Book vs Movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hello Everyone!

I’ve finished my re-read of Goblet of Fire as planned, which means it is time to do another Book vs Movie analysis! I’m really excited for this one in particular because this is where the movies become drastically different from the books in a lot of ways, which means there is so much more to talk about. That means these book vs movie posts are likely to only get longer from here though, so make sure you have a snack and a nice warm beverage before you sit down to read this one!

If you didn’t see my first book vs movie post for ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’, then I suggest you give it a read as I explain more about what this series is about there and also it would be better to read them chronologically too: https://books.samanthadrage.co.uk/2019/07/05/book-vs-movie-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone/

I am going to be talking about each section of the movie by the chapter titles in the books, so if there is a specific scene of chapter you want to here me talk about, then you can skip to that chapter title. It is also worth saying that these will of course be full of spoilers, so I can actually talk about the plot, but I think everyone has at least seen Harry Potter at this point, but I thought I’d mention it in case it wasn’t obvious.

A small disclaimer: before we get started I want to make it clear that I am in no way bashing the Harry Potter films. I adore Harry Potter and do think they did a good job with them. This is just a bit of fun and I wanted to take the opportunity to really analyse the story. I’m aware that somethings just aren’t possible to make happen on screen and some things have to be cut out to make the film a watchable length (although I’d happily watch a 10 hour long word for word adaptation, I know most people wouldn’t). I am also by no means a movie expert, this is just a bit of fun.

Chapter 1 – The Riddle House

The film starts of fairly strong with the Frank the gardener being murdered and we see Wormtail and Voldemort in Harry’s Dream; however, they did change a couple of key things that then meant they had to change a whole lot more things later on. The first thing they didn’t show was all the background around Frank being accused of the riddle’s deaths and some of the details of how that happened. This isn’t important in Goblet of Fire, but those details do become relevant in Half Blood Prince when Harry and Dumbledore spend a lot of time in the Pensieve looking at Voldemort’s history.

The big thing they changed though, was the fact that Barty Crouch Jr was seen in the room with Wormtail and Voldemort in the film when he wasn’t supposed to be there. At this point Harry doesn’t even know that man exists and we have to encounter him at the world cup first before he then goes to Voldemort (of course Harry isn’t aware of this at the time). That is a pretty huge error because it leaves out a huge part of how Voldemort came back into power and is pretty huge thing to screw up because it means so many clues that would have lead Harry to realise who Moody really was had to be cut out and huge chunks of the story had to be left out too since they no longer made sense.

Chapter 2 – The Scar

Harry then wakes up and we realise that what we just saw was a dream, which naturally upset Harry. His scar is also hurting. This part isn’t in the movie at all because after the scene at the Riddle House, it skips straight to Harry waking up at Ron’s on the morning of the Quidditch world cup, so the next few chapters just aren’t shown in the film at all though. We are supposed to see Harry struggling with who to tell about his scar hurting and worrying about looking weak or pathetic if he does tell someone. He admits to himself that what he really needs is a parent (which is incredibly heart-wrenching and makes me despise the Dursley’s even more), but he does eventually think of Sirius who he does write to. I suppose this isn’t essential to include in the film, but it is yet another bit of detailed character development that people who only watch the film will completely miss out on.

Chapter 3 – The Invitation

This chapter is also not essential, but it was a damn shame they left it out because it was very funny. We of course get to see Dudley on a diet and Harry pigging out on cakes his friends sent him, which I’ve always that was a good bit of karma. It gets better though because the Weasley’s sent a letter through the muggle post with stamps all over the envelope because they don’t understand the postal system! We also get some good old Sassy Book Harry here as the letter says ‘I hope we put enough stamps on’ and Harry replies with ‘They put enough stamps on then’! We then see Ron’s new owl (Pig) in action as Ron sends Harry a letter to say they’re coming to get him whether the Dursley’s say yes or not!

Chapter 4 – Back to the Burrow

Before I say anything else about this chapter, I want it known that I feel absolutely ROBBED that we didn’t get to see Arthur Weasley blowing apart the Dursley’s fireplace in order to pick up Harry! I know it isn’t essential to the story, but I think we all deserved to see that amazing scene! We of course also missed out the fact that Fred and George deliberately dropped their magical toffees for Dudley to eat (which he did of course) and the nonsense that ensued while Arthur Weasley was trying to fix the mess they’d made!

