The series' best film up to that point

Rating: 4/10 (2 January 2014)

Childhood is over for Harry Potter. With Goblet of Fire, the series turns PG-13 and the reason for that becomes clear as the very first scene of the film already includes a murder – and it won't be the last one, in a perfect compound of permanent peril, tear-inducing drama, and the romance problems a teenage boy faces.
In the octalogy's fourth instalment, the Triwizard Tournament plays the major role, and next to Harry, a not sparkling Edward Cullen, a French beauty, and a famous Bulgarian Quidditch player that attends school in Scandinavia (that's racist, J.K. Rowling!) are vying in this possibly lethal competition. I'm not going to spoil the three tasks, so suffice it to say that they are quite entertaining and include marvellous special effects with instantly believable CGI creatures, despite the first one being a bit over the top, in my opinion.
However, just as there are four wizards participating in a TRI-wizard Tournament, there's also an unintended fourth task coming up – a showdown more goosebumps-inducing than the source material's. It marks the first appearance of the real Lord Voldemort (not wizened baby Voldemort from Philosopher's Stone) and the realisation of this pivotal character is done consummately, the result being easily the most frightening character in any PG-13 film and also the best acting performance in Ralph Fiennes' already splendid career.
Goblet of Fire is more than twice the length of all three preceding novels on their own and since these 635 pages aren't filled with vivid descriptions of landscape or particularised insights into characters' emotions but an actual story, there was difficulty arising for screenwriter Steve Kloves as in how to compact this into a single film of acceptable length. The result, while omitting some details that may have delighted the book aficionados, is an understandable cinematic adaption of J.K. Rowling's work that finds a place for all important details and revelations, leaving no further questions to ask for attentive viewers.
What a film about teenagers, for better or worse, has to include as well is romance and, thankfully, the "kid" actors get more and more believable, especially as a gratuitously jealous Ron, an annoyingly angry Hermione, and a socially awkward Harry are portrayed so genuinely that their relationship problems cannot be dwarfed by the evil things happening on a much broader scale in Goblet of Fire. And last but not least, despite abating in numbers, director Mike Newell doesn't entirely forget about the humour and includes good laughs, such as Dame Maggie Smith dancing with an overtly embarrassed Rupert Grint, the dress robe of the latter of these two, or Daniel Radcliffe's hilarious, mumbling way of asking a crush of his out for the ball.
All of this makes for the best Harry Potter film up to that point and two and a half hours that refuse to get boring on any occasion. Goblet of Fire is nothing but wonderful, as it combines a fantastic story with masterful visuals, not only in the action scenes, but also with the minute attention to detail in the decoration of the Yule Ball.