We just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and it was fantastic. I think I liked this one the best of the four. Far superior to the adaptation of the third book.

The trio of stars continue to have real chemistry. The new Dumbledore is less callous than he was in the last movie. And the Quidditch World Cup scenes were amazing!!

Don’t get me wrong. There were definitely things that had been changed from the book. And some of them I agreed with. And others, such as the diminshed role of the extended Weasley family, that I didn’t.

But the thing that bummed me out the most about the movie? No Dobby!

And I wore special rainbow-striped socks with cats on them just for him!

We (or should I say Rudi) made it through all the Harry Potter movies in time for tomorrow’s showing of The Goblet of Fire. I, on the other hand, slept through the majority of The Prisoner of Azkaban, missing everything from when Hagrid is introduced as a teacher to when Lupin enters the Shrieking Shack. Rudi does tell me that my eyes were open when Harry was practicing his Patronus spell, but i don’t remember any of that.

This movie still disappoints me when compared to the book, from which I cannot separate it. I’m sure I’d like it more if a) I didn’t like this segment of the story so much or b) I hadn’t read the book. The movie definitely is more artful with a magical realism filmmaking style to it that the first two lack. But the story isn’t as well put together and I keep finding myself going, “But, that’s not how it happened!” And I only saw a third of the movie this time around!