To date, none of the movies have Director's Cut or Special Edition version, the way Peter Jackson included the full 4 to 4 and a half hour movies in the SE DVD, which showed the stories in much more detail, and didn't have to worry about the mainstream audiences complaining about the length of the movies.
In fact, that's what I felt throughout the fourth film, hoping that we would get a Director's Cut edition that did the same, because, this movie in particular, compared to the earlier ones, loses that touch of familiarity we have with the characters. That connection - I felt as if I knew all of them in the third movie - was lost, to some extent in this one.
The reason is obvious; this movie is much bigger, in terms of length as well as scale. The Triwizard tournament is such a big event that everything around it would naturally get trivialized, and Newell tried to reduce that by also concentrating on the Yule Ball, but it still doesn't quite capture the whole atmosphere of the relationships in the book.
There were a few rumors back in 2004 that the first movie would get a Director's Cut, but it never came. Let's just hope that the directors of the last 3 keep the fans in mind, and do their own versions, and it wouldn't do WB any bad to push for one either, because it wouldn't hurt DVD sales, at all.
Article comments
1 - Ruvy in Jerualem
Having watched movie #4 of the Potter series, I'll say this much.
It's understandable if the director felt he needed to cut parts from the interior of the book. I watched and judged and for the most part, it was tolerable.
But the point of the book - the point that set up the entire next book - the division of opinions between Fudge and Dumbledore and the resulting problems at Hogwarts - was virtually ignored in the movie. It was reduced to a single line.
In a series where one part of the story sets up the next, the author ought not have allowed the dierctor to do this to the movie. The next movie will have serious problems establishing its tie to this one because of it.
2 - Addytorials
with ref to comment: i wouldn't say that. the lotr movie series never really followed the book volume climaxes. the next movie would simply pick up the thread where it was left off. even if it meant picking it up from the previous volume. i'm sure the writers at WB won't have any trouble at all.