Chapter 5 – Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes

This chapter starts with us finding out what the toffees were that Fred and George dropped and we find out a bit more about Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, which Harry thinks is hilarious, but Mrs Weasley is not so Happy. She is furious with the twins and thinks they are wasting their talents when they could be putting them into something more ‘worthwhile’ like the ministry. I love Mrs Weasley, but I don’t agree with the way she treats the twins in this scene at all because I am a firm believer in everyone making their own success and the twins have every right to make their own too. We also see her disagreeing with Bill about his earings and hair length, which shows that while Mrs Weasley is an incredibly lovable character she is rather stuck in her ways when it comes to her ideals, but everyone has flaws and she learns to accept her children’s choices in the end.

Not a huge amount of other things happen in this chapter apart from it confirming the fact that Percy Weasley is, in fact, a real arse who won’t shut up about his cauldron bottoms or trying to get them to ask about the tournament. We already knew all this though, so who’s surprised? Of course none of this was shown in the film at all, which again, isn’t the end of the world, but I think it is yet another example of how we don’t get nearly as much character development in the films. The chapter is important for setting up the twins and their dealings in this book, Percy and his stance at the ministry, which is very important in Order of the Phoenix and Mrs Weasley’s views on quite a few things.

Chapter 6 – The Portkey

This is where we can actually start talking about the movie because this is the point the movie starts from after the first chapter (yes they really did miss out a whole 4 chapters!). In the book, this chapter is the introduction to three different kinds of magic that we previously knew nothing about: Apparation, Speaking through fireplaces and Portkeys. We see the Portkey in the film (I’ll get to that in a minute), but we don’t see the other two. The apparation isn’t essential to this film, so I don’t mind that they left that out; however, I am bothered by the fact that they left out Mr Weasley speaking to Amos Diggory through the fireplace. We do see this magic later in the film with Harry talking to Sirius, but the more important thing about this was what they were talking about: Mad-eye Moody. We of course later find out that he is the new defence against the dark arts teacher and this scene was the first clue to him not being who they thought he was.

We then get to where the film actually starts because everything I have previously mentioned apart from the first chapter, was not in the film -_-. What was in the film though was them walking towards the Portkey to get to the Quidditch world cup and that is where the chapter ends. In the books we did see a little more of Amos and Cedric Diggory because Amos was boasting about how Cedric beat Harry at Quidditch (because he heard his mother dying due to the dementors might I add, so not exactly a fair game, which Cedric did say), which isn’t particularly important, but it sort of makes the point that they are going to be somewhat important characters from now on because J.K.Rowling took the time to introduce us to them properly off the Quidditch pitch.

Chapter 7 – Bagman and Crouch

There’s a bit more detail about the Quidditch world cup in the books, but I think they showed it as best they could at the beginning, but this is where they really start to screw up because they failed to include several key characters and moments including Fred and George’s bet with Ludo Bagman, who didn’t exist in the films at all, we are introduced to Barty Crouch (who is very much like Percy Weasley), Bagman almost let’s slip about the Triwizard Tournament and Ron is shy about not being able to afford all the souviners he wants. The souviners are not essential, but it is just another example of them leaving out how concious Ron is of being so poor; however, the scene with Bagman and Crouch is. The events that happend weren’t essential, but the characters and the introuctions to them are, which we see then affects the rest of the film as they had to change some things due to the fact they left some characters out.

Chapter 8 – The Quidditch World Cup

This chapter was literally just the game, so nothing much exciting happened, but there were a few differences between the book and the movie. They are supposed to sit in the minister’s box with the Malfoy’s, but that doesn’t happen in the film, which I think is odd because it is such a bizzare thing for them to change with no reason to. The other was the fact that Winky the house-elf doesn’t exist in the films. She is supposed to be sitting in the box with Harry and Co. ‘saving a seat’ for her master, which we later find out was actually her looking after Barty Crouch Jr. under an invisibility cloak. For some reason they chose to completely leave out the story line of how Barty Crouch Jr got out of Azkaban, how he escaped his father and ended up as Moody to lure Harry into Voldemort’s trap and instead just added him in Harry’s nightmare and birefly at the Quidditch World Cup, which we’ll get to in a minute. I don’t know why they decided to leave this out because it leaves a pretty big plot whole and also means there is literally no reason for Barty Crouch Sr. to have died, but it is what it is.

