Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: they could have gone deeper

Rating: 3/10 (19 November 2005)

While the Goblet of Fire book is over 700 pages, and we can't expect everything to be covered int he movie as it is laid out in the book, I still found the movie to be lacking. The movie pulled in only the main story line, and left out all the small details, mysteries, clues, and puzzles that makes Harry Potter so fun and interesting.
I think that the movie suffers greatly from this simplification. While the 3rd movie did not cover the book exactly as it was written, it still gave the characters and setting a depth that made them seem like real people. The characters in this movie acted more like caricatures, using small "familiar" (such as the way Ron's twin brothers are manufactured to be a duel-voiced automaton of pranks who happen to be around all the time), details to make us recognize them from the books, rather than creating an in-depth human being. In addition, the school and the school setting felt much more superficial. The school settings was constantly cold, dark, and foreboding, a weak attempt to set the theme of the storyline, without having to truly go into depth as to what is happening in this time.
I think this movie failed to capture the intensity that makes Harry Potter as drawing and addictive as it is, and instead of feeding into the Harry Potter 'world' this more left us merely, vaguely entertained.