MuggleNet | Goblet of Fire Film Reviews

Do you ever get the feeling when you're reading a book that you could get some friends and act out your favorite scenes from it, just for fun? Apparently Mike Newell had those exact thoughts in mind as he accepted the job of directing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the newest book-to-movie transition from the incredibly popular Harry Potter world.

Let me back up and start with a synopsis of the movie and the positives (there are a ton) before I move on to the negatives (there aren't many, but they're fairly important ones).

The movie starts with Harry's dream about his Dark Lord nemesis, Voldemort, and two of his faithful servants. And yes, I said two. Barty Crouch Jr. is by his side (unlike in the book), along with Wormtail, the man who betrayed Harry's parents whereabouts to Voldy before he (Voldy) murdered them. The scene is very similar to the one in the book Frank Bryce is there, listening to Wormtail, Voldy, and Crouch discuss the best way to dispose of Harry. The scene is well executed, and I personally am happy that they didn't show Bryce getting killed, just a flash of light, a falling body, and a cut to Harry.

Harry wakes up and finds Hermione leaning over him, a worried look on her face. Harry tells her he had a bad dream, and they move on. The two and Ron Weasley head over to the Quidditch World Cup with Ron's family. The QWC scenes are fantastic (the stadium is even more enormous than how it's described in the book), but hold on there's no Quidditch! There's a shot of Cornelius Fudge (Ludo Bagman is notably absent) saying, Let the match begin! and a roar of the crowd, and suddenly the trio and the Weasleys are back in their tent celebrating an Ireland victory. Then, of course, is the! scene a fter the QWC with the Death Eaters setting everything on fire and wreaking havoc. Harry is trampled and largely misses out on the incident. He comes to just in time to see Barty Crouch Jr. conjure the Dark Mark, but of course Harry doesn't know who he is. So when Crouch Sr. comes to investigate, Harry can?t tell him and the Ministry wizards just who conjured the Dark Mark.

Then they are whisked off to school again, and life returns to the normal that the magical world knows. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive with the Hogwarts students, and Dumbledore, who has lost most of the hippie-ness he had in Prisoner of Azkaban, explains everything about the Triwizard Tournament. When students come to put their names in the Goblet of Fire to enter, there is a very funny scene with Fred and George when they attempt to hoodwink the Age Line around the Goblet with an Aging Potion, so that it thinks they are old enough. They get thrown back across the ! line and suddenly sprout beards and start fighting with each other.

Once the three er, four champions are chosen and Dumbledore has decided to let Harry continue with the tournament, there's a funny scene with Rita Skeeter (who is exactly how she is in the book) and Harry in a broom closet, attempting to do an interview. The Quick Quotes Quill misinterprets everything Harry says, and Rita thinks Harry is 12. Need I say more? There is an article written about it, which Harry wisely burns.

Harry and Ron?s fight is excellently acted by Dan Radcliffe and Rupert Grint; it's much more interesting and noticeable than in the book. Harry gets owned by Ron way more than I had expected (the best time is when Ron tells him to piss off). The scene where Hagrid shows Harry the dragons is also quite cool, but it's fairly short.

There are other funny bits (the infamous Ferret-Malfoy scene) and a chat with Sirius (which is quite pointless, if you ask me) before the first task. But before we get there, there is the Unforgivable Curses scene with Moody in DADA (the only class in the whole movie), which is fantastically true to the book. Neville is a bit pitiful after seeing the Cruciatus Curse on the spiders; I felt so sad for him! But if you haven't read the book, you don't understand why. And it never gets fully explained (the Pensieve scene is in there, but you can't expect people to pick up on the names Frank and Alice Longbottom if they haven't read the book), so that's one of the movie?s loose ends.

Harry and Hermione have a cute little scene (Newell is quite obviously a Harry-Hermione shipper) before the first task where she's wishing him luck, and she runs inside the champions tent to hug him and Rita Skeeter snaps a shot of them. Perfect timing, eh? There is an article that runs about it later, but it's largely minimized.

The first task starts, and Harry ends up facing the Hungarian Horntail (you knew that, but thought you might need a reminder! ). As in the book, we don't see any of the other contestants facing their dragons. But we see plenty of Harry's battle. The scene is terrific, the imagery is terrific, and the effects in the scene are all flawless. It's very slightly different from the book, but overall it's a very high point in the movie.

Harry is greeted like a hero when he returns. Ron makes up with him, and for the time being life is normal as normal can get. But wait?there?s more hormones coming! The Yule Ball, according to McGonagall, is, ?first and foremost, a dance. So what do they all do? McGonagall gives them dancing lessons, and this scene is hilarious, mostly because of her dance partner: Ron! Fred and George (who have more lines in this movie than in all the others) make catcalls, and Harry starts laughing too. Eventually everyone joins in the dancing, and the lesson concludes. Then Harry is given his most difficult task yet finding a partner for the Yule Ball. The scene where he! asks Cho to go with him (Wanngoballwimme?) is very sweet, a! nd Cho looks genuinely sorry when she has to say no. So he is stuck without a partner for now, and so is Ron. There's a funny scene where Ron comes into the common room shaking and white because he's just asked Fleur Delacour to the ball with him. She, of course, says no, but it's a very funny scene simply because of Ron's reaction. Ron then asks Hermione to go with him (You're a girl), and she answers angrily that she already has a partner.