Fred and George were also won their bet with Bagman, which means he needs to pay up, which he seems to until we found out it is leprechaun gold. Ron also tries to pay Harry back for the souvenirs he bought him, but we know this backfires later.

“Aren’t you two ever going to read Hogwarts, A History?”

“What’s the point?” said Ron. “You know it by heart, we can just ask you.”

Chapter 9 – The Dark Mark

After the World Cup finished they go back to bed, only to be woken up by the Death Eaters a few hours later. This happens mostly okay in the films, but that is where the accuracy ends in this chapter because everything else is different. Harry, Ron and Hermione run into Malfoy on their way to the forest to escape the death eaters, who all but confirms his dad is a death eater, but the movie sort of substituted the scene earlier when they were finding their seats before the cup began, so I will forgive them for that. Harry then realises he has lost his wand, but doesn’t have time to do anything about it since they have to keep moving. That is when the dark mark is conjured right near them and the ministry turn up trying to stupify them. The movie did include the part where they were almost stupified quite well, but everything after that was just plain wrong. They are supposed the then find Winky with Harry’s wand, which then also results in Amos Diggory accusing Winky (since she was holding the wand) and then Harry(since it was his) for conjuring the dark mark. As Mr Weasley pointed out, these are both incredibly stupid accusations since Harry freaking Potter isn’t going to conjure the dark mark and Winky is a house elf. Barty Crouch searches the place where Winky was found himself (which is important later), but then just sacks Winky for misbehaviour, which Hermione is outraged at. Percy also attempts to back Crouch up, which was a terrible idea because all that got him was an earful from Hermione!

They had the barebones of this chapter in the film, but that was it, which is purely because they decided to leave out 90% of Barty Crouch’s story, so they had to change a bunch of things to account for it. Surely is would have been easier to just do it right the first time?

Chapter 10 – Mayhem at the Ministry

This chapter is mostly just the aftermath of the World Cup with Mr Weasley having to work a lot to fix everything, especially after Rita Skeeter wrote a load of rubbish about him. There is o course more argueing about house elves on Hermione’s part and Ron is angry because he has lousy, lacy dress robes because they had to get them second hand. Technically none of it was particularly essential, but it is just more character development and little filler scenes that add up to help you put the bigger picture together that you don’t get in the film as none of this was included.

Chapter 11 – Aboard the Hogwarts Express

Not loads happened in this chapter, so there isn’t much to talk about, but basically, Arthur hurried off to cover for Moody, there were loads more hints thrown around about the Triwizard Tournament and Malfoy was being an arse again and teasing Ron about being poor.

Most of this wasn’t in the film, but none of it is particularly important.

Chapter 12 – The Triwizard Tournament

Finally after 11 whole chapters and a good 100 pages, they are at Hogwarts! This scene is pretty accurate in the film as they get there and are told about the tournament and the age restriction (at which there is outrage). We also meet Moody, which the film did a pretty good job of. They left out Hermione’s outrage about the house-elves at Hogwarts, but S.P.E.W as it will later be known isn’t that important to the story, so I’m not surprised they left that bit out. Also since they left out Winky in the first place, they couldn’t have put it in since it wouldn’t have made any sense.

Chapter 13 – Mad-Eye Moody

From here the movie seems to be a bit confused because they include a lot of the scenes that happened very well, but in the wrong order… I know, it’s a bit weird, but it is what it is. The start of the chapter is just the first day of classes, which wasn’t in the film, but there isn’t really anything lost there. We then go to Malfoy being horrible again as Rita Skeeter has written a horrible article about Arthur Weasley in the paper, which Malfoy proceeds to read aloud as well as mocking Ron’s house and mother. This bit isn’t in the movie, which is a shame really because then ‘sassy Harry’ comes back and insults Draco’s mother right back. Malfoy then tries to hex Harry, which results in Moody turning him into a ferret, which is, of course in the film, but in a completely different context and also much later on in the story. It doesn’t make sense to me why they would change that, but I guess the humour factor was there all the same. Them changing it also means they left out another huge time when it was made obvious that Ron was very poor, which is endlessly annoying to me because they cut it out at every opportunity even though it is a huge part of his character!

