Great visuals, shame about the plot!

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 2005)

Whilst I recognise and applaud the visuals in GoF, fans of the written word will be disappointed at the shoddy shoe horning of the, admittedly epic, storyline into such a short space of time. Characters such as Snape, Malfoy Jnr, McGonagall, Hagrid, Rita Skeeter are pared down to the bone, whilst others such as Winky, the Dursleys, Bill, Charlie and Mrs Weasley have been completely left out. The Quidditch World Cup has inaccuracies (the Weasleys should be seated in the Top box with the Malfoys), Rita Skeeter's many articles are reduced to only one, Barty Crouch Jnr does not appear at the beginning with Voldemort and Wormtail, the Death-Eaters did not turn the campsite at the QWC into the war zone depicted in the film. And so on. Probably the worst bit of 'plot changing' was having Michael Gambon (a very poor Richard Harris replacement - ever heard of Peter O'Toole?) actually grabbing Harry and almost assaulting him during the "did you/didn't you" put your name in the GoF scene. Dumbledore never touches his students like that and makes much of it when other teachers do it in Order of the Phoenix. All in all a sad disappointment for the discerning JK Rowling fan and, judging by the various comments heard in the cinema immediately after the end of the film, easy money for Warner Bros. 5 out of 10 is perhaps, somewhat generous.