Me and The Goble of Fire film

Well, it was a good film. I love the Harry Potters - books and movies. But this last one, well, I'm not sure why they did some of the stuff that they did to the movie.

1. the dragon fight scene - why would a dragon, having broken free, chase one boy when there is an entire arena just full of people. AND why bother with the chase scene anyway? The story is exciting enough without that dumb scene. Computer graphics aside, there's no added value.
2. Sirius's head in the fire - again, why bother? It would have been cool to have his head pop in using the floo network like it describes in the book. The coals, while a neat trick, should have been saved for another film, an ENTIRELY different series maybe. Now, this will mess with future films in continuity if they go back to the floo network and I'm assuming that someone WILL fix this - I hope. But more to the point - why bother changing it? It doesn't make sense.
3. Rita Skeeter's animagus (sp?) status being cut - ok. This one bugs me (punny :)) primarily because there's quite a bit of motive behind how she's getting her information and why, in the NEXT novel, she changes her story (ooo, I'm on a roll now :)) and writes decent stuff about Harry.
4. and here's a BIG one - leaving out the transition from muggle world to magic world at the beginning and end - this is a thematic and structural problem for me. One of the reasons that Harry Potter works so well and catches so the imagination is the possibility, however slight, that it could, just maybe, be real. And the transitions at the beginning and end ground HP in the "real" world. It means that people can imagine that there is really a way that their own lives move back and forth on a daily basis from school and office to magic and dreams. Leaving out the transition to and from muggle world, takes away that fantasy.
5. now this is a personal one - I LOVE the lead up to the camping and the world cup. I love seeing all that stuff. Drat - wanted to see more.
6. the house elves - I can see why SPEW is cut out, and I can understand why some of the storyline needs to be left out, but leaving out the whole involvment in Barty Crouch's release? couldn't they have at least alluded to it? And doesn't that set up Kreacher's role as a more negative elf in subsequent books - where it actually becomes important?
7. shorting Snape's role - it just seemed like he didn't get any character development here. And I do like Alan Rickman as Snape so I want to see more. Besides, he has a great voice. I'll give one "good" on adding stuff to the story - the scene in study hall was cute and fit their characters.
8. why in the world didn't we get any of the three friends' character development and relationship in this one? It was really weak in that respect, focusing more on action than on the friends themselves IN action. Since I like them, I'd like to see more of it.
9. changing the -

I'll stop there. There were too many changes, too many things that could have remained as they were written. There are always things that need to be changed, to be cut up or out in order to fit into a film. I know that. But come on. Please, in future, be diligent. I also know that it's only 2 1/2 hours long - I get that - but it's a longer book. Make it longer (we'll all sit there, I promise) or split it into two films (see Lord of the Rings - well done), or SOMETHING!

And, the guy sitting next to me says the same. He was livid, really worked up, a little too worked up actually, but at least he has passion. And, we agreed.

Happy watching!