The Best One Yet

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2005)

Like most other people, I believe that this one is the best one yet. In the movie, there were a whole lot of cuts to keep within the film's 2 and a half hour running time. As a result, the movie's details vary quite greatly from the book, although the film's core remains faithful.
One of the best things about the film has to be the special effects, which was nothing short of amazing. From the quidditch world cup, to each of the 3 tasks, all were done exceptionally well. However I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the actual quidditch match.
The acting is uniformly solid. Newcomers include Brendan Gleeson, who plays the part of Mad-Eye Moody well, Ralph Fiennes, who does enough to make us believe that Voldemort is capable of the evil he speaks of, and Miranda Richardson, who is not around enough for us to care much. Most of the old cast is back too...including Hagrid, who provides most of the film's comic relief in his scenes with Madame Maxime. As for the supporting cast of students, Ginny and Neville see their roles slightly expanded. and the new students, namely Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang are all well cast.
But all those characters play supporting roles as most of the time, the movie focuses on the main trio. By now, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have all made the parts of Harry, Ron and Hermione their own, and now it would be impossible to imagine anyone other than those three playing these roles.
The Harry Potter series has gotten better with each movie. This one is the best yet and it will take a huge effort to top this. As nearly everyone has said, this movie is the darkest one yet (the PG-13 rating that it was given in the US is certainly warranted). But it is also the most complex, the largest in scope, the most exciting, the most emotional, and the most satisfying of all the movies so far.
"Everything is gonna change now, isn't it?" says Hermione to Ron and Harry in the movie's last shot. She is speaking about the evil forces that are just starting to surround the wizard world. The bright , sunny and fun wizarding world that we saw in the first two movies will be replaced by a darker, more dangerous one. As viewers, we can only hope that it dosen't change too much, and that the magic that all four of the films so far contained will still be there come the next film.
Whatever it is, I thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is one of the best films that I have seen all year.