Entertaining but too short and too many omissions

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2005)

What summed this film up for me was the comments of my non-HP book reader wife and friend. "Didn't really understand it".
The JKR books are full of "tells" and explanations, with sub-plots taking on great significance later on. The book of Goblet of Fire is central to the denouement of many of these - and in the main they are left out of the film version in favour of action and CGI.
That said, it was not all bad, so I'll highlight what I liked first!
The teenagers' awkwardness as they explore their relationships, and the way this was handled in the build up to and the actual Ball scene. Hermione in particular was well portrayed, and Ron and Harry sitting like wallflowers while the rest of the school dance the night away was well done.
The look on McGonagall's face when she sees Ron's dress robes - priceless.
The Moaning Myrtle scene in the Prefect's bath is excellent, funny and well acted.
Mad Eye Moody was excellent, convincing and menacing.
The opening scene showing the splendour of the Quidditch stadium was breathtaking.
The graveyard scenes at the end were well done, and close to the book. Ralph Fiennes was excellent, if a little too "strong" to be credible so soon after his rebirth.
What did they do badly? Quite a lot actually. I realise how hard it must be to condense this long book into a 150 minute movie, but overextended scenes could have been shortened, and 20 minutes extra to cover some key current and future story lines would have been time and money well spent.
Dumbledore is mad! What has Gambon done to him? Would Richard Harris have grabbed Harry by the neck and shaken him, shouted at him? Would Harris be mumbling and doubting of his abilities, such that there is now almost no credibility that Voldemort should ever fear him? No. And neither does the Dumbledore of JKR.
No muggle taunting and no house elf in the Quidditch world cup scenes, meaning no explanation of the purpose of the riot and burning of the tented village, and no set-up of Bartie Crouch Senior as a key character.
No mention at all of SPEW.
The dragon fight scene is ridiculously long, and ridiculously expensive. Harry flies right out of the stadium, chased by the Norwegian Horntail on a trip to demolish large parts of the castle roofing tiles. The dragon can fly, for goodness sake - why would it spend 2 minutes climbing across rooftops to get to Harry when it could fly out and blast him from the air?
The characterisation of the new characters is poor - Fleur, Viktor and Cedric are all just cardboard cutouts for Harry to battle against.
The omission of almost all the interaction between Harry and Sirius, so crucial to the next two films. Make you wonder whether the film makers have actually read all the books.
The absence of any reference to Hagrid's half-giant heritage (subtly alluded to in one scene with Madam Maxime, but only if you know what you're looking for) which is so important to his role in the next film
No mention of the Minister For Magic's denial of Voldemort's return, nor his act of bringing the dementors to kill Bartie Crouch junior before Snape can use Veritas serum to make him confirm Harry's story - both key to Dumbledore's flight in the next book, and setting up for Umbridge to wreak her havoc.
A messy treatment of the Snape/Karkaroff relationship and history, again failing to set up the future doubts we have about Snape, who is still mainly just portrayed as a nasty teacher rather than key character of the 6th book.
The acting. Sad though I am to say it I thought most of the acting was poor in this film, especially from Emma Watson (who I've always thought was the best of the young actors) and Rupert Grint. To be fair this is probably more due to their hugely diminished parts in this film, but that aside I feel Hermione is portrayed more as Harry's mother figure, rather than the super-clever heroine who Harry can always rely on to get him back on track.
The Rita Skeeter storyline is shallow, with no set-up for the essential article in support of Harry, and no mention of her being an illegal animagus, and thus no capture and blackmail of her by Hermione.
The Maze is transformed from testing puzzles and magical scenarios that the 4 Champion's could reasonably expect to figure out/defeat, to a series of menacing hedges and roots that becomes the entirety of the final test. The winner just needs to be luckier and faster than the others - leaving no avenue for true Wizarding contest, nor for Moody's sabotage of Fleur and Viktor's efforts.
Finally (though I could go on) I was amazed that a director of Newell's status and past history should make Fleur such a lame character, fit only to be dressed in a skimpy swimming costume, and swiftly fail, with no explanation, in all the tasks.
As I've said, I sympathise with how hard it must be to condense such a long book and not miss out big chunks of it - and I think they did that quite well with the start - but I do feel they erred too much on the side of spectacle and not enough on explaining all the plot twists and lead-ins to the next book.
What will non-book readers make of it all!
Tony