Summer festival woes / Harry Potter DVD

I was chatting with Jennifer during the weekend when the subject of Glastonbury came up. Last year's Glastonbury's line up wasn't that exciting. The headline band, of all bands that they can come up with, was Coldplay. I would have gone (as they released the ticket before announcing the line-up) but was stuck in a plane when they did so. As you know the allocated 112,500 tickets were sold out in 3 hours. But lucky me, the line-up were weak. They were good bands that I wanted to see - Interpol and British Sea Power especially, but I won't be able to justify spending £110 just to see them.

As most of you would know, there is no Glastonbury this year so we were planning on the Isle of Wight festival this coming June. But after checking out thepreliminaryy line-up I balked at the idea. Guess who is headlining again? You guessed right. Cold-fucking-play. In fact, of the headliners, only a few that I really want to see - Goldfrapp, The Rakes, The Editors, Maximo Park and The Kooks, all spread over the three days. Of course it is still early and the line-up for smaller stages has yet to be published, but so far it has proved far too bleak to even consider putting my money down.

Seriously, the only festival I am looking forward to is the next Ben & Jerry's. Last year's one day festival held at Clapham Common costed us a fiver each, with the money going into the local area. The headliner was The Thrills, which didn't thrill me one bit but Alabama 3, British Sea Power and Yeti all made up for it. Plus free ice cream throughout the afternoon!

Then there is Reading and Leeds, both of which the line-ups have yet to be announced and will only be announced when the ticket goes on sale April 3rd. Plus with no Glasto this year, ticket prices will likely to increase as more punters target both the festivals.

It is still early days though so keep your eyes peeled.

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Speaking of music, I spent the best part of last night sorting out my current playlist:

The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Delays - You See Colours
The Departure - Dirty Words
The Editors - The Back Room
Eskimo Joe - A Song is a City
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
The Kooks - Inside In, Inside Out
Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
The Rakes - Capture/Release
Sons & Daughters - The Repulsion Box
Starsailor - On the Outside

I am also giving the Arctic Monkeys another go. I still don't get 'em but I do hope to find out. Any suggestions?

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In my previous post I mentioned about renting Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire DVD. Well I wish I didn't. It was awfully bad. Why did they even bother with the whole Cho Chang and World Cup thing is beyond me. It felt as though the director wanted every single sub-plot within the film, so he allocated two minutes each and two lines per new characters (some didn't even get any).

Michael Gambon, usually wonderful in his other film, is a complete raving lunatic in this. I find it laughable that in the next book (I believe) he warned someone not to manhandle his students - and yet in this film he did so, to the main protagonist no less!

As the film neared the end I prayed that they would utilise Ralph Fiennes to great effect. They didn't. Instead he came across as a laughable weak villain - not the cool understated and scary man he was supposed to be. What a wasted opportunity.

The problem with the film isn't things being left out. It is things being left in! They could have done with two triwizards instead of three and kept the flow while exploring the characters potential. This is a film not the book, the best way is to redo it and refit it while remaining to the core storyline - which is the return of the dark wizard. Don't go haphazardly throwing in references in order to please the fanboys/fangirls of the book, only to reveal one-dimensional characters and a film which not once try to catch a breather.

If you are a fan of the book you will find this film to be awful because it left out too many details.

If you've never read the book you will find this film to be awful because it has too many details that you will not understand.

If you hate Harry Potter you will love this film as it will only prove how right you are. And you will still find this film to be critically awful.

A bad film. A bad adaptation.

3/10

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