MuggleNet | Goblet of Fire Film Reviews

To begin with, let me just say that I was totally blown away by this film. I've never been a huge fan of Mike Newell's direction (especially after Mona Lisa Smile ), and therefore, prior to seeing the film, my expectations weren't very high. However, Mike Newell definitely impressed me with this film and has definitely moved up the cool-people scale. This was absolutely, positively the BEST Harry Potter film ever. I'm not going to give a summary of the film, as most of the people reading these reviews have probably already read the book or even seen the movie.

It's very obvious that Newell tried to implement some Lord-of-the-Ringsy type direction into this one, with lots of landscaping shots, the movement of the camera, special effects, etc, however, instead of coming off as not-creative or as really, really cheesey, Newell pulled it off by also using some of his own style as well.

The special effects were absolutely amazing, especially for a director who's never really used special effects on such a grand scale before. The Portkey scene wasn't exactly how I imagined it, however the effects and the creative idea made it even better. I was practically gripping my seat during the dragon scene, where the dragon looked amazingly real. It was a really exciting scene that reminded me a bit of King Kong when the dragon climbs atop a steeple of a tower. The chase was an absolute jaw-dropper. The Second Task scene was a little short in my opinion, but the grindylows and mermaids were incredible. Neither of them were exactly how I imagined them, but Newell definitely got creative with them and made them even scarier as well as cooler. The final example of awesome special effects would be Voldemort's rebirth scene. Newell actually shows the transformation from creepy-baby-thing to pseudo-human Voldemort, which was really, really disturbing. The actual transformation is very reminiscent to Lupin's transformation in the third film, only much more scary. It's weird to say that a scene from Harry Potter was genuinely scary, but it's true. Very unlike what Columbus said to be scary in the second film, this fourth installation of the Harry Potter phenomenon can actually fit comfortably in the "scary movie" category.

The next positive aspect of the film is the humour. I'm sure most of the readers will agree when I say that the first, second, and third movies, though containing some mild humour, were generally childish and cheesey and not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as this fourth film. There was definitely some sexual innuendo in this film ("Viktor's more of a physical being" or "Arm? Leg? I'm yours" or Moaning Myrtle's quite obvious attempt to get frisky with Harry in the prefects' bathroom), which I thought was awesome, as well as some honest to goodness hilarious scenes ( i.e. preparing for the Yule Ball). The character of Neville Longbottom has definitely become one of my favorites, not only in the books, but now also in the films, as in this one his behaviour is very endearing (like when he was caught practicing the waltz or "OMG! I killed Harry Potter!"). It's quite obvious that Newell has tons of experience doing comedies, and it really pays off in this film.

The kid actors (Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Daniel Radcliffe) have improved a solid 100% from the last film. They can all actually express different emotions now and the three-dimensional characters Rowling created on the page are finally starting to come across on the screen. No longer is Hermione just the serious, bookish, bossy character as shown by the previous 2 1/2 movies (in the third one Hermione/Watson started showing more depth), but now she's the motherly, caring, compassionate figure as one would have perceived by reading the books. Emma Watson does a great job in the Ron vs. Hermione/post-Yule-Ball fighting scene, where she greatly manages to pull on the audiences heart strings with her very realistic tears. Rupert Grint does an equally good job when telling Harry to "piss off" and embodies the bitter character Ron is in the fourth book. Actually, I've always thought Rupert Grint to be a very good/natural actor anyway, so I can't honestly say that there was quite as drastic an improvement as there was in another actor (like...Daniel Radcliffe). Like the direction, I was blown away by Daniel Radcliffe's improvement. True, he still doesn't quite match up to the other two members of the trio, however the fact that he can improve so much really shows his potential. I can't wait to see how much he improves for the last 3 films. He shows that he can do comedy acting as well as dramatic acting, and pulls them each off very well. His reaction to Hermione's "Off to bed! The both of you!" was hilarious and his performance in the graveyard and Cedric's death scenes was amazing. I actually cried when he returned to Hogwarts with the corpse. His histerical sobbing, mixed in with Amos Diggory's denial and the incredible music playing in the background, brought me to tears. And I never, ever cry during movies. All in all, through this film, each actor was forced to display a wider range of emotions as well as personalities: they each pulled off comedy acting as well as deeply moving and emotional acting.

The new actors played their roles to the T. Brendan Gleeson played a most convincing Mad-Eye Moody (or Barty-Crouch-Jr.-in-disguise, whichever floats your boat) and Miranda Richardson was a most-excellent Rita Skeeter, portraying her as the classic/stereotypical nosy journalist.

