It left much to be desired ...

Rating: 3/10 (14 November 2005)

I'll just come right out and say it: I'm quite disappointed with GoF. I understand that it's difficult to squeeze a 700+ page story into a little over two hours, but it dragged on so much that it might as well have been four hours long. At one point, I was so bored that I found myself wondering what size knitting needles I should use to make my next Gryffindor scarf ...
My main complaint is that the movie focuses solely on the Triwizard Tournament; every discernible subplot in GoF was cut to make room for it. It is also very choppy--because it goes quickly from one tournament event to the next, it seems that hardly any time passes (however, snow does appear on the ground about halfway through the movie). My other grievances are of the nit-picky, hardcore fan variety, so I won't bother listing them here.
The actors did a fine job, though some new characters are very different from how I imagined them (a first for me as far as the HP movies are concerned ... everyone else has perfectly fit the bill). There are a few scenes where the Hogwarts faculty look very confused and quite uncomfortable, and for no obvious reason.
I should warn any potential moviegoers that they will be terribly confused if they haven't read GoF, and if they have, that they'll be annoyed by choruses of, "Mommy, who's that? What's going on?" So do yourselves several favors: read the book first, and go to a very late night showing. And, if at all possible, avoid paying money to see it. I was lucky because I got a free pass, and I used the money I would have spent on it to buy post-crappy movie beer.