Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Review By slysnide

Upon completing my read of the fourth installment, I couldn't help but notice that the plot seemed to be a clever rehash of the first two books that was covered up with an array of interesting brand new characters and fantastically described visuals which all transpired on screen here. And luckily, the exclusions made were mostly good ones, and the changes acceptable.

In the beginning of the fourth adventure, You Know Who is at it again in hiding at his father's abandoned mansion 'The Riddle House' in Little Hangleton under the care of his cowardly servant Wormtail, otherwise known as Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall). Sadly, as great as this chapter was, much was cut from it for time constraints on this near 160 minute film. After a mysterious plan is laid out, the eavesdropping Riddle House caretaker Frank Bryce (Eric Sykes) with nearly deaf ears [unfortunate for us since we're hearing/seeing it all from his point of view] is murdered by the killing curse: Avada Kedavra. It's You Know Who's favorite spell, and the one guaranteed to work every time...with the exception of one person in particular...

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) doesn't have to evade the Dursleys this year to accompany the Weasleys to the SuperBowl of the magical world: The Quidditch World Cup. Here we're reintroduced to old friends & enemies like Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson), Arthur (Mark Williams), Fred (James Phelps) & George (Oliver Phelps), Ginny (Bonnie Wright) the Malfoys Draco (Tom Felton) & Lucius (Jason Isaacs), and the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy). Of course, nothing goes as planned when death eaters attack in a much altered sequence than what was in the book, though was welcomed as a nice way of speeding up the story.

Not long after the infamous Triwizard Tournament is announced to be held at Hogwarts, all students from two other magical schools of Beauxbatons from France & Durmstrang from Russia live on Hogwarts' grounds to attend the infamous tournament which consists of merely three students; one from each participating school whom must be 17yrs old to compete. Competitors are selected by a magical Goblet of Fire which on its own selects the most worthy by their names on slips of paper. These new characters are the blowhard Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), the all too girly & posh Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy), and the average honest nice popular guy Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson). They're all great characters in that they're not the point of focus in the story, and provide good laughs, drama, and excitement throughout. However, for some reason, Harry is also selected by the flaming goblet to compete in the tournament, much to the dismay of Ron whom Harry was assisting at cheating his way in. This begins a totally trivial 'silent treatment' argument which lasts through a small portion of the film which was done to separate Harry from people who he could turn to for help, since the whole school is already against him for supposedly cheating his way into the Triwizard Tournament. This could've been handled better.

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a wild dark wizard catcher {or Auror} by the nickname 'Mad-Eye' Moody (Brendan Gleeson). Alastor's weird with his crazy eye eye-patch, and terrifies as much as mesmerizes his students. Although his teachings aren't envied by everyone. Throughout the film he supplies as many laughs as freakish moments, and of course is not all that he seems. Overall, he was my second favorite 'new teacher' in the series, though his appearance was handled rather poorly.

The major point in the film seemed to be the introduction of other major characters like Bartemious Crouch (Roger Lloyd Pack), head of the Department of Magical Co-Operation whom is weary of Alastor Moody in the whole film, and is a rather timid character in general. He's ashamed of his son's (David Tennant) past, and is also the keeper of the keys to the Department of Mysteries, which isn't important until the next installment. He was an interesting character overall who reflects the paranoia and lackluster job anyone at the Ministry besides Arthur & Lucius can't get done, and it's clear why.

Tabloid reporter Rita Skeeter (Miranda Richardson) was also a representation of how gullible the ministry employees are given her outrageous success among them in contrast to her bogus stories. She's a pathological liar whom only interviews for the sake of f*cking up the truth as much as possible to further her own ends. Sadly, she doesn't really get hers in the way she did in the book {so to speak}, which explained how she was able to know so much other juicy data which helps her spread the truth when she needs to ruin a reputation or two. And she only had two scenes of worth. For much was cut of her character. Miranda was the perfect choice for the role, and was as vicious as her role as Mary Van Tassel in "Sleepy Hollow" (1999).

