A good movie, but a few bumps are pulling it down

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2005)

This was a great movie. It managed to turn a 650 pages long book into a 2 and a half hour long movie, and it does so spectacularly. It manages to avoid feeling quite as rushed as the previous movies, despite having far more content. Even viewers who haven't read the book will enjoy themselves and be able to follow, although they may feel a bit lost at some points.
Now, we'll begin with the good parts in the movie: first of all, the special effects were breathtaking. The Hungarian Horntail dragon looked fearsome and realistic and made the first task a truly breathtaking spectacle and one of my favorite scenes in the movie. The acting was also a strong point: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson improved greatly, and Brendon Gleeson gave an excellent performance as Mad-eye Moody, as he managed to be as insane and scary as the book portrayed him to be. Alan Rickman stole the show, despite having an extremely short scene. But even then, his Snape is so cynical and menacing he has no competition on the screen. And finally, I have to mention this, Emma Watson looks absolutely stunning in the Yule Ball.
However, the movie has its share of problems. The first and foremost is the damage done to three major characters: Dumbledore, Crouch and Voldemort. Dumbledore has turned from a wise and calm, if somewhat aloof, wizard who can display his tremendous power into an old person who is quick to anger and has trouble figuring out what's going on around him. This was definitely the most unpleasant change, because Dumbledore's character is one that should give the feeling of a fatherly figure in Harry's life, but in this movie he is merely a headmaster. Crouch was supposed to be a strict, tough man, with an entirely by-the-rules approach. In this movie, he is naught but a weird old man who seems to abide by the rules not because he believes in order above all else, but because he has no other choice. As for Voldemort, while Ralph Fiennes delivers a great performance as He Who Must Not Be Named, it is also entirely over-the-top. Voldemort is far too melodramatic - he is a ruthless, bold-blooded murderer and yet he gets so worked up over capturing his enemy? It doesn't make much sense. While this was the major problem in the movie, there were a few others: Fleur and Krum, who were Triwizard Champions, were given extremely small roles. They barely had 3 lines each, and Fleur was especially left out (Krum at least had a relationship with Hermione). Also, it would have been nice to actually see Gary Oldman. He did have a role and several lines, but all we saw was a CGI version of his face made out of ash and burning firewood. I'd have preferred to actually see him in person. Another problem was that there was a feeling of somewhat of a mess in the movie - at times it seemed as if they tried to cram in as much as they could in the 2 and a half hours and it just fell apart. A good example is Rita Skeeter who gives a magnificent performance in the first half of the movie then disappears without her plot line ever being closed. The time spent on her would have been better used to actually show the Quidditch World Cup. The final problem was the "Do the Hippogriff" song in the Yule Ball. It was entirely unnecessary: it was a silly song that only damaged the movie, in my opinion.
In short, this is a good movie. Definitely worth a watch, whether you're a hardcore Potter fan or not. It does have some issues though, that I hope will be taken care of in the next movie.