Disappointing

Rating: 1/10 (18 November 2005)

The movie series seems to follow the books, on a far lower level. While the third movie finally showed some character development and well-done plot instead of drawing by numbers some scenes from the novels, everything collapses in this fourth installment. This is partially due to the necessity of omitting lovable subplots which saved the novel. In the movie, the stupid main plot becomes clearly visible - a way to big machinery is installed for reviving Voldemort. Instead of capturing Harry at so many possible situation, or just turning his left shoe into a port-key, the evil secret agent employs incredibly involved tricks to teleport Harry to the cemetery where you-know-who wait for his reincarnation. This comes along as a boring CGI-hopping that lasts almost three hours.
Indeed, the movie is rather "dark" (whatever that means), but this doesn't indicate quality. The few humorous scenes that escaped shed some flashes of light but were far from saving the movie. The coming-of-age scenes were just painful, and the three younger main actors do definitely worse than in "Azkaban" (almost the same low level as in the "Philosopher's Stone"). Brendan Gleeson is good as Mad-Eye Moody, indeed the only character adequately transferred from the novel (not that difficult, actually). Ralph Fiennes (mainly CGI) is OK as Voldemort. Other CGI is often cheap or just garbage, like the dragon-fight. Where did all the money go? The plot holes are numerous, even more than usual, caused by strange cuts. For instance, what happens between Voldemort's and Harry's wands, is "explained" by Dumbledore by a Latin word that would need itself explanation (which is omitted). Such things happen almost every few minutes. If this pattern continues, the fifth installment (with the underlying worst book of the series so far, "imagine there is war and no one is interested in") is really something to be afraid of.