Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

November 20, 2005 | 18 Comments

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire wasn’t quite as good as Prisoner of Azkaban but it was pretty close and a great movie in its own right.

It’s fun, exciting, visually stunning and pretty darn scary as well. It does a great job of sticking to the story while keeping it moving along fairly well. It’s got a few minor problems, but they’re far outweighed by what makes it an almost perfect trip to the movies.

Goblet of Fire was a really long book and they had to make quite a few edits. Because of that this movie is the first Harry Potter film that had some significant, if fairly inconsequential, deviance from the book.

I missed some of the scenes with Malfoy, who is mainly absent from the film and would have liked to see a bit more about The Ministry of Magic. There was also a few awkward moments, most notably the Winter Ball scene, that seemed to have been the victim of some “creative” editing. However those moments were few and far between.

A few scences really came to life. The entrance of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, for example, was loads fun. And the closing graveyard scene might have been the best of the series so far.

The acting was about what you’d expect. Nothing great, but not bad, with one notable exception. Ralph Fiennes was absolutely awesome as Voldemort. He really brought the character to (un)life in all his wicked glory.

Harry Potter fans will most likely love the movie, as expected, despite it’s minor flaws. All in all a great movie and a worthy edition to a classic series.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5

Filed under: Movies
Keyword Tags: harry+potter goblet+of+fire movie

Comments

1. Shane Shepherd said:

Thanks for the review. I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but I will have to soon. Once you get started in a series it’s hard to abandon it unless there is a major flaw. I still haven’t forgiven George Lucas for the Ewoks or Jar Jar, but that didn’t stop me from seeing all his movies.

On another note, I think it’s interesting that all your Yahoo ads with this post are about fire safety and smoke alarms. Cool.

Posted on November 20, 2005 10:57 AM | #

2. anders said:

i just have to say that Victor Krum is creepy. Hermione’s supposed to be, what, 14 in this one? we know Krum’s at least 17 (to be able to enter the competition) and probably even older. ew.

Posted on November 20, 2005 11:30 AM | #

3. Keith said:

Shane – Yeah, the ads aren’t targeted all that well. Not as good as Google, but they pay better…at least they’re getting the “fire” part…

Posted on November 20, 2005 12:17 PM | #

4. Andrew Green said:

Personally, and FWIW, I found this one the best of the four so far, perhaps because I actually enjoyed the book the least. I had high hopes for Azkaban, having loved the book, but for some reason the film for that one just left me cold.

Incidentally, and I know it’s annoying to point this out, but it’s actually Ralph Fiennes, not Ray. You’d never know from the way it’s pronounced, though (“Rayf”). Trivia to enliven such a dreadful point of pedantry: Ralph is the cousin of distinguished British explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Posted on November 20, 2005 02:04 PM | #

5. some_young_guy said:

I personally thought it was the best one of the series. But that’s just me. Ralph Fienes as “you know who” was an excellent choice. I was really excited to see the Superman teaser trailer during the previews.

Posted on November 20, 2005 04:11 PM | #

6. Manton Reece said:

Your review matches my thoughts exactly. I think I still prefer the Azkaban film, but they did a great job with this, especially given how big a book Goblet of Fire was. This was the first time you are definitely missing out on some things if you aren’t also reading the books.

Posted on November 20, 2005 06:28 PM | #

7. beth said:

Some of the lighting was really awesome, like the first scene with the groundskeeper going up the stairs, and when the kids are going up the hill to the portkey. But I thought some of the effects were a bit hokey, like the underwater scenes, the quiddich game at the beginning, and Voldemort being a big bald dude without a nose. He can’t smell you, scaaaaaaaaaary!

Posted on November 21, 2005 07:08 AM | #

8. jacob harvey said:

I felt it was too bad that it seemed a little rushed. They should pull a LotR and release an extended cut for us people with too much time on our hands. ;)

Did anyone else breathe a sigh of relief when they just faded to black at the end of the film? That freeze frame at the end of Prisoner drove me nuts.

Posted on November 21, 2005 09:07 AM | #

9. Steve Ametjan said:

One of the reasons that there were so many edits from the book was because of how large the book was. Originally there was talk of turning it into two movies and releasing them several months apart, in an effort to get as much of the book in to the movie as possible, but the director decided that he could cut out a majority of the subplots and leave the general story in tack. That being said, I felt this was the best movie of the series.

Posted on November 21, 2005 09:07 AM | #

10. Adrian B said:

I’m pretty much in agreement with all said here. I am surprised that nobody mentioned the excellent job done by Brendan Gleeson as Madeye Moody and Miranda Richardson’s Rita Skeeter. The people who deserve some of the most praise for the entire series are those dealing with the casting.

Posted on November 21, 2005 04:14 PM | #

11. DaveMo said:

I’ve just started the books and am about 3/4 through “Goblet of Fire”. One of the things I find interesting in reading after viewing the stories, is how each director handled the adaptation.

Overall I think Chris Columbus did a sterling job with the first two. He did however have the luxury of having nearly 3 hours for each film with books that were much slimmer than the following episodes.

I was surprised how much was modified or deleted outright in Azkerban when I finally read the book, but when I reviewed the movie with an eye on the subtle details, I was impressed with the way that those parts that I thought were missing were actually in the movie but were delt with and presented in very subtile ways. Mostly through dialog, scene blending or background action.

A masterful use of the much shorter timeframe of 90-plus minutes that that movie was given which left me much more impressed with the movie and it’s director, although I still prefere Mr. Columbus’ more faithful earlier renditions.

I’m waiting for the hoopla to die down before taking the family to see this episode and I hope I finish the book in time. I will definitely be looking at it from several different angles now.

I’m not going to be ultra critical one way or the other. I’m just going to enjoy the ride with my family!

Posted on November 22, 2005 01:17 PM | #

12. Charlie said:

I think they rushed it too much and removed all the subplots that make the book series good. It was still an okay movie, but the two-part idea would probably have worked out better.

Posted on November 23, 2005 01:59 PM | #

13. tara said:

i think ron and hermiony should get together. but i also like vicktor though.some people say it should be hermiony and harry but….i dont think so.

Posted on November 23, 2005 02:37 PM | #

14. tara said:

i havent seen the movie yet..but ive read the book..thanks for the review though i no it will be good now!!

Posted on November 23, 2005 02:44 PM | #

15. Ashley Dickerson said:

Uh hell ya, hermione and ron should totally get together, that would kick so much ass, and oh ya tara the movie is wicked(but hermione cries all the time thats the only problem) but ya if harry and hermione get together i am writing a complaint to Rowling lol(jk but i would like to if that ever happens). so ya, no i dont like viktor, hes weird and creepy, so i dont want them to end up together either!!

~*Ashley*~

Posted on November 24, 2005 04:04 PM | #

16. Ashley Bowers said:

Just saw the movie of the Holiday with my kids and there friends. I thought it was pretty cool not better than the first one, but my kids thought it was the best one yet.

Posted on November 26, 2005 04:05 PM | #

17. RayRay said:

The 4th movie is defiantly my favourite. The 3rd movie was an utter dissapointment in my opinion. They failed to explain so much within the 3rd one. The 4th actually revealed all the scenes nearly exactly how I imagined. I wish they had put a little more Draco - however. I guess he did a good job for fitting such a long book into a movie. It’s sad, though. I really wish they had left in the house elves, and let us view some of Quidditch match which took place.

All in all, I found it a very good movie. Although, once again, I’d prefer the books.

Posted on November 27, 2005 10:59 AM | #