Finally, A Harry Potter film that does the book justice!

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2006)

Ever since the age of 11, I have been a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter books (Im registered on probably 20 fansites and read the books 30 times. each) and went seeing the first film with an open mind. I thought it was quite impressive with strong performances from Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson, (Hermionie) even when they had to say such squirmingly awful things ('holy cricket!') but there two things that really annoyed me- Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and the script.
To be honest, I feel quit sorry for Daniel. Harry is quite an ordinary character and it would be extremely difficult to play him without looking overly fake, or just plain wooden. And with the combination of the piece of garbage (i.e. the overly-americanised script that was once J.K Rowling's work of art- no offence Americans, but its a British book!) he gave a poor performance.
It got worse with the 2nd and 3rd films. The scripts became even more cheesy and the acting became even more awkward (again, partly wasn't Radcliffe, and at times, Grint's fault as their voices were breaking, which made them sound even more robot-like) and I am sure fans of the books screamed in horror at how much the books had been warped. The films might have well been called 'Daniel Radcliffe, some other British kids and these pretty visuals that I am going to use in attempt to hypnotise you into liking this film'.
But, in November 2005 our prayers were answered as we were given a decent Harry Potter Film! Now, a strong point in all the films has been special effects and this film is no exception. The dragons were exactly how I imagined them and the lake scene sent a shiver down my spine- it was so haunting. My favourite scene was the yule ball- The way they transformed the Great Hall was magical! The thing that really stood out in this film was how fast paced it was. Usually the film spends a good 10 minutes at the Dursleys' house but in the Goblet of fire, you feel afraid to blink in case you miss something! It wasn't until the 1st task that the film started to slow down. It was a refreshing change to the films.
Ceratin acting performances have always been good but I felt everyone in this film gave a great performance. The person who really stood out was-who would have guessed?- Daniel Radcliffe. I noticed -but maybe this was the script, which by the way I felt had greatly improved- he was much less wooden, and he managed to portray emotion on his face, and he gradually got better at this as the film went on. His best acting performance-I think- to date was after returning with Cedric-now dead- from the graveyard and started crying. And thats when I started crying, partly because its an emotional scene, partly because the very attractive Cedric had died, but mostly because Radcliffe gave such a heartfelt, honest performance. I felt like standing up and clapping in the cinema. I can now say: THANK GOD! THAT BOY HAS LEARNT HOW TO ACT! You'll be happy to know I went home and danced around my J.K.Rowling shrine and thanked the gods for the best Harry Potter film so far! Well....I would have done....if I had a shrine.