Detention for Mr. Newell for the lack of Plagiarism.

Rating: 3/10 (18 November 2005)

This film was directed by Mike Newell, of Four Wedding's and a Funeral (1994), and Pushing Tin (1999) fame. Here we see his interpretation of J.K. Rowling's novel The Goblet of Fire. His career mainly consists of T.V. Direction, since 1964, and a smattering of movies.
Plagiarism isn't the order of the day here, which is a pity, because if you are going to sell the book rights to the movie industry, then we would hope that it would or should, at least, stick to the original story. As naive as it sound's.
This is the poorest of the four Potter movies so far. The story was non-existent, the character development was extremely shallow and the overall content was less than mediocre to say the least.
The plot being that He who shall not be named comes back, again, to wreak havoc, almost. This only occurs during the final half hour or so. While the rest of the movie, the whole film being around two hours and forty minutes long, fair enough, is based on a tournament that contains three dangerous tasks. The conclusion at the end of the final task is that Harry unwittingly becomes His prisoner, here we go again. Thus ending in a show down, a very quick and positively anti climatic show down, a little like the first movie.
The ending came a little too sudden, which seems a wasted opportunity considering the length of this movie, and because of the lack of build up, the final show down was neither exiting nor worthy off a movie of this stature.
Apart from the shots of the Quidditch World Cup games at the beginning of the film, the hapless gang of three never leave the school grounds during the entire movie. This makes for a very stale and drawn-out plot. The sense of magic, meaning Wizards, Witches, Wands and Broomsticks etc, is lost in this over produced eye candy. There is a little too much distraction with what seem in places, unnecessary digital effects, which weakens the plot by substituting substance over effect.
This movie (concept) has grown up since its birth, but as it has grown older, it has, like most healthy teenagers, become lost in its own World, thus needing a guiding hand or wand if you wish, to point it back in the right direction.
Go to the top of the class for effort Mr Newell, but expect very little marks for content.