Patrick Doyle. What can I say? It was an amazing score. Not quite as magical or different as John Williams's score for the third film, however it was magical in a much different way. One thing Williams is known for is pulling off the emotions felt by the characters in the film (his best being Schindler's List ), yet through Doyle's score for the fourth film it has become apparent that he not only understands the emotions of the characters, but also the emotions of the audience, and how to manipulate them to join those of the characters. I might not have cried so much when Harry brought Cedric's body back if the music hadn't been so deeply moving. Though in the beginning the score kind of reminded me of Williams's Superman score, the classic Harry Potter theme came into play but with a new, minor-key twist. It was brilliantly clever the way Doyle weaved the well-known theme into his own original/creative web.

One of the hardships tied to writing is the fact that it is very difficult to make the emotions in certain scenes seem as realistic or moving as one would encounter in real-life: or, it is very difficult to write emotions. As great a writer though Rowling is, she could not possibly have pulled off the incredibly sad death scene as well as Newell did in the film adaptation. Newell does a fantastic job directing that scene and, again, had the audience (most specifically, me) in tears. Even Dumbledore's speech at the end of the tournament/movie was made even more moving because of how great a job Newell does in making sure that Cedric's death doesn't sink in until after or during the speech is heard. Indeed, when in the graveyard, Cedric's death happens so quickly the audience hasn't totally taken in the fact that the boy is dead. When Harry returns to Hogwarts with Cedric's body, and is sobbing over the corpse alongside Amos Diggory, the boy's death becomes a little more real, however, just before it can totally sink in, and just before the audience gets over the shock of Cedric's death, Harry is moved away by the alleged Mad-Eye Moody (really Barty Crouch, Jr. (booo hisss)). And then Dumbledore gets up in the Great Hall and gives his speech about the boy half-forgotten by the exciting events of the capture of Barty Crouch, Jr. - and the death finally sinks in. If I was crying when Cedric was first brought back to the school grounds, it was nothing compared to what I was feeling during Dumbledore's speech, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the audience who felt that way.

Some of the performances by the adult characters/actors were a bit overplayed. Dumbledore was waaaay too physical and energetic in this one as, I'm sure most readers would agree, that the cool thing about Dumbledore is that he remains calm and wise even throughout the most dangerous and exciting of times. The Crouches, both of them, were way overacted and not at all as one would imagine them in the book. In fact, some of the adult performances were so overplayed that it came across as deathly cheesey. Believe me when I say that, in this film, the students/kid actors out-acted the adults; the students surpassed the masters.

Now, don't get me wrong, I really loved this film, and I am anything but a Harry Potter purist, however, I felt that Newell left out some really key points. I didn't really care about the lack of enchantments in the Third Task, or any of the other smaller details from the book (and some readers are probably really angry with me now), but some key points like Fleur's attraction to Bill Weasley, or even the inclusion of Bill Weasley in this film, and Harry's Triwizard earnings (thus explaining Fred and George's ability to start their joke shop in the next film/book) were just a couple of the key points left out. If you're a Harry Potter purist, DON'T see this film. And if you hated the third film for its lack of accuracy, DON'T see this film.

The film moves really, really fast, even for someone who doesn't mind the lack of certain fine points in the film. The film starts out with Bryce heading up the stairs of the Riddle House and then BOOM at the Weasley's in Ron and Harry's room and then BOOM walking towards the QWC until BOOM short scene with just the intro of the match and BOOM morsmordre (or however you spell it) and BOOM we're at Hogwarts (and so on and so forth). I think the film only shows the kids in a class once through the entire story. This was a bit disappointing, as I still think they should have split the film in two somehow, with an intermission or something. That whole worry about the little kids not being able to stand a movie 5 hours long was made really superfluous, as this film is NOT for little kids anyway, and I'm sure any die-hard kid fan wouldn't mind sitting through 5 hours of an awesome movie adaptation of their obsession. But whatever. Still a great movie.

As you can probably tell, through the fact that there are many more positive aspects to the film than negative ones, I thought the film to be fantastic. And not just for a Harry Potter film (as most Purists would disagree with the fact that it's a Potter film at all), but a film in general. Honestly, and not just because I'm a huge Potter fan (in fact, I had little hope for the film adaptations until this one), this film is one of the best of the year. I applaud the trio, Patrick Doyle, the new actors, Steve Kloves (for once), and, most especially and with utmost sincerity, Mike Newell (the hero of the film franchise).

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