Chapter 14 – The Unforgivable Curses

They actually (for once) did this chapter really well in the film. This is the part they cut to after Dumbledore has told them all about the tournament and they did Moody’s class and the unforgiveable curses impeccably. They included Neville and the cruciatus curse (which becomes important in later books, so it is good they included it) and Moody giving him the book. The part they don’t include of this chapter is them all in the common room where Harry and Ron are making up there Diviniation homework, Fred and George are clearly plotting something (which we know to be about Bagman, but they had to take that out since they didn’t include the bet or indeed Bagman entirely originally) and Hermione with her S.P.E.W badges. None of that is particularly essential though, so I can’t get mad at them for that.

They did leave something important out though: Sirius’s reply to Harry. He gets a letter back from Sirius, which says he is coming back to the country to be near Harry, which immediately puts Harry in a panicked state as he thinks it will be all his fault if Sirius gets caught. He starts thinking he should never have told anyone about his scar hurting because it’s no big deal – even though it is – because he was abused for the first 9 years of his life, so he thinks he is just wasting people’s time. This part is essential to Harry’s character development, which we’ve already discussed is rather lacking the movies and also important to the story as there is way more correspondence between Harry and Sirius in the books than in the films.

Chapter 15 – Beauxbatons and Durmstrang

Technically, this chapter was in the film, but they decided to change where they put it again. This chapter mostly consists of the arrival of the other schools for the tournaments, which they did include, but put in at the beginning of term when they were being told about the tournament, which I guess is fine and also would have saved a fair bit of screen time, so I see why they did it. The only other thing that happened in this chapter was Harry trying to get Sirius to stay away, which fails miserably, and their workload has increased significantly.

Chapter 16 – The Goblet of Fire

The first and last part of this chapter are in the film and they did them quite accurately with Fred and George trying and failing to enter and the champion selection. The only bit they didn’t include was the trio going down to see Hagrid who is all dressed up and leaves them for Madam Maxime, but that bit isn’t that important. Other than that, they did this chapter very well in the films and I think they got the atmosphere very well, which is something they consistently manage to do.

Chapter 17 – The Four Champions

They also did this chapter very well in the films with Harry being selected and going down into the room where there is outrage. There is of course the ‘Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore said calming’, but that has been very well talked about by now, so I don’t think I need to go over how funny and wrong they got that bit specifically. After they have established that Harry has no choice but to compete, he goes back to the common room where there is a party and Ron doesn’t believe that he didn’t enter.

“Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.”

Chapter 18 – The Weighing of the Wands

The wand weighing ceremony wasn’t in the film at all, although the photo taking was. Before we get to that though, the chapter starts with the Potter Stinks badges, which results in Harry trying to hex Malfoy, which backfires and ends up hitting Hermione. This is where we see a lot of Snape’s cruelty as he says he can’t see any difference in Hermione’s teeth as they grow past her chin, which is one of the reasons why I will never like Snape and I don’t understand why some people can defend him because he is just cruel and spiteful and is still taking out his anger on innocent children decades later.

In the films, the Potter Stinks badges don’t appear until a little later and that is when Moody turns Malfoy into a ferret. In the books, Harry is then called out of potions for the wand-weighing and a photoshoot, which does happen, but not before Rita Skeeter accosts him and writes all that nonsense. This does happen in the film and I think they did it very well, although they did leave out the wand-weighing itself and we didn’t get to see Dumbledore saving Harry from Rita Skeeters clutches as he talks about all the horrible things she has written about him in the paper. I personally would have loved to see this because I think the movie leaves out a lot of Dumbledore’s sense of humour and the way he really couldn’t care less about what other people think or say about him.