When the Yule Ball finally arrives, Harry and Ron are taking the Patil twins. The entire Yule Ball scene is very beautiful, even when the Weird Sisters come on and a mosh pit ensues (my friends and I loved that!). The Great Hall is just gorgeous; everything's covered in ice and silver and it?s shiny. Hermione is stunning--her and Ron's fight is as perfect as Harry's with Ron, and Emma Watson's crying ability is a lot better than Dan's (at least in PoA).

Now on to the second task. Neville is the one who gives Harry t! he gillyweed in the movie, not Dobby (Dobby and Winky are both absent from this one). He says he read about it in a book Moody gave him. Anyways, the underwater scenes are very cool, and are (like the first task) very slightly different than the book, but the action is still tremendously coordinated. Harry ends up saving Ron and little Gabrielle Delacour, but almost passes out when the gills and webbed feet go away and he gets attacked by grindylows. But he?s the hero, so he gets them all out safely and gets awarded second place, though he?s well out of the time limit. Moral fiber!

Time passes quickly between the second and third tasks. There?s a short scene with Snape where he accuses Harry of stealing from his personal stores (that would be, in his mind, where the gillyweed came from) and threatens him with Veritaserum. As I mentioned earlier, there is a scene in the Pensieve with Karkaroff?s trial where he accuses Crouch Jr. of torturing the Longbottoms. It's also different from the book, but gets the point across. The! re is al so a scene where they find Crouch Sr. dead (can't tell you much about this, I was at the bathroom!).

The third task is largely disappointing when it comes. The maze, though sinister and enormous, has only one challenging thing about it: it will suddenly close up on you as you are walking through it, and you have to find a new route. That's all. No creatures, no freaky mists, nothing. I personally thought this was disappointing, but it didn't matter because of what followed.

Here comes the part where I don't want to give too many details away. Cedric and Harry take the Cup together and are whisked away to the graveyard. The scene is very much as it is in the book, just faster-paced.

The entire graveyard scene is the best in the movie. It will have you on the edge of your seat, and you might be a little scared too. Voldy is REALLY creepy looking, and he is portrayed excellently by Ralph Fiennes.

When Harry takes the Cup back to Hogwarts, it is extremely sad. I even got a bit teary-eyed when the dead character's father comes down from the stands and starts sobbing.

You all know what happens from here on out, but yet I don't want to give too many details away if you haven't read the book. When they all find out who put Harry's name in the Goblet and who Moody really is, it is surprisingly just an okay scene. It could have been better and they could have given so many more details than they did. The character's motives are never explained very well. They could have done a better job with that whole scene.

There is a memorial service for the character that dies at the going-away feast, and Dumbledore's eulogy is very moving. The trio sit around for a while feeling sad and Hermione says (this sums up the whole movie, in my opinion), Everything's going to change now, isn't it? Then there's a nice cinematic ending and the movie's over.

Now for my thoughts! . You remember me saying how the movie feels like it?s a backy! ard act- out of a book with your friends? That's right. As great as this movie is, it feels through the whole movie like it's a series of unrelated events with little-to-no plotline. Though as I look back on it, it seems much easier to follow. I still think, though, that the scene with Imposter Moody could have had more details. The movie moves very quickly, too, and I thought they could have slowed down a bit and concentrated on how much Harry's life sucks through this whole movie.

The acting has improved greatly from PoA. When that certain character dies, Dan's crying ability is better than it was in the last movie. Rupert Grint is fantastic as Ron, and Emma Watson never fails as Hermione. The adult acting is good too. Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) stand out as being particularly faithful to their characters. Rita Skeeter (Miranda Richardson) is also very good, but she's not an important character.

I was disappointed in some things they chose to leave in the movie, and some that got left out. Why did they bother to bring Rita Skeeter in for two short, non-plot-developing scenes? Why does Sirius get one tiny, pointless scene when the entire last movie was about him? These elements could have easily been left out to make time for plot development and clarification. And why were Dobby and, especially, Winky cut out of the movie? Winky is very important in the book as the bad guys house elf, and an accidental conspirator in the plot to bring Voldy back. I guess they didn't have the time or the money to animate her and Dobby, but I would have liked to see them.

There are a few words of caution I have for you people who want to see the movie. First and foremost, there is a reason this movie is PG-13. It's very violent, scary at times, and a main character dies. If I were a parent, my 8-year-old child would not get to see this movie in theaters. Secondly, I highly caution you from seei! ng this movie if you have not read the book. I can almost guar! antee th at you will be lost, and have no clue what is going on through the whole movie. As I said, the plot is not explained as well as it could have been, and the movie feels like a series of unrelated events.

Overall, I think this movie is easily the best of all of them, but it suffers from story problems. This movie is a triumph in acting, imagery, and effects, but fails slightly in direction and script. If you have read the book, I highly recommend this movie. If you have not read the book:

1) why are you reading this?
2) DO NOT see this movie. It is, overall, much better than PoA, but it's got things to improve on too.

I'll end with the tagline of the movie, as said by Dumbledore:

Dark and difficult times lie ahead, Harry. Soon we must all choose between what is right, and what is easy.

MuggleNet is an unofficial Harry Potter fan site. Please email us if you have any questions or concerns. MuggleNet's original layouts were designed and created by Navy. All subsequent layouts by Dylan Spartz.

381 muggles currently online