Terrific, more mature, although a little rushed

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2005)

The fourth installment of the 'Harry Potter'-series is probably the most entertaining of them all for it's wall to wall action and comedy. For some this can also be a problem. The story is a little rushed. It is like a road trip where you only do the attractions on the way, but never travel from one attraction to another. Of course that is an entertaining way to do a road trip but it can be good to catch your breath from time to time, enjoy the world around you.
This counts especially for a world as beautifully visualized as Harry Potter's. Art direction, set decoration, costumes and visual effects are once again terrific, creating a feast for the eye. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasly (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) inhabit this world as if they have lived there their entire lives; not only the movie but also the actors are more mature. The story has grown darker with every new film and here it deserves its PG-13 rating. Death and destruction are pretty present in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'.
I could go into the story, which deals with a deadly tri-wizard tournament that Harry enters even though he is too young and the first real appearance of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), but it does not really matter. The story is a nice framework to show us everything in the movie, also including brilliant performances by Brendan Gleeson as Alastor Moody, Miranda Richardson as journalist Rita Skeeter and returning actors like Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and a great Alan Rickman as Severus Snape.
'The Sorcerer's Stone' and 'The Chamber of Secrets' gave the series its magical touch, it was a little lost in 'The Prisoner of Azkaban', for me still the best, but director Alfonso Cuarón made up for that with especially the cinematography. Now we have 'The Goblet of Fire' where magical touches have changed mostly into darkness, maturity and some great action and comedy scenes. It seems to me this is the right approach to the series.