I think a lot of the change in Dumbledore’s characterisation in the films happened because of the change of actor though. They were forced to change the actor for him in the third film onwards because the previous actor died… This of course, is no-ones fault and couldn’t be helped, but I did prefer the original actor because I think he captured Dumbledore’s mysterious and quietly funny personality very well whereas the new actor was a little more harsh in the way he was, which isn’t very Dumbledore in my opinion.

Harry then also gets a letter from Sirius at the end of the chapter about meeting him in the common room at 1am, which did happen in the film, so that was all fine.

Chapter 19 – The Hungairan Horntail

This chapter is in the film, but the changed several things again for no real reason. The chapter in the book starts off with Harry and Hermione going to Hogsmede, although Harry is under the invisibility cloak, where he meets Moody and Hagrid. We learn that Moody can see through invisibility cloaks and Hagrid tells him to meet him later that night. This bit isn’t in the film, but they did replace it with that whole weird spiel of Hermione telling Harry that Ron had told her that Seamus told him that Dean was told by Pavarti that Hagrid was looking for you. Why they decided to change it to this very complicated spiel I will never know, but the effect is the same, so i guess it doesn’t matter.

It’s worth noting here as well that they changed the order of a few things here too. In the books the Dragons are first and then Harry has to rush back to talk to Sirius all in the same night, but the film was different because they had Harry talk to Sirius first and on a different night entirely. Again, I don’t know why they changed the order of things like this, but regardless, Harry then goes to see the dragons. He’s pretty shocked and is naturally furious with Ron for not telling him when his brother’s the one that had to bring them over.

Chapter 20 – The First Task

This chapter is, thankfully, very accurate, although they did make the first task far more dramatic than it was. The chapter starts with Harry teling Cedric about the dragon and Moody is helping harry think about the broom. In the films this is where they add the Potter Stinks badges and Malfoy the ferret, but that’s okay even if it doesn’t make sense why they would change it. They did leave out the part where Harry was tirelessly trying to master the summoning charm, which does do successfully in the end, which is ridiculously important or anything, but I think the films gloss over a lot of the actual learning of magic that they trio have to do at… you know….. the school for magic… Also I think this book is an excellent demonstration of how much of an amazing wizard Harry actually is as we see him master spells that are far above his age group in a very short space of time. We might joke about Harry being oblivious and generally unobservant, but he is actually very intelligent and he doesn’t get enough credit for that.

The rest of the chapter is literally just the first task with Harry fighting the dragon, which as i said earlier, was far more dramatic in the film because he definitely didn’t fly off to the castle (which is a very frustrating scene as Harry is hanging on to the room and trying to just tug his broom to him by shear force rather than lifting the damn thing up and over -_-), but I guess they wan’t to make it more cinematic, so I’ll forgive them. They didn’t include the scoring in the films, but it doesn’t really matter because we get the gyst of who won anyway, but the bit I am sad they left out was Rita Skeeter asking Harry for a word after the first task and he replies with: ‘yeah, you can have a word,’ said Harry Savegelly,’ Goodbye.’ – HOW ICONIC!!!

Chapter 21 – The House-Elf Liberation Front

The chapter starts of well by having a party to celebrate the first task and Harry and Ron are now friends again, but then none of the rest of it was in the films. Harry sent another letter to Sirius and they have Care of Magical Creatures where we learn Rita Skeeter isn’t allowed into the grounds anymore. That isn’t essential I guess, but the bit I am SO SAD they left out was going down to the kitchens to see Dobby! I love Dobby and I’m so mad they didn’t include him at all in Goblet of Fire, which is again because they chose to leave out the whole Barty Crouch, Winky and story line.

Chapter 22 – The Unexpected Task

Honestly, this is just a whole chapter worth of cringe as they find out about the Yule Ball and they go and find dates. The film got it pretty perfect, but I don’t want to talk about this chapter anymore because it is sooooo cringey and I can’t stand how Ron acts towards Hermione having a date.

