Fun romp, but sadly disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2005)

I love the Harry Potter series and was excited after reading all the positive reviews after the premier. Unfortunately this movie is a dud. It was so choppy in it's presentation of the book, and I can't fathom any reason for some of the ridiculous, time consuming, changes they made. The Dragon/Golden Egg contest of the TriWizard Tournament was just lunacy with the changes made. All the cool computer graphics and the mashed together scenes left very little room for getting to know the characters and develop them further (other than as action heroes). The best part of Prisoner of Azkaban was the character development and storyline. GoF is almost entirely short visual scenes, very little dialog and a fast paced action. The flow was definitely and problem and I hope they don't use director Newell again. They should also fire the screenwriter. The only upside is getting to see some of the scenes from the book acted out. If you are a HP fan then you can't help but enjoy the film, however it's disjointed-ness and odd changes from the book will leave you feeling cheated out of what should have been a much better picture. The ending was poorly done as well, the director/screenwriter just couldn't seem to capture the same mood that existed at the end of the book and instead decided to make changes that left you feeling like you hadn't heeded the warning label on your allergy medicine.