The Worst Yet

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2005)

I enjoyed the first three movies. I thought they were fairly good to the books. In my opinion, the first two were just good movies, while the third was amazing. Therefore, I had high expectations going into the movie based on my favorite book in the series- and I was completely disappointed.
It felt like the director hadn't even read the book. Dumbledore was freaking out in this movie, which is completely contrary to everything that was in the books. The point of Dumbledore's character is that he is not only a great wizard, but the stabilizing force for the good side of the wizarding world. When everybody else is losing their minds, Dumbledore is calm. In this movie, he is almost angry. For instance, when Harry's name comes out of the goblet, Dumbledore pushes Harry against a wall and yells at him, whereas in the book, he merely asks him kindly. In the book, Dumbledore trusts Harry and is frightened for him that he is in the tournament. In the movie, it seems like he has the same opinion of Harry as everyone else.
Likewise with the character of Moody. In the books, Moody is a crazy old man who was a great auror. He is crazy, but crazy because he is suspicious of everything and will hex anything that moves. In the movie, he seems like a mental patient with a crazy gleam in his eyes. He seems to have no control over himself. Moody was my favorite character in the book, but while watching the movie, I just wanted him to get off screen because he was so much different from the books.
I am not criticizing the actors in this movie. The acting was in my opinion, quite good. However, I blame the problems on the director. He completely changed the personality of Dumbledore, even from the previous movies. Likewise, the movie felt very rushed. They considered making this into two movies, and it was a bad decision not to. Most of the book was left out, which will I'm sure anger more than just myself. The three tasks took up the majority of the movie, and far too many scenes were combined to satisfy me.
That isn't to say that the whole movie was a waste. I thought some of the things that the director did were great. For instance, the Quidditch Cup was good (although they left out the actual match). Likewise, the young actors continue to improve, and the veterans were solid as usual. Alan Rickman as Professor Snape needs to get more scenes because he steals every one the he is in.
Overall, I thought that the movie was far too dramatic and overacted. I give it a 6. I can't say what I would have given it had I not read the books, because the movie was indeed well done. However, I can't justify ranking it higher because of my readings of the books.