What separates books from movies is imagination. The reader's or audience's imagination, that is. Books generally have an infinite sense of possibilities. Anything written can be interpreted in any way. The main character may even be imagined as the reader herself-- which often happens to me ;-P. With movies, the imagination becomes limited because it is already translated into a two-dimensional pseudo-realistic portrayal of a story. So it is often a struggle of sorts for a reader to accept and love a movie version of her favorite book.

Most of the time, it becomes disappointing. Since the movie is limited by time, space and budget, crucial storylines may be cut short or even left out altogether. What was funny in the book, may not inspire some lips to twitch at all. The hardest audience to please are those who know the story from end to end, backwards and forwards; those who have imagined a different reality than the movie version. Many books-turned-movies have disappointed me, including The Deep End of the Ocean. I love Michelle Pfeiffer and goodness knows I had a crush on Jonathan Jackson in High School. But they weren't enough to redeem the dramatic and emotional value of that film.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was different. This one, I really liked. It deliberately took out a lot of scenes and Peeves, the resident Hogwarts poltergeist, is still missing in action, but I still loved the movie.

Daniel Radcliffe, while not emotionally-lacking, can improve. He's doing a fine job, mind you, and to act side by side British bigwigs is something to feel jittery about. He just needs a little bit more oomph. But not too much, like Emma Watson. Her facial expressions have gone from theatrical to just plain twitchy. Every word she says has an accompanying nose twitch or lip twitch or something. Rupert Grint... I didn't notice. Hehe. But I noticed that Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) played the Headmaster a little too harsh and strict. While Richard Harris, the original Dumbledore, was serene and patient, Gambon's was always yelling and moving around. I love Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter, perfect for the role! And Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort is just amazing.

Because I'm getting tired of writing at the moment, let me close this entry. I just want to say that no Potter movie has left me laughing as much and gaping as much as this one. The scene where Voldemort and Harry were dueling was so intense I found myself slack-jawed throughout that scene. But I didn't like the ending though. Too.. kiddie. Plus, I wonder how they'd start working on the bitterness between Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic in the fifth installment of the movie, when it was hardly touched in this one at all. We'll see. I didn't like the fifth book so much, it was the most boring of the series, so I hope the next director would do miracles to keep up with the first four.

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POST SCRIPT
A digital "spot removing" technique was applied in the post-production of the movie Harry Potter to clear up some of the more severe teen skin problems, since make-up tested poorly for close-up shots in particular.