Fantastic adaptation and a fantastic movie.

Rating: 9/10 (21 November 2005)

I had a great time watching this film. I'm always concerned that book-to-film adaptations will lose a lot of the finer points of the book, but that's not the case here. The writing team very nicely trimmed the fat of the book and even enhanced it as they realized there are six distinct acts of the narrative, and the rest is non-essential. The only noteworthy plot "changes" are that Barty Crouch Jr appears in the first scene, and the third task definitely changed (no cloud, skrewt, or sphinx). No house elves either, so anything that Dobby or Winky did was assigned to someone else. They also chopped a ton off the introduction (gimme more Mr. Weasley!) A couple other quick complaints: Hermione becomes a bit of a tramp (Ron, Harry, and her Ball date all seem to be getting some) and Dumbledore displays a violent temper (Richard Harris is sorely missed - Gambon's comments about Dumbledore show he's not in tune with the character). The lead-up to and the Yule Ball scene were hilarious - boys and girls are so dumb at age 14. The new cast additions are all great: Mad-Eye Moody is magnificent, Rita Skeeter is correctly abominable (but underused) and you can't help but have a huge crush on Cho Chang. The tournament tasks are appropriately breathtaking and the graveyard scene is equally creepy and exhilarating (what a surprise, Ralph Fiennes is great). I'm thrilled they got this one right; good luck making a movie of the 5th book.