Cut from the film were alternate versions of the "Yule Ball," and the chapters "The Scar," "The Invitation," "Back To The Burrow," "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," "Bagman & Crouch," "Mayhem At The Ministry," "The Weighing Of The Wands," "The House Elf Liberation Front," "Rita Skeeter's Scoop," and "Padfoot Returns." It sounds like a lot, but the only important ones among them were "Bagman & Crouch" and "Padfoot Returns." So those cuts weren't terrible considering the runtime, despite that "The Madness of Mr. Crouch" was handled very poorly. Though it was also unfortunate for Hermione to not have as much to do in her elfatarian work (lol) which would've been better than having her play the lackluster girlfriend of Viktor Krum. Though what was really terrible was the fact that after spending the whole last film on three new major players, that one, Remus Lupin is excluded as in the novel, Peter Pettigrew had nothing to do with anything until the graveyard sequence, and Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) had just one scene in the film which provided nothing of importance. This just even more so makes the previous installment pointless, and is disappointing despite the array of new characters which partially make up for it. Though this is more a fault of the author rather than the filmmakers. At least Harry's crush Cho Chang (Katie Leung) didn't get a load of extra screen time to make up for cut scenes as in film 6. Though she was also a good character.

As for the tasks, there's an amazing dragon fight which is a callback to the first film, an underwater search of the Black Lake for lost treasures among vicious merpeople, and an enchanted maze which is only bewitched by a tornado and harsh winds with a few living plants rather than the mesmerizing sphinx which was cut for unknown reasons, amongst other magical enchantments, making the third task lack that much more, and be the least entertaining of the three in contrast to it being the most entertaining in the book. Why this was cut, I'll never know. As for the Yule Ball, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) & Beauxbatons Headmistress Giant Olympe Maxime (Frances de la Tour) take a flowering relationship to new heights while Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) & Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith) hit it off on the dance floor while Argus Filch (David Bradley) dances with his cat Mrs. Norris [on a side note, it was nice to see Filch do a lot of funny things in this one in comparison to his usual angry attitude]. Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) & Durmstrang Headmaster Igor Karkaroff (Predrag Bjelac) of course wouldn't be caught dead on ice [no pun intended] and are nowhere to be seen. All of these elements were enjoyable overall.

And finally, Ralph Fiennes’ performance as Lord Voldemort was pleasing, though not nearly as creepy as Richard Bremmer from film 1. In this scene, Peter Pettigrew is used to his full potential as in the book, making him the most properly adapted character while Lucius, Crabbe Sr, Goyle Sr, and executioner McNair stand silently alongside the headstones. The ceremony is gothic, as is the surrounding graveyard and fog with the Riddle House in the background, though the fight scene was cool, and a welcomed addition as nobody's been seen dueling Voldemort in the series until now. It was by far one of the darkest scenes in the film series to date. Though the bad dialogue hurt it some. The visuals of this sequence however were magnificent.

So overall, while all the interesting characters, the amazing visuals, and pace of the film make up for lost changes, many of the Ministry characters provide lackluster data to the story and are only here seemingly so they don't have to be introduced in the far more political sequel, while the joke of it all plays out in film 7. Luckily, it was nice that their scenes were cut down here with just enough data included so as not to deviate too much from the Tournament story which has brought them together again. Though unfortunately, our favorite trio doesn't really spend much time together in this installment as the three new students take their places most of the time. In the end however, this is essentially a much more polarized version of the plots for films 1&2, though with a different outcome. Although since the main plot and underlined points are presented both directly & indirectly, the film's story still plays out decently in accompaniment with all the dazzling special effects sequences. So director Mike Newell & screenwriter Steve Kloves have succeeded at bringing us yet another thrilling adventure which just needed a bit more of the unfrequented characters despite the exotic fire breathing dragons, the vicious merpeople, the 'animagus' students, the peeping Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson), the wild storm, the death eaters, and of course, the finite return of the Dark Lord himself.