Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Falls Short

Rating: 5/10 (25 November 2005)

You all probably know the story of Harry Potter GOF by now, so I won't waste your time giving you a summary of the movie. I would just like to address the areas in which this movie falls short.
First of all, the casting was quite badly done, no offense to the actors. Mad-eye Moody is described as a tall, dark man with a face that seemed to be cut out of wood. He has a mechanical eye and is a shady-but-cool character. You can imagine my surprise when I go to the movie and find a fat, pudgy actor that has a tacky eye that one would expect to find at a Toys R Us store.
The comes Albus Dumbledore. If you have read the books, you will know that he is one of the most important characters and is an old, good-natured type of guy. To me, Richard Harris was the perfect Dumbledore. It was unfortunate that he passed on after completing the second movie, but Michael Gambon is by no means a good Dumbledore. His voice is a lot more deeper and it lacks the decay of age, his features don't suit the part and was it me or is he a little fat? Finally, I have to comment on the overall feeling of the movie. It seemed to be quite choppy and didn't have the smooth transitions from scene to scene. And what happened to the fatherly figure of Sirius? I think he was only shown once in the movie, and even then it was for a one minute scene. I think the filmmakers just cut out a lot of the important material and extended the events related to the Yule Ball. Another thing that ruined the movie for was the lack of character development. Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and Fleur are shown a few times but are very static, Barty Crouch isn't shown much and the teachers have maybe one scene. Emma Watson also goes over the top portraying Hermione as an over-emotional girl that is always ready to burst out crying. Saying that, this movie did have an improvement in acting and it had some good ole' humor.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is an improvement over the last three movies but still falls short of what we want and expect.