HP and the Goblet of Fire movie....Questions and Spoilers

[rusty JEDI]

I saw this today and have a couple of questions. I have never read the books if that matters, and it may explain the butchering of some names. I can handle science fiction and things that are unexplainable, but not holes that are unrelated to just being science fiction.

1. If i recall correctly there were more than just the 4 chosen from the goblet. So I assume the Goblet is supposed to be this smart entity to choose the best person from each school to compete. So why did it choose 2 from one school? Shouldnt it have just chosen Harry instead of choosing the other kid and then slow rolling Harry out.

2. Its obvious that Lucious is on the bad side, but now that Harry has officially seen him talking with Voldemort why doesnt he tell everyone? The ending should of had at least some mention of Harry telling Dumbledore he saw Lucious in cahoots with Voldemort.

3. If this triwizard thing would make you forever famous and was such a big ass deal then why in their first 3 years at the school was there no mention of it?

4. The greatest quidditch seeker in the world is a highschool kid?

5. At the quidditch world cup when all the death guys came what was that all about? Why did they come?

6. Unrelated to the movie itself. No cell phones in theaters or at least turnoff the ringer. I like this and most oblige to it. However, this one person in one of the front rows very often would open up the phone and i think take pictures of the screen. It was bright and distracting. Forgetting the legal obligations towards copyrights should this be frowned upon as heavily as phones ringing in the theater?

Are all of these holes explained in the books?

rJ

[Duke]

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3. If this triwizard thing would make you forever famous and was such a big ass deal then why in their first 3 years at the school was there no mention of it?

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This is why the movies are garbage. I assume the books don't make this mistake, unless a Hugo is meaningless these days.

A good storyteller presents a set of rules, and weaves a good story within that set of rules.

These movies are a constant barrage of rules being violated, and then being explained away by ever more rules. I figure the pattern will continue indefinitely.

I can appreciate the fact that Harry is just learning this stuff, so everything will seem like something new to him, but it doesn't just stop there. 4 names? Gee, none of us ever saw this before. Let's wait until the end so Rowling's deus ex machina can explain that away for us too.

~D

[jgorham]

-Spoilers below-

Will do my best to answer these from my recollections:

1. It says in the book that Crouch Jr. (as moody) somehow made up a 4th school name, and entered Harry as the only contestent for that school. So the Goblet isn't made to choose the top student from the three schools, but the top student from 4. And of course, since harry is the only one... Most of the time it is something simple like that which is just overlooked, i guess.

2. This is answered in the 5th book (and it is a perfectly valid answer), so I don't really want to give it away. But if you really want to know you can PM me.

3. I am not sure about this one, but I think I remember that the tournament happens like once a century or something (this is all very hazy in my mind, so could very easily be wrong). So it is probably talked about a little, just hadn't been mentioned to the main characters. I am sure Hermoine knew what it was.

4. I think he is the Lebron James of quidditch. Or something like that.

5. They just came as terrorists basically. The tattoos on their arm get brighter when the dark lord is around, and I think that was the case. So they just wanted to party in their evilness. In the book it talks about how they were using magic just to [censored] with non-magic people. Mostly just being cruel for the fun of it.

6. I agree.

[splashpot]

1. Harry was ineligible because the tournament was supposed to be for older students only. 16 or 17 was the cutoff, I don't remember. Since Harry is only 14, he didn't bother trying to enter. Crouch tricked the Goblet by entering Harry's name under a 4th school.

2. The world is still in denial about Voldemort's return. The only ones who believe Harry's story are Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. This is all explained in book 5.

3. The tournament is only held every 5 years or something like that. It was discontinued for a while because of the death rate. This is the most recent attempt to resurrect the tournament.

4. Yes.

5. If I remember correctly, the Death Eaters were just torturing people and Crouch sent up the Dark Mark. I don't remember why they were there exactly.

[rusty JEDI]

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3. I am not sure about this one, but I think I remember that the tournament happens like once a century or something (this is all very hazy in my mind, so could very easily be wrong). So it is probably talked about a little, just hadn't been mentioned to the main characters. I am sure Hermoine knew what it was.


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I really dont like this one because when they announce the 17 year old rule, Ron says oh well we will just have to wait 3 more years. The movies need to do a much better job of explaining this sort of thing.

The other poster mentioned that it was on hold due to previous deaths and only being resurrected with the new rules. When they explained the 17 year old thing they could have taken the extra 5 seconds to explain this.

Thank you for the explanations though. Perhaps reading the books is worth while. The new question is should i really go back and start from book 1 or have the movies given enough to just start on book 5?

rJ

[splashpot]

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Thank you for the explanations though. Perhaps reading the books is worth while. The new question is should i really go back and start from book 1 or have the movies given enough to just start on book 5?

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Read them all. It's worth it. I re-read all of them when the 6th book came out because I forgot what happened. It took me less than 3 weeks to read all of them.

[jgorham]

Yeah I think Splashpot's answer is more accurate than mine on the third one. I am pretty sure there is some explanation, at the very least. Should you read the books? If you like the movies at all, then definitely, because they are better. You may not like the first two as much as the rest, since they are mostly establishing the world and the characters, but they are short and will keep you entertained.

I love the books and have read them several times (reread to remember what was happening before the new releases). I also enjoy the magic cone instructional video /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[StevieG]

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I can appreciate the fact that Harry is just learning this stuff, so everything will seem like something new to him, but it doesn't just stop there. 4 names? Gee, none of us ever saw this before. Let's wait until the end so Rowling's deus ex machina can explain that away for us too.


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The books are super tight. Every volume has a clear mystery or two like this running through them, and when Rowling reveals in the end what happened the logic is tight. In fact there have been some bigger mysteries running through the whole series, some of which are revealed in later volumes. Those have been very consistent so far.

In this case, as others have noted, the Tri-Wizard tournament is not mentioned in other books because it has not been held for a long time. rJ reports that Ron says something like "we'll just have to wait 3 more years" but I don't recall that in the book at all.