Not as good as Azkaban

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2005)

Although this is a good film, it unfortunately hearkens back to the adaptation technique from the novels of the first two films rather than trying to be a film. Whereas Azkaban really had a beginning, middle, and end, and thus kept the pacing going, this film doesn't and for that reason it seems to be many scenes strung together just to keep the plot going. This makes for a slower pacing and makes the 2 1/2 hours seem like MUCH longer. The problem really is, since this is movie number 4, it has to rely on the previous 3 films and that makes the plot more complicated (thus having to tell more in the same amount of the approximate 2 1/2 hours for each film). In fact, they had to cut a LOT out to even make it possible to keep it at 2 1/2 hours and regardless it still seemed too long! Hopefully, with Order of the Phoenix, which is a long book like this Goblet of Fire but has a shorter plot overall, they can avoid this problem. And as a side note, although Patrick Doyle did try his best with this score, he isn't John Williams and I hope Williams does find time to score the last 3 films in the Harry Potter series. 7 out of 10.