Chapter 23 – The Yule Ball

They got the ball part of this chapter absolutely perfect, which is great that they got something right, but did it really have to be the completely pointless ball that doesn’t have any relevence to the plot? I’m not really surprised though that the bit they managed to get right was the teen drama/love story part, but anyway, moving on. The bits they did miss out were, of course, the important bits. They didn’t include the conversation Harry and Ron overheard between Hagrid and Madam Maxime, which is how they find out Hagrid is a half-giant. This is probably the most important thing they missed out, but there were several thing mentioned in passing that become relevant later on such as Percy filling in for Crouch, Fred and George trying to corner Bagman and Dobby’s Christmas presents! Ok maybe that last one wasn’t essential, but it sure is cute that Dobby cares so much about Harry.

Chapter 24 – Rita Skeeter’s Scoop

None of this chapter was in the film at all because they chose to leave out the Hagrid is a half-giant subplot, but basically what you missed if you haven’t read the books was Hermione being a total badass! Rita Skeeter publishes an article all about Hagrid, which leads to Hermione yelling at her in the 3 broomsticks and then pounding on Hagrid’s door to tell him they don’t care what he is and that Rita Skeeter is a foul git basically! Dumbledore then opens the door and it is all very funny and also heartwarming that Dumbledore refuses to accept Hagrid’s resignation.

Chapter 25 – The Egg and the Eye

The start of this chapter is Harry finally swallowing his pride and going to the bathroom like Cedric suggested with his egg. Murtle helps him riddle out the clue and everyone’s happy, but then they left out the rest of the chapter, which was (yet again) because they decided to leave Winky and Barty Crouch Jr’s story line out completely. Harry is meant to see ‘Barty Crouch’ on the marauder’s map, which he is using to sneak around at night again to work out his clue, which he naturally thinks is odd since Crouch is meant to be ill and has no business sneaking around Snape’s office. Harry is distracted though and falls through a trick stare, dropping his egg which naturally attracts a lot of attention. Long story short, Harry doesn’t get in trouble and ‘Moody’ asks to borrow the map after Harry told him he saw Barty Crouch in Snape’s office. Since they left out half the story lines, this bit is irrelevant, but it is supposed to be the first huge clue as to who ‘Moody’ actually is.

Chapter 26 – The Second Task

This chapter was just the second task, which they did almost perfectly except for the fact that they chose to replace Dobby with Neville because they left the house elves out if this movie. It was a shame because I love Dobby, but also not the end of the world by any means and they did the rest of the second task incredibly well, which is impressive since I imagine it would have been difficult to film, what with it being underwater and all.

Chapter 27 – Padfoot Returns

I’ll warn you now that the next few chapters are either extremely inaccurate or simply don’t exist in the films, so theres likely to be a lot to talk about. Chapter 27, doesn’t happen at all because we don’t see Sirius in the Goblet of Fire film. The trio are supposed to meet Sirius at the next Hogsmede weekend, which is where they talk over everything that has happened over the year. Sirius is able to tell them a little more, connect some dots and fill them in on some things happening outside of Hogwarts, which of course is later very important as Harry starts to piece the puzzle together by himself and allows the reader to guess what is going on too, but that doesn’t happen in the film, so anyone watching doesn’t really have any idea what is going on.

This is a common theme with the Harry Potter films; they leave out 90% of the puzzle pieces, little scenes and passing comments that let the trio and the reader figure out what is going on, which is why the films don’t tend to make a lot of sense. The characters in the films tend to just know some things and they will jump to what seems like unreasonable conclusions because we haven’t been shown all the little bits of information that lead them to believe that. In other words, you simply aren’t going to understand how they know what they do or how some people get away with things if you only watch the films, so in that way, the books are always better.

“There are those who’ll turn innocent occasions to their advantage.”

Chapter 28 – The Madness of Mr Crouch

This whole chapter wasn’t really in the films and some of it was more of a loss that other parts. It starts off with Hermione getting hate mail because of more Rita Skeeter articles and Ron finding out that Leprechaun gold disappears. None of these things are particularly important, although they did leave out yet another thing indicating that Ron is very poor, I don’t think these were necessary to include in the film.

