Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This was the first of the Harry Potter series that I'd read the book prior to seeing the movie version, and I think that it really made a difference.
I was disappointed for once.
I knew what happened and was going to be happening in the storyline of the book version, but only about a third of such events actually were carried out in the movie. Some of the parts in the book that I was most looking forward to seeing in the movie didn't happen at all, which really really sucked, but I guess I understand that there was a lot in the book that had to be cut out in terms of a time constraint on the movie. Still...I was disappointed.
It was, on the other hand, the first movie that I've seen in a long time (other than Joyeux Noel) that I sat through without looking at my watch to check the time or how much time had elasped.
Anyway, I felt like this movie was very different from the earlier ones in the series. The whole movie seemed very dark in nature and I felt like the actual sets were really different from previous ones. Hogwarts itself looked like a new campus, even the Hogwarts Express looked slightly darker, or more mature. The students were dressed differently, from their uniforms to their casual clothes...ugh, it was so weird.
The young actors and actresses in the movie have definitely hit puberty and are truly looking a little too old for 14 years of age. Even the older student in the school look too old, and there seems to be no lower year students (unless they made everyone in the movie older to convince the audience that all the students are around the same age). Before seeing the movie and hearing about how they weren't sure if the same actors would be in the next movie because they looked too old, I didn't really believe it would have any affect on my as an audience member, because I believe the actors and actresses to be the characters they play in the movie and thought that I would just believe that they are the ages of who they are supposed to play rather than the age that they look...well I guess I was wrong. It really threw me off, but if they have the next movie come out really soon, I'd like them to keep the same people (it threw me off enough when the actor who played Dumbledore changed).
I won't go into detail about the plot of the movie, because I sort of sum up the main ideas of the plot line in my post about the book.
Again, I was really bothered by the fact that the movie left out what I felt (when reading the book) were important parts of the storyline, or things that I thought would look really exciting on the screen. Certain things that happened made sense to me because I read about them in the book, but I felt like they weren't explained very well in the movie and that a person who hadn't read the book may be confused as to how something happened.
I did like the awkwardness of teenagers when interacting with the opposite sex, which brought on a couple laughs, but I felt like the movie was being rushed through (partly, I think, because I felt like it was missing a lot of important elements - again, from the book).
If and when I do go back to Canada, I'm excited to see a movie in English that won't have subtitles in multiple languages at the bottom of the screen. They're really really distracting, cause I find that even though I perfectly understand what's being spoken in English, my eye doesn't want to watch what's happening in the movie, but rather read and follow along with the French subtitles.
It was quite dark and could be extremely scary for kids watching the movie. There was just a really dark tone to the movie. I think it might have had to do with the colouring, because even some of the happier moments felt dark. It really didn't feel like a kid's movie, whereas the first couple definitely did.
I also thought that this movie would be hard to watch if you didn't know about the first three books. The storylines didn't really overlap or anything, but I felt like this one didn't give you enough background about the characters and settings, and instead launched straight into the plotline (again, felt like I wasn't being eased into the movie, like they were really rushing through things). Maybe someone who hasn't followed Harry Potter would think that it was fine, but it really didn't feel fine to me.
Harry and Ron felt like different people to me, whereas Hermione did well. I still don't quite like this version Dumbledore...he's too loud and forceful. Hagrid and Snape are still great as are the Weasley twins. Mad Eye Moody wasn't bad and for some reason, I was expecting more out of Rita Skeeter (I think I read a review somewhere that talked about how she was one of the best parts of the movie). Voldemort was quite good.
All in all, I'm glad I went to watch the movie, but it just didn't seem to flow from the previous ones of the series. I felt like it was a completely different style of movie, catered towards a different kind of audience and took a lot of shortcuts with the storyline. That last part disappointed me the most, and I wouldn't have minded sitting in the theatre for an extra hour so that more could have been included.
But that's just my take on it.

Even though I really want to read the next book(s), I'm seriously considering holding off until the movies come out. It made this movie experience not as enjoyable as the first three...so...anyway, I'm not really sure what to think. Pros and cons either way, but so far I'm leaning towards not reading the book. Problem being, I was planning on taking the next one to Kenya.

-picture courtesy of www.harrypotter.warnerbros.com