This movie was a travesty

Rating: 5/10 (15 March 2006)

I just finished watching this movie, and I must say that I am extremely disappointed by it. I am not so much disappointed by how much was left out, because with a book the size of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, portions must inevitably be left out in order to produce a movie that one can watch in one sitting. (It wouldn't have hurt, however, to have added another 30 minutes to the movie (for, say, plot development). I am confident that even with a 3 hour movie, Harry Potter fans would have still turned out to theaters in droves.)
Here are a few of my grievances. (1) The music was uninspiring and generic. Enough said. (2) The acting of most of the adolescent actors and actresses, excluding Rupert Grint, was horrible. I am particularly disappointed by the performances of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. One would think that the acting skills of Daniel and Emma would have improved after 4 movies. It hasn't. It has, in fact, gotten worse. Their performances in Prisoner of Azkaban were far superior. I absolutely loved (and was completely charmed by) Watson in Azkaban. (Radcliffe didn't do too bad either.) (3) Most of the blame for their poor performances, however, must be laid at the feet of the director. He obviously was not able to extract even mediocre performances from Watson and Radcliffe. Many of the actors and actresses who had no previous experience acting outshone Watson and Radcliffe in this one. (4) The screenplay failed to capture the essence and spirit of the book. Furthermore, it was utterly and completely incoherent, i.e., there was no development of plot. Steve Knowles seemed to just take--from the book--a snip here...a snip there...patched it to together then called it a screenplay without any concern for coherency and plot development. If I had not already read the book and thus known the story, it would have been most difficult to figure out what the heck was going on in this movie. The screenplay was that bad.
In conclusion, this movie was without a doubt the worst of the bunch. If it had not been for the graveyard scene (which was a little better than mediocre) as well as the spectacular Hungarian Horntail dragon and other special effects, I would have considered this movie a joke--a disaster. As it is, it is merely a disappointment.