Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

[angelophile]

So, I've just finished reading the fourth book in the Harry Potter series. And the longest. My conclusion when I saw the movie was that it was a rather slight story with lots of filler. My conclusion when I read the book was that the movie did a good job slimming down the story, because the book is filled with so much padding and filler material. It might be the longest book in the series so far, but it's certainly not the most accomplished.

Where the movie succeeded was streamlining the action sequences into a rapidly moving plotline. In the novel, the action sequences are less fully realized and thrilling and also interspersed with, I felt, unnecessary subplots and diversions. At least a third of the book, all the distractions of Hermione's interest in House Elves that went nowhere, for example, and the Rita Skeeter stuff, could have been cut entirely and the book would lose nothing. In fact it would be improved since these, and the subplot with Ron sulking at Harry for far too long or Hermione and Ron's bitching were irritations more than thrilling. I find Dobby to be an annoying character anyway and an entire subplot of the book focused on the House Elves which then just meanders off into nothing both feels like filler and saddles the readers with more bloody Dobby.

In fact, it's only the last 50 or so pages which are pivotal and even then, they're pretty much pure exposition to explain the previous 600 or so pages and stuff that's happened to Voldemort since killing Harry's parents. At which point it starts reading more like a text book than a novel. Lord Voldemort doesn't really come across as a compelling or interesting villain because he spends about five sold pages barely pausing for breath in his Bond-villainesque explanation of his past and future plans. And then when he does fight Harry, once again a random magical incident (IE a fluke with no build up and minimal explanation) is what allows Harry to escape, smacking of those magical swords in hats and phoenix tears that acted as deus ex machina in previous volumes. While the mysteries wrought throughout the book are nicely tied up, these instant fixes are an irritation.

It's funny that so much of the book is filler when the one character who deserved to get some fleshing out, namely Cedric, never was. It made the emotional impact of the climax weaker when instead we'd had graphic descriptions of Ron sulking for 50 pages or a blow by blow account of the Quidditch world cup.

Other than that, the character work does, at least, ring true this time around. The main three are childish, irritating to the point of wanting to bang their heads together when they've had yet another falling out over nothing and mostly immature with occasional flashes of acting like adults - in other words, more like the 14 year olds they're supposed to be. Unlike when the characters were supposed to be 11 and acting far older. The only flaw in making the characters act their ages is that, frankly, teenage kids are as irritating all all get out and there's limited appeal in reading about yet another sulk one of them's got into.

However, the formula's starting to get a bit tired now and it seems like this is the book where Rowling started to believe her own hype and was left freedom to roam without an editor's pruning shears cutting away the dead wood. As another review puts it nicely: "It's as if one were making chocolate chip cookies and doubled the recipe for dough but put in the same amount of chips as for one batch".

Comments

[kirke-novak.livejournal.com]

You want "Ron sulking for 50 pages and additional 50 pages", "no action" and "teenage drama that makes Hollyoaks look like bloody Godfather?" Wait till book 6 *fells asleep just thinkink about it*
I agree on the House Elves subplot and I was glad they got rid of it in the movie.

Anyway, book 7 makes it all worthwile.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Yeah, give me Neville being awesome over more of bloody Dobby any day.

And yes, book 6 made my least favourite movie so far, so I'm not expecting much.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I like the IDEA of the House Elves subplot (pointing out that the glorious wizarding world isn't perfect and is basically involved in instutitionalized slavery, and having a character decide that's wrong and stand up against it), but it wasn't executed well in part because it went nowhere but also because the other main characters didn't care and so it made THEM look like complete tools while trying to portray it as the opposite, that Hermione's got some silly notion in her head that they have to indulge but isn't really important.

That said, it was at least more interesting to me than "Harry gets involved in a competition where he's given the answers at every turn and so doesn't actually have to do much in order to win, all in a complex plot to make him touch a portkey to get him into Voldemoort's clutches, when one of the main badguys involved in the plot was masquerading as a trusted teacher and could have had him touch one during a frivolous detention or something." (Well, okay, at least that plot had a few entertaining action sequences out of it).

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Quite. I said when I reviewed the movie it was a slight plot and an excuse for a few action sequences. The movie at least made the most of those sequences. In the book they're a small part and padded out so much that the entertainment value doesn't really outweigh the flaws you raise. In the movie you're distracted enough by shiny dragons so as not to notice so much.

That particular issue stands out all the more because they spend so bloody long explaining everything at the end of the book and it gets so convoluted that it never seems a natural conclusion.