An Impossible Task?

Rating: 7/10 (26 November 2005)

Rowling's book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, carried the series into a whole new dimension - that dimension being the thickness of the volumes. Almost twice the length of its predecessor this mega-tome was always going to be problematic to condense into a watchable movie. For my money, Mike Newell's result is a valiant, but predictably rushed and uneven affair that will leave fans of the series disappointed at what was left out, but that will also leave newcomers (if there are any people still in this category out there!) bewildered as to what on earth is happening. The movie felt exactly like the edited highlights of a much longer movie that had been roughly pasted together. As a side effect of having to race through the story, there is no time to develop any real depth in the characters, which is unfortunate. (In most cases, anyway: with each new episode I grow ever more irritated with Daniel Radcliffe's wide-eyed and mumbling performance as Harry.) Interestingly, the one character who displays any real passion is Voldemort, played by Ralf Fiennes, and I look forward to seeing more of him.
In summary, not the best of the series so far (that honor surely goes to Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban), but not a bad effort given the challenges imposed by the book. I'm hopeful that a decent movie can be made out of the next book, which although it's even longer, has in many ways a more straightforward storyline (and more things that can be cut). 7/10