The Golden Goblet

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2005)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was without a doubt my favorite movie so far. The emotions, the story, the music, everything about it was magnificent.
I don't know if this will contain spoilers, but be warned, I may let something slip without noticing. Where to begin?
I'll start with Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes was the perfect person to play the evil menace of the series. Even without a nose, and the cg for that was flawless, he did probably the best performance I've ever seen. The way he casually said lines like (SPOILER) "I'm going to kill you, Harry Potter" so casually, and the pure evil that he caused you to feel were perfect. I clearly could tell that this was the ultimate evil standing in front of Harry.
Next we come to the music. Patrick Doyle follows John Williams with a spectacular score. The music for (SPOILER) Cedric's death nearly pulled tears from my eyes, mixed with the screams of Amos Diggory. Voldemort's theme made you see the evil of the man, and the use of "Hedwig's Theme" was bone-chilling.
The actors were quite good as well. Harry got the emotion thing down perfectly this time (I don't know if you recall his lack of tears when he was crying in PoA). Fred and George finally lived up to the characters that J.K. Rowling created, and the tasks were quite thrilling. While a lot of the book had to be cut from the movie, they did a fantastic job cutting the right stuff to make it work, even throwing in the backstory behind Neville Longbottom. The beginning, however, was somewhat rushed, even (SPOILER) cutting the actual Quidditch game from the movie.
(MAJOR SPOILER) Now on to the saddest scene of the movie. When Harry returned to Hogwarts with Cedric's body, the band starts playing the upbeat "Hogwarts March", which I believe adds to the effect that they have no clue what is going on. It is perfect when they show the faces of Dumbledore, Mr. Weasly and Amos, and Hagrid as they realize that Cedric is dead. The music suddenly changes to the heartbreaking "Death of Cedric", intensifying the pain throughout Hogwarts. Amos's scream of sadness could bring a tear to anyone's eyes, showing the first really strong emotion in the Harry Potter movies.
Altogether, this was by far the best movie in the series (in my opinion). This one finally seemed to catch the feel of the loved books by J.K. Rowling, and the dark themes blended perfectly in this one with the somewhat craziness of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World. I give everyone who worked on this a standing ovation, and two for the person who made it all possible, Mrs. Rowling herself.
The major problem now is that we have to wait until 2007 for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.