Finally showing some balls in the Harry Potter franchise.

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2015)

The series is finally willing to take risks in the Harry Potter franchise. Being the first PG-13 film, I was ready to see what it was going for. With dark storytelling and crazy psychotic characters, this one definitely took a step forward in the series.
As the wizards of the Triwizard tournament are being chosen, Harry's name rises as one, forcing him to compete in three life or death situations to prove himself while trying to figure out who wants him dead.
The story is a bit more interesting because the events don't just center around Harry, Hermione, and Ron's mischief. It's an event that involves everybody in Hogwarts. We get a decent amount of backstory, but manage to stay focused on the events in the present as well. It builds up the suspicion quite well with flashbacks, dream sequences and so on.
All the characters have an enjoyable moment at some point. Ron and Hermione are much more supportive in this one, and their relationship even gets some decent development. Even Malfoy is pretty entertaining. Then there are characters that are just ridiculously out of the blue psychotic: Mad Eye Moody, Kakaroff, Barty Crouch Jr, and even Dumbledore has some insane moments.
The film is definitely trying to go deeper, and it does quite well. As the books got more intense, the movies do a good job of following along. Not saying Prisoner of Azkaban wasn't pretty thrilling, but not on this level. It's just got a dark and edgy vibe that most films did in that era. Though it followed it up well with creepy imagery and intense scenes.