Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005
I was really looking forward to seeing this movie, but I think it fell a little flat for me. The movie centers around three tasks of the tri-wizard tournament, throws in a formal dance, and, oh yes, Voldemort is up to something.You learn that there are two other wizarding schools, one for blonde French girls, and the other for burly Czech boys with crew cuts. The problem is that none of these are really related so you just have a bunch of disconnected pieces of a story, each interesting on its own, but they don’t hold together to form a plot.
I can’t blame the movie producers since they are just following the book, but it seems like they could have left out some parts and fleshed out other parts to make a more cohesive story. In the book there was some romantic tension between Hermione and Ron, but it is barely alluded to in this movie and instead we see a silly relationship developing between Hagrid and the head of the French school. The movie opens with everyone going to a quidditch match but that doesn’t have much to do with anything other than to point out that Voldemort’s followers are getting stronger. This could have been brought out by someone reading a headline in a newspaper. Even the tri-wizard tournament is crazy. Why would parents let their children engage in a tournament that would put them in mortal danger? It made no sense in the book and makes none here.
The acting is decent. We see very little of the grown-ups and instead focus mostly on Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They are getting better at acting, but they still pale in comparison to Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith. Rickman’s Snape is really only in the background here. A new character, Mad Eye Moody, is very good. The special effects are generally good. At this point the world of magic is so accepted that you don’t even notice some of the special effects anymore. A fight with a dragon is very good, especially as it crawls along a slate roof. But a flying horse-drawn carriage looks pretty lame. They have a new director, but I didn’t notice any changes in that department. People have talked about the fact that this is the same director as Four Weddings and a Funeral, but that movie was driven by strong writing and characters, not directing.
It was enjoyable to watch, but I think the disconnected storyline lets the movie down. I’ll give it a B.
Owned on: Digital