Now the next part is kind of in the film, but they also absolutely didn’t really try. Harry is meant to go and find out about the 3rd task one evening, which he does, but then Krum pulls him aside to talk about Hermione. This ends quite badly though as Mr Crouch turns up quite mad as he is talking about Betha Jorkins, Voldemort and his son. All of this is VERY important information because it fills in a lot of gaps that were missing in the story that Sirius helped them put together. Harry might not have put them together, but the reader would have been able to. Harry is meant to then go and run to Dumbledore only for them to find Krum stunned, Crouch gone and Karkaroff to stomp around claiming they’re all cheaters. The movies (rather half-assed) attempt at this as for Harry to talk to Crouch briefly after the second task and find him dead later that night. -_- not really the same is it? I suppose they chose to do it this way because they left out the Winky, Crouch story line, so there was no need to include all of that, but it also then makes a pretty huge plot hole because there was absolutely no need for Crouch to die the way they showed it in the movie. He’s supposed to have escaped from Voldemort to come and tell Dumbledore about what he did to get his son out of Azkaban and the whole story, but since they didn’t include that story at all, there was no need for him to die, but they still had to kill him as he was meant to die.

They messed up quite a lot in this film, but I’d say this is definitely the biggest screw up because it actually creates something of a plot hole instead of just leaving out important info.

Chapter 29 – The Dream

I’m sure it will suprise all of you that none of this chapter was in the film! Such a turn of events…. They are meant to discuss Crouch, send a letter to Sirius, finally find out that Fred and George are blackmailing Bagman for their betting money and they are meant to be practicing all sorts of spells for Harry to use in the final task. Apart from the practicing spells, none of this is that important, but I do wish they had left the spells in because it introduces us to a lot of new spells are also shows us just how good of a wizard Harry is. He is able to learn spells several years beyond him in a incredibly short space of time with help from his two friends who are also the same age. The films don’t show enough of Harry’s extraordinary abilities and it really annoys me because Harry and Ron for that matter are far more intelligent and adept at magic than they are made out to be.

He is also then meant to have the dream in Divination all about Voldemort, Wormtail’s mistake and someone being dead. This is then the reason he goes to Dumbledore as he takes Sirius’s advice about his last dream where he overhears Fudge being very racist towards Madam Maxime because she is a half-giant. The first part of the chapter isn’t that important, but the dream (which I don’t even think Harry has at all in the film because they left out the Winky and Crouch story line – have I said that enough yet!?) is because it gives us more clues as to and puzzle pieces in the main plot and several sub-plots as it also contributes to Hermione catching Rita Skeeter and the fact that they don’t believe Harry when he says Voldemort is back because they think he’s a lunatic.

Chapter 30 -The Pensieve

This chapter started off kind of well with Harry falling into the pensieve and watching Karkaroff’s trial, although he didn’t see several others that he was supposed to, but that was because they didn’t include Bagman in the films at all. In the films he does then tell Dumbledore about a dream, but it is just the same one at the start of summer in the film. In the books they talk a lot more though and Dumbledore confirms that he too thinks the disappearances are linked and that he has contact with Sirius. He also makes it clear to Harry that he trusts Snape, but won’t disclose why. I think this chapter is a pretty good example of how films tend to get the general gyst of things, but leave out a lot of details because that is essentially what happened in this chapter.

Chapter 31 – The Third Task

The beginning of the chapter with Mrs Weasley and Bill coming to see Harry as well as Hermione having her Eurika moment about Rita Skeeter isn’t included, but that isn’t the end of the world. The rest of the chapter is just the 3rd task, which they kind of got right, but they also missed a lot out. Harry didn’t encounter any creatures or the Sphinx in the film and he only came across Cedric once with Krum where Cedric was the one who went after him in Harry. Technically this isn’t the end of the world, but it did mean we didn’t get to see just how smart and capable Harry is again. He fights off the creatures pretty easily, completes the Sphinx’s riddle with relative ease, stuns Krum when Cedric couldn’t and saved Cedric from an acrumantula. The chapter then ends with Cedric and Harry taking the cup together.

Chapter 32 – Flesh, Blood and Bone

Minus the last few chapters, the movie gets waayyy more accurate from this point. This chapter consists of poor Cedric meeting his demise at the hands of Voldemort and then Wormtail brews the potion that gives Voldemort his body back. That is the entire chapter and they managed to do it pretty much word for word, which is great, so lets move on.

