Goblet of Fire just okay

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2005)

As I attended the first showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night, I found myself trembling with anticipation. Admittedly, I am an adult Harry Potter junkie. My husband and I own all 6 books in hardback and all 3 movies that are currently out on DVD. We were among the first in line at our local theater to see Goblet of Fire. However, my anticipation quickly dissipated as the movie began. My first disappointment came when Mike Newell chose to quickly cut to the port key on the way to the Quiddich World Cup. He chose not to preface the Cup at all and left anyone not as familiar with the books as I am incredibly confused. I heard numerous rumblings around me of people who were already lost at that point, less than 5 minutes into the movie. I felt that the movie continued to disappoint in the minute details that Newell chose to alter to suit his needs. One that stuck with me at the time and continues to stick with me the morning after is his decision to put the Patil twins both in Griffindor house. This is not true to the books; it is mentioned in the very first book that even identical twins don't end up in the same house. I am also disappointed in the way that Hermione was portrayed in this film. I feel that instead of being the valuable Harry Potter friend that she's been in the last 3 movies, she was depicted as being a tag along. Emma Watson was given very few scenes in which to give viewers the true essence of Hermione. The scene at the end of Yule Ball on the stairs is a fleeting example of her talent used sparingly. I was disappointed too to see that Mike Newell had completely changed the look of the Griffindor common room. Although it has been featured only a few times in the past 3 movies, it was a shock to see him make changes to such an important place. All-in-all, I feel that this movie was good and lived up to the Harry Potter name...but, didn't do the book justice. It's impossible to cram a book of this magnitude into a couple hours of film. Although I am not advocating making the film longer or making it 2 separate movies, I am stating disappointment with the decisions that were made. As previously stated, I feel that this movie in its entirety left to chance that viewers were extremely familiar with the Harry Potter legend and with the Goblet of Fire book itself. I do hope they don't make the same mistakes with Order of the Phoenix, which should prove to be an even bigger challenge.