Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book)

Source: http://images.wikia.com/harrypotter/images/d/d9/Goblet_fire_cover.jpg

I just re-read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the first time in a few years.  I was reminded why this was my favorite book of the series for a while, there is A LOT of action.  The Triwizard Tournament makes the book really exciting, and for the first time ever, you begin to learn things like, Snape is a former Death Eater and Hagrid is half giant (all things that could have been assumed, but the confirmation was nice).  It's the first time Harry witnesses the death of a friend (Cedric), and so it was clearly the transition into more dark books. 

I'm not here to give you a review of a book that came out over 8 years ago though.  Instead I'm gonna do a quick comparison to the movie, because in my mind the movies could have been better, and YES I would have sat there for 3+ hrs just to get more from the books. 

Here's a snippet from a midterm I had last semester on Film Adaptations:

Novels are such a challenge to adapt into films, due to the nature of how books are structured, in comparison to films.  According to Seger’s book, “85 % of Academy Award winning films are adaptations” (as of 1992), so clearly it is possible to successfully adapt a novel into a film.  The problem lies in the actual construction of the film, and predominantly in the screenplay. For instance, a novel may have multiple subplots that accompany the main plot, but in a movie there can really only be about two subplots underlying the main plot, because it would get too confusing.  Making the transition from novel to screenplay takes a lot of time and effort, but by paying attention to each detail, a hit adaptation can be made. 

Let's apply this to Goblet of Fire

Radical Omissions:

• Hermione's obsession with Elf Rights- Although this isn't that important. Winky, the Elf dismissed by Barty Crouch, proved to play a pretty large role in GOF (Which we will see later)
• Ludo Bagman- He wasn't even included in the movie! Bagman throughout the book seemed to be up to something, and it was thought maybe he put Harry's name into the fire. Also, he was supposed to be a judge of the Triwizard Tournament. 
• The real Barty Crouch, Jr. story- He wasn't called out by Karkaroff. He switched places (through polyjuice potion) with his mother in Azkaban (she was going to die anyway), so that he could be freed, then Barty Crouch, Sr. kept him hidden, under house arrest, until Voldemort came and freed him, and Winky played a large role in nursing him back to health.  There's some more smaller things, but I don't want to rant.
• Doby- Really???? You leave out Doby? He's the one who gave Harry the Gillyweed for the 2nd task, not Neville.  It's the 4th book where Harry and Doby's relationship really begins to develop, and you see how much Harry appreciates Doby.  When Doby dies in the 7th book it makes sense why Harry is so upset.  The movie didn't capture that as well.
• The full Rita Skeeter story- I can't REALLY complain. But this took away from the subplot of all the ridiculous stories that were published in Witch Weekly and The Daily Prophet, such as the love triangle with Krum, Harry, and Hermione, and the Hagrid being half giant story.  A really nice touch for the books, but not necessary for the movie. 
• The entire beginning- One thing that all the Harry Potter books have in common, is that every book starts out with Harry at Private Drive. The GOF movie didn't do this.  There's some pretty funny scenes too, such as Mr. Weasley and the boys trying to get through the fireplace to pick up Harry, but Vernon has it blocked up or Dudley being  on a strict diet including Grape Fruit.
• Fred an George's loan- Minor detail, but Fred and George get the money to start their joke shop from Harry's winnings for the Triwizard Tournament, they don't just drop out of school out of no where. 
• Sirus' Role- They downplayed him so much in the movie.  They didn't include all of the letters and secret meetings.  Probably for time purposes.
• Peeves- He apparently doesn't exist in HP movie world. 

There's a few more little things, but they're not really worth mentioning.  The GOF is definitely one of the better HP movies.  They took a lot of creative liberties for an adaptation, but as a big HP fan, it was kind of hard to swallow how different it was.  As a whole the movie was really entertaining, so I can't complain there, but this is why the 7th movie has been my favorite so far, because it's the closest to the books.  Bottom line is don't get your hopes up when you go to see your favorite books turned into movies.  There's a good chance it'll be a great movie, but there's also a decent chance that it won't be chapter for chapter the same, it's just impossible to do that. 

Rayner... Out...