Chapter 33 – The Death Eaters

This chapter is also pretty accurate although the movie does leave out a lot of the details (again because they left out the whole Winky, Crouch, Bertha Jorkins story line). We also get to put some names to the death eaters (including Draco’s dad), which becomes important in later books. Then Voldemort remembers Harry’s there, tortures him a bit and demands they duel. As horrible as it all it, the movies did it all pretty well and Daniel Radcliff is an excellent actor.

Chapter 34 – Priori Incantatem

This chapter is just the duel where their wands connect and then he manages to escape back to the Portkey. They also did this relatively well although they did again miss out a few things that indicate just how good of a wizard Harry is. Voldemort uses the imperius curse on Harry to force him to bow, but in the books Harry resists it and throws it off completely like he learnt to in Moody’s classes. The films have him obey, which seems an odd thing to change since it wouldn’t have been hard to do exactly. They also didn’t show Harry cursing several of the death eaters successfully as he was running back to Cedric and the Portkey. It’s not essential, but it is incredibly impressive that Harry managed to successfully stun and body-bind a good few death eaters who are fully grown, dark wizards with far more experience.

Chapter 35 – Veritaserum

This is where the film starts getting a little inaccurate again, but that is because of all the things they left out previously. ‘Moody’ takes Harry and Dumbledore bursts in and gets Snape to give him the Veritaserum, just like the films, but the story that ‘Moody’/Barty Crouch Jr tells is a little different since they had to cut out like 80% since they didn’t include it in the first place.

After the story has been told they are meant to go back to Dumbledore’s office where Sirius is waiting to comfort Harry. This wasn’t in the film, but the most important part of this chapter is the fact that “Dumbledore had a look of triumph in his eyes” when looking at the cut on Harry’s arm. This is important as we learn much later on that much of Harry’s life was carefully planned by Dumbledore, who in a way, has simply been using Harry the whole to achieve what he wanted to. This is the first time we get a glimpse at who Dumbledore really is and what he is actually trying to do.

“While we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat as one.”

Chapter 36 – The Parting of Ways

This chapter isn’t in the films at all because of what they left out previously, but it is a very important chapter to the rest of the story if you actually read the books because an awful lot happens in it. It starts with Harry re-telling the story to Dumbledore and Sirius and then he ends up the hospital wing where he is taken care of. There is up-roar fairly soon though as Mcgonagall comes running in arguing with Fudge who decided to bring a dementor into the castle (honestly Fudge is such an idiot!) that immediately kissed Barty Crouch Jr, destroying all evidence. Fudge doesn’t believe a word out of Harry’s mouth and so doesn’t think Voldemort is back, which is a running theme of course in Order of the Phoenix, but were not there yet.

The rest of the chapter is just people running off on Dumbedlore’s orders to do things: Bill goes to Arthur to try and convince people at the ministry, Hagrid and Madam Maxime are summoned to Dumbledore’s office, Sirius is to round up the old Order of the Phoenix and Snape is to return to Voldemort to be a spy. Also Hermione catches Rita Skeeter, but that’s not that important.

Chapter 37 – The Beginning

The movie skips over the last few weeks of term and goes straight to Dumbledore’s speech about Cedric, but that’s honestly not the end of the world because nothing much happens other than they try and give Harry some space. Then Dumbledore does give his speech about Cedric, which is very true to the books and then it is the train ride home. The ride home isn’t in the movie, but that’s because the only things that happened there are tying the loose ends up on the sub-plots that the movies didn’t include like Rita Skeeter, Bagman and Harry giving Fred and George his winnings.

I think the main thing we can take away from the this film is that you really have to read the books. I do think Warner Bros did a good job with the films and compared to most book to movie adaptations, they are really good. There were somethings that they changed or left out that I thought was really unnecessary because it really wouldn’t have been hard to get right, but it is what it is and I still love them all the same!

PHHEEEWWWW! That was a long post! Congratulations if you made this far because I know these posts are quite a lot. I won’t go on anymore here because it is long enough as it is, so just remember to tell me what you think of the Harry Potter films in the comments! What part were you most upset about them leaving out? I’d love to know, so tell me down below or come and chat to me on my Instagram (@theoriginalbookdragon).

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out