Goblet of Fire

[armb]

Family outing to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I think they did a good job of trimming it down, though the identity of $BADDY is revealed rather earlier than in the book, and his role at Hogwarts rather less hidden. Everyone who really cares had probably read the book anyway.
It suffers a bit from the whole plot depending on Voldemort being a complete idiot, but if it didn't it wouldn't be an adaptation of the book.

There are strange noises under the study floor. We suspect air bubbles in the underfloor heating (Nu-Heat bits arrived Friday, I did the manifold that has had most problems yesterday, a service engineer is coming sometime). Alternatives are mice (big mutant mice lacking the "be quiet when people make loud noises just above you" instinct), or the ghost of the three-legged hamster.

Comments

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I prefer to think that people in books who do apparently idiotic things have strong personal or emotional reasons for doing them. Real people, even intelligent people, do not always do the "obviously" intelligent thing, and their reasons for not doing so are not always made clear. Stories about people who always know the right thing to do and always do it don't tend to be very interesting, at least since Robert Heinlein died. According to this theory the whole plot depends on Voldemort being a flawed (quasi-)human being, which seems a lot better.

An alternative view is that Voldemort, and Servalan and Sauron and the Master and Ming and all those other villains have to be complete idiots because otherwise they would win every single time. But I prefer the first one.

[(Anonymous)]

I think "shall I set up a complex plot to rig the Triwizard tournament making everyone suspicious that something is going on, or shall I just have my servant kidnap Harry at some convenient time with no-one realizing anything until it's done" fits the second explanation much better. We know, for example, that arbitrary objects can be portkeys. If that doesn't work within Hogwarts, stun Harry and transform him into something small enough to be carried out of the gates. We know it was planned in advance. We know Pettigrew was urging caution.
("Something weird is happening with our wands, shall I get a servant to Stupify him, or shall I insist that no-one do anything they are to leave him to me so he might get away" fits the first description much better.)

[armb.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was me.