Dec 08, 2005 04:24 AM
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(Updated Dec 08, 2005 09:58 PM)
Don't even think about it!! Chandra is not calling herself a retard!! :O My title means..''excuse me please, I am late'', because this book came out nearly 3 years ago, and Chandra being the slowcoach that Chandra is, decides to write on it now! :-(
A very wise man once said that a love triangle isn’t theoretically a triangle unless one or two of the involved persons isn’t normal. But wait a minute! Stop there! Haven’t we all considered this at one point? A very wise person said never to argue with an idiot, they’ll drag you down to their level and then beat you at it. Who else had that thought? Franklin Roosevelt said “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” and Albert Einstein stated “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Well, aren’t those stating the obvious? Shakespeare came up with men in tights, shrewish and disobedient women and people who transform into donkeys. No offence to some of the greatest people to exist, but some of the clichéd phrases we use in everyday conversation are made by them, and quite frankly, any next guy could have thought of them had he been born two hundred years later.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling however, is something completely different.
Witches, Wizards. Boarding School. A deprived orphan living with some evil relatives. The villain who killed his parents. The Harry Potter (or Hari Puthar :P) books are full of all of those elements which are so ‘already done’. So what sets them apart from all of the other books about a boarding school of witchcraft and wizadry? The connection between magic and normal life. She talks about wands, cauldrons and all of the other typical witchy things, but adds that to the normal stress of OWLs and NEWTs (exams), the temptations of firewhisky and the pangs of romance.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the series, covering Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry! (well…obviously.) The film was released on 16th November (so conveniently in the middle of my exams), and has proved to be a huge success so far. So why didn’t I write on the movie? Many reasons…but we’ll come to that later! :)
Story
Harry spends yet another traumatising holiday at his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon’s home, but is soon rescued by his best friend Ron and his family (the Weasly’s…such a cute name) to spend the remainder of the holiday with them and also go to the Quidditch World Cup. Quidditch is the wizarding sport, resembling basketball…on brooms but unfortunately there are no parts of the story involving playing in sarees and ties and dancing with chotte bache. Anyway, when Harry is at the World Cup, he has an exciting day with all of his friends (including the swot: Hermione Granger), ending with a catastrophe in which some hooded figures start harassing non-magic people (muggles).
After this, like normal life, there is mayhem throughout the wizarding world, with the government (Ministry of Magic) under particular stress. Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts surrounded by the scare of the return of the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, after what happened at the World Cup. In Hogwarts, the three are faced with the news that an inter-school wizarding competition by the name of the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place, along with two other schools called Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. But, only people 17 and over can enter (it’s pretty ageist if you ask me…even wizards cant escape from prejudices)! An impartial judge: a goblet chooses three students called Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory to compete for each of their respective schools. But obviously, this book wouldn’t be called “Hari Puthar”, without Hari Puthar being involved in the tournament, so his name comes out of the goblet too.
At first he is faced with loads of hostility, resulting in a fight with his best friend Ron (in the film they made it look like Ron dumped him or something), but after his heroic temperament, people begin to support him and Ron gets back together with him. (hehe). He has the problems of the last two tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, as well as some pangs of romance for a girly who is canoodling with his Hogwarts rival Cedric, added to his two best friends fighting over Viktor Krum, i.e. Hermione likes him but Ron doesn’t like Hermione liking him. And then there’s the Yule Ball where Hari faces his first rejection (I cried) and he goes with a desi girl! (yey!) Not to mention the increasing danger of the rising of Lord Voldemort, which finds a link to the inter-school competition. So all in all, he has a really relaxing year.
What I mean to say is, read the book, it is fantastic and a hundred times better than the story I just summarised in my plot review! :)
Characters
Harry Potter: He is more mature in this book, with adolescent feelings, and the stress of coping with more than an adult could manage. In the movie however, Daniel Radcliffe looked like a twat, got rejected, beaten up, nearly killed but still didn’t change that Barbie doll expression on his face and sounded like a walrus when he cried.
Hermione Granger: I really liked her character in this book; she is still the cleverclogs, but with that she becomes a bit more of a dare devil, more adventurous, definitely more hormonal and just altogether human, as compared to the first three books. In the film (all of you Emma Watson fans will kill me for this)…I thought that she overacted a bit too much and didn’t reflect the character of Hermione too much.
Ron Weasley: I’ve always loved his character and I always will. He along with his two brothers come together to make this book funny as well as enthralling! He is a bit daft, to add contrast to Hermione but he can also be really sweet! In the film, the acting of Ron was really good, he had exactly the right expressions!
Mad-Eye Moody: This is the newest Defence Against Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, and although slightly intimidating, has a soft side too. But, then we discover, that he isn’t what he seems to be. (I cant give this away without letting loose the whole plot!) I think the actor in the movie managed this difficult job really well, he looked exactly the part too!
Cedric Diggory and Voldemort (the Dark Lord): I felt they deserved special mentions in this review as the two best looking guys in the whole film! The two acted really well too, in perfect contrast to eachother: one evil and conniving and the other good and kind! :-)
Sorry...I have the gift of the gab again...can u forgive me this last time? :P...oh b4 I 4get...continued in the comments!
