I don't understand this movie.

[Thrifty]

That one kid died at the end, so everyone was all somber.

Except it was stated from the outset that the tournament was life threatening.

And the second event involved chaining four kids to the ocean floor.

And why couldn't Harry say "fuck this tournament, I'm not interested"?

[mearnest]

It's magic!

[Darth Geek]

Midichlorians?

[Insert Coin(s) to Continue]

Yeah, that's one of the points that I, while writing my own riff, kept stumbling upon -- Dumbledore, the great wise wizard, recklessly endangered many students throughout the film that didn't even consent to the tournament. Harry, the kids on the bottom of the lake, the crowds during the dragon fight...

In fact, Dumbledore was more dangerous than Voldemort in this film.

[mearnest]

Yeah, that's one of the points that I, while writing my own riff, kept stumbling upon -- Dumbledore, the great wise wizard, recklessly endangered many students throughout the film that didn't even consent to the tournament. Harry, the kids on the bottom of the lake, the crowds during the dragon fight...

In fact, Dumbledore was more dangerous than Voldemort in this film.

The riffers have done a pretty good job of pointing this out, but I find it funny that all of the teachers act shocked and horrified when a student is in danger even though they all constantly endanger the students.

[Darth Geek]

And various people throughout these movies keep mentioning for one reason or another that "Hogwarts is no longer safe" when in fact it was NEVER safe.

[ShadowDog]

The movie did a shitty job of explaining what was well laid out in the novel.  Nobody was in any actual danger from any of the Tri Wizard events.  Which, by the way, is why what Harry did in the second task was super retarded.

But the movie failed spectacularly to explain most of these obvious questions.

[Darth Geek]

This movie, more than the others, should definitely have been made into two movies. I've never read any of the books, but even I could tell that things were rushed, large sections chopped out and yet it's still well over two hours. Making it two hour and a half movies would have improved it immensely (at least from a plot standpoint).

[ShadowDog]

I agree.  And that was the original plan until the dumbass Director of the third movie talked the producers out of taking the double movie approach to movie 4.  It's a long story, but it's one of the many reasons why I hate the dumbass director of the third movie the most.

[NRRork]

Yeah, it's funny because the fifth and sixth movies cut a lot as well, but I think David Yates did a really great job of working with what he had. I mean, he was able to take the thickest of the books and make the shortest movie of it.

The first two followed their books pretty close, but they were really slow movies. They tried to make three and four a little shorter even though the books they were adapting were getting increasingly thicker, but they still tried to keep following and we got these two abridged versions that just wound up not working.

It's like he's the only one who realized that it would be impossible to just make a super-condensed version of each of those books, so he told the story a little differently so it would be more appropriate for the screen. A lot of fans really bitched about that, but when I watch either Order of the Phoenix or Half-Blood Prince, I really enjoy the movie that's being shown to me, and I forget really quick what was or was not included.

And Half-blood Prince was missing some REALLY important stuff, and yet it's my favorite of the movies by far. I also really liked the composer for those two, and it's a shame he's not scoring Deathly Hallows (there keeps being talk of John Williams coming back for Part Two, but I REALLY hope he doesn't!)

[Thrifty]

So exactly why weren't the four kids chained to the ocean floor in any danger?

[ShadowDog]

So exactly why weren't the four kids chained to the ocean floor in any danger?

Because the merpeople were in on it.  They were good friends with Dumbledore (in the book they swam up and reported to Dumbledore everything that happened, which is why he knew).  So when time expired, if anybody had been left, the merpeople would have freed them and take them up to the surface before the spell allowing them to breath underwater ran out.

The movie didn't bother explaining any of this, of course.  Hyuck!

[VBane]

So exactly why weren't the four kids chained to the ocean floor in any danger?

A wizard did it.  Literally :p  Dumbledore put some stasis spell on them so they didn't have to/wouldn't breathe under the water.

They kept playing up the danger of the tournament, and it had been deadly in the past, but they had put in alot of safety precautions and safeguards since then....the movie just didn't make them apparent, choosing drama over logic :p

And Harry couldn't just opt out of the tournament because your name being chosen is a binding magical contract....no idea what the repurcussions of not competing would be, maybe the loss of his magic or something.

[Thrifty]

And Harry couldn't just opt out of the tournament because your name being chosen is a binding magical contract....no idea what the repurcussions of not competing would be, maybe the loss of his magic or something.

In Hackmaster, if you swear a blood oath to your deity and break it, you lose experience levels.  Maybe it could have been something like that.

Was Rowling too lazy or just too uncreative to come up with something?

I REALLY don't like Harry Potter.

[Indomitus]

So he couldn't opt out...  okay...  Have they never heard the word "disqualification"?