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annathepiperFour books in, and I'm finally into territory I hadn't read before--though not entirely new story yet, since I'm farther ahead with the movies than I am with the books. Still, though, it was good to get the entire, full-length book version of the Goblet of Fire story. The biggest fun I had with this entire thing was the raising of the stakes with the return of Voldemort, and the expansion of what the reader gets to know about the world past what goes on at Hogwarts. The opening chapter being entirely outside Harry's point of view was a refreshing switch. Also, points to Dumbledore for finally doing a bit of badassery on camera, and showing something of why he has such a rep of being Most Awesome Wizard Around.
Favorite side details: the leprechauns at the Quidditch World Cup forming giant messages like HA HA in the air. Hagrid and Madame Maxime, whose love is apparently very, ah, large. ;) Seeing the older Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie, on camera--and oh look, finally, somebody in this cast I might actually find kind of hot, since Bill and Charlie both sound rather cool. Hermione's little moment of glory at the Yuletide dance, which has rather more impact in the book than it does on film. And ah yes, the joy of seeng Malfoy being turned into a ferret.
('Cause I still ain't feeling the Malfoy love, or for that matter, the Snape love. Though I will grant that it's also cool to finally see some more reason why Snape is interesting. I don't find him the slightest bit swoonable, but I definitely find him interesting. Malfoy, on the other hand, remains an annoying little twatwaffle. Comparing the two, I find my desire to see some sign of Slytherin characters with actual morals increasing. It gets kind of tiresome for all the Slytherins to be twatwaffles all of the time, after all.)
Also, not to be repetitive or anything, but GAH, the ellipses! Rowling only seems to whip them out in Big Important Plot Point Moments, but this time around, it was particularly painful to read. Especially in the big Voldemort Explains His Devious Plan Chapter, where we got ellipses all over the place in his dialogue and in the narrative. For me, the ultimate effect of this was that Voldemort's dialogue read like either a) he kept wandering off his train of thought, or b) he was doing a very bad William Shatner impersonation. Neither of these possibilities added to his overall intimidation factor, I'm tellin' ya.
So, long story (and this was quite the long story) short, on the one hand I have very cool expansion of what the reader knows balanced against what should have been a way more intimidating Villain Reveal sequence than it actually was. I'm giving this installment three stars.
Favorite side details: the leprechauns at the Quidditch World Cup forming giant messages like HA HA in the air. Hagrid and Madame Maxime, whose love is apparently very, ah, large. ;) Seeing the older Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie, on camera--and oh look, finally, somebody in this cast I might actually find kind of hot, since Bill and Charlie both sound rather cool. Hermione's little moment of glory at the Yuletide dance, which has rather more impact in the book than it does on film. And ah yes, the joy of seeng Malfoy being turned into a ferret.
('Cause I still ain't feeling the Malfoy love, or for that matter, the Snape love. Though I will grant that it's also cool to finally see some more reason why Snape is interesting. I don't find him the slightest bit swoonable, but I definitely find him interesting. Malfoy, on the other hand, remains an annoying little twatwaffle. Comparing the two, I find my desire to see some sign of Slytherin characters with actual morals increasing. It gets kind of tiresome for all the Slytherins to be twatwaffles all of the time, after all.)
Also, not to be repetitive or anything, but GAH, the ellipses! Rowling only seems to whip them out in Big Important Plot Point Moments, but this time around, it was particularly painful to read. Especially in the big Voldemort Explains His Devious Plan Chapter, where we got ellipses all over the place in his dialogue and in the narrative. For me, the ultimate effect of this was that Voldemort's dialogue read like either a) he kept wandering off his train of thought, or b) he was doing a very bad William Shatner impersonation. Neither of these possibilities added to his overall intimidation factor, I'm tellin' ya.
So, long story (and this was quite the long story) short, on the one hand I have very cool expansion of what the reader knows balanced against what should have been a way more intimidating Villain Reveal sequence than it actually was. I'm giving this installment three stars.
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