortable and connected. The exterior of Hogwarts felt and looked different than its previous incarnations. Here, the campus is set by a bay, not a lake, and it’s overall less gloomy/spooky from the outside. Aside from that detail, I’m ambivalent. The boy and girl need to be a bit older, and preferably read the books first.
Metacritic score of 81 is higher than I would have given, but it’s a fine movie.
Typical movie website…
The movie website doesn’t have distinct URLs for each film, so in the future, that URL will go to the wrong place. I continue to wonder why the people who market films think that’s a good idea. There are no links to the books or the previous films… I would expect at least an attempt to sell me the DVDs of the previous movies.
Oh well.
I suppose I’ll rail against these small details forever. Compare the Metacritic URL above, which includes links to games, books, other websites, etc. I’d be impressed with a movie website which pointed to Metacritic for all reviews, not just the selectively cited and quoted positive comments.