a sad waste of 2 hours

Rating: 2/10 (9 January 2006)

having read and re read all of the HP books, I was dying to see the Goblet of Fire on the big screen. The previous movie adaptations had, I thought, at least captured what made the HP series and franchise special and quintessentially British; the whole getting ready for school thing, the first day of school, the sorting issue etc. In essence, the whole feeling of British boarding school uniqueness and stiffness, coupled with the humour and originality of Hogwarts being a school for magic.
Goblet of Fire the movie failed on many counts to deliver this, instead diving straight into big screen action (massive CGI scenery of the Quidditch World Cup, sadly reduced to 15 seconds on screen - the almost immediate first Triwizard task of the dragons), missing out on the subtleties of school life entirely.
There are so many scenes and incidents left out from the book which affect the relationship between the principal characters that it appeared that the movie was to be totally centred around 3 major scenes; the dragon, the underwater task and the graveyard, with no thought for tying them together or building any further relationship between Harry, Ron and Hermione in the meantime.
Without having read the book, I would have found this movie, as a movie, totally without focus. As a movie about fantasy characters fighting dragons and mermaids it wasn't the best you will see. Without the inherent magic - the setting of the British boarding school with its quirks - the movie falls on its face badly