"Goblet of Fire" only suffers from Mike Newell

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2005)

After over a year of waiting and much publicity, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was one of the most anticipated films in recent history. It seems in recent years that films seem never to be able to live up to this anticipation ("AVP" and "The Phantom Menace" come to mind). Fortunately for us, "Goblet" completely lives up to its hype.
The storyline is familiar; after all, it was a book. Very few people who saw "Goblet of Fire" were clueless as to what was going to transpire. The burden was on Steve Kloves to turn a 734-page book into a 2.5-hour movie. He certainly does his part; the story never seems rushed (Aside from the first twenty minutes, which, in this case, would not work if they weren't), the dialogue continues to be very good, and character interactions continue to be excellent. Character introductions are a bit speedy (Moody's only introduction is a quick "That's Mad-Eye Moody" from Ron), but the audience does reasonably well in getting over it. (It at least never bothered me.) The actors do their parts as well. Miranda Richardson, Brenden Gleason , and Ralph Fiennes all excellently and expertly adapt characters from the page; from the annoyingly snobby Rita Skeeter, to the intimidating and over-the-top Mad-Eye Moody, to the downright scary Lord Voldemort. The child actors continue to grow in skill and confidence, and the seasoned veterans of Harry Potter films, Sir Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, and the always enjoyable Maggie Smith, are spot-on as usual.
The one problem with "Goblet" is its director, Mike Newell. Consistently, the attention to detail and character development that Alfonso Cuarón brought to "Prisoner of Azkaban" are either less apparent or abandoned altogether. Newell focuses more on the visual aspect of the movie than is necessary; during the first Triwizard task, instead of focusing on Harry's attempt to snatch the golden egg, as was the intent of the scene, Newell leads an over-the-top five-minute chase scene around Hogwarts with the dragon. The audience seems to forget the golden egg even exists, while Harry, in a rather formulaic way, dangles by his fingertips from a rooftop.
If one puts the focus on visual effects in the back of his mind, the movie works fantastically. "Goblet" certainly earns its PG-13 rating; it is intensely frightening in some scenes, and incredibly emotionally jarring. The Triwizard Tournament tasks are vividly and spectacularly brought to life, and, dragon-chase aside, seem to be the most character-driven scenes in the movie. Lord Voldemort's dark, hair-raising rise at the end puts him among the most instantly reviled movie villains of all time; Fiennes's character will certainly rank up with Darth Vader in history among the villains everyone loves to hate. Despite all the violence and frightening scenes, there is just enough humor and human drama, particularly between Ron and Harry, to make "Goblet of Fire" still enjoyable and not too depressing.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" continues with the great tradition of the boy wizard, and will work very well in the storyline of the series and in moviedom in general.