Evilpanda's Goblet of Fire Review

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2005)

SPOILER WARNING: Although I don't really know why I put this here as most people have already read the book, and it's not as if the movie strayed that far away from the book. Nevertheless, it is the cordial thing to do, so if you don't want to be spoiled then stop reading now.
Okay. So you've seen the movie. Chances are you've read the book. No more beating around the bush. I liked the movie. HOWEVER (saw that coming did you?) for me to say that I simply liked it means that I did leave disappointed.
I first have to say that I thought the edits were brilliant. Cutting out the elves and SPEW were the perfect solution to shorten things up. Rushing through the beginning I had no problems with either. Beefing up Neville's character was perfect. There's a lot of meat in this story, so it's best to get there as soon as possible. So ask yourself, what's the meat of this story? What is the one crucial element that is the very heart of this arc? If you answered anything but the return on Voldemort, you answered incorrectly. Book 4 is the turning point. It's where EVERYTHING CHANGES, and we need to see this in the movie. Now the question is did we? Overall? No.
What was so great about book 4 was that JK didn't hold back any punches. We're killing Cedric. No heroic death. Just freaking kill him. The graveyard scene is one that sticks with the reader, as being dark, evil, and dangerous. I didn't feel it. I felt they could have made the graveyard scene a LOT darker. I wanted Harry to be scared out of his freaking mind, to have no idea of what to do. I wanted him to come out broken and bleeding. I wanted Evil to be shown for exactly what it is with no punches pulled, because that's exactly what JK did.
I felt this movie needed the Empire Strikes Back ending, where you truly feel things are going to change, the characters are different by the end, and that NOTHING is going to be the same. Having the Minister there to denounce what Harry saw. Having Harry calling out the names of Death Eaters left and right. It needed that raw intensity the book had. The scene where Harry comes back had a great intensity, but they didn't sustain it. Instead it ended light and fluffy like a bunny rabbit.
At the end of Book 4 you felt as if you were standing at a huge cliff hanger. The response that you got from every reader was that "things will never be the same," and even if things may not have actually technically changed, there was a distinct sense of change. There was an impact and an intensity. I felt none of that, and adding a cute little dialog between Harry & Hermione at the end doesn't cut it for me. "So Harry, I guess things are going to change?" "Uhm. Yeah." What?!! And why on earth would you end the movie with a shot of both the schools leaving?
The direction of movie 3 went completely in another direction from the first 2, which is exactly what needed to happen. I felt a plateau in 4.
The first 3/4ths of the movie I did thoroughly enjoy. I thought it was brilliant. The pensieve. The entrances of both schools. The dance. Rita. How they did the effect with Sirius in the fireplace. The scene with Mertle in the prefect bathroom. (what a bathroom!) All the little things were there. But I felt from the maze and everything after felt a little too rushed. You can breeze past the rest of the story, but when you get to the real deal, the meatiest part of the meat, the climax, the duel at high noon, you need to stretch things out Goddammit! You can't rush that, and that's exactly what the director did. Overall, I will say that it needed to be Bigger & Darker.
Don't get me wrong. Remember I said I liked it. I was hooting and hollering with joyous glee for many a scene in the movie. The end however, left me feeling a little flat. As a fan of the series, there's always a joy in viewing the books on the big screen. To a non-fan though, they may feel the movie didn't rap up tightly in the end. Was it worth it to see a midnight viewing with friends? Of course. Is it matinée or nighttime price? I would say matinée for non-fans, but for fans, it barely makes it to a nighttime price ticket. In the end, I still rank the 3rd movie the best.