Harry Potter And The Movie Of Boredom

Rating: 1/10 (19 November 2005)

I've never read the books, and they may very well stimulate the imaginations of children all over the world. That's commendable. BUT as a movie series, these movies have been mediocre at best. This latest movie, Goblet Of Fire, is the worst yet. It's slow paced, the characters are either not interesting or completely annoying, and the movie is so dark that it's impossible to see things sometime. The biggest problem I have is not with the film itself, but with the actors' thick accents, quick speech patterns, and tendency to whisper, it's impossible to understand what they are saying half the time. The movie does have some noteworthy sequences though. Harry's face off with a dragon is very exciting. An underwater rescue is also very good, with some amazing special effects. A sequence involving a huge hedge maze that makes the maze in the Shining look like child's play, is exciting, but possibly way too scary and violent for young kids. It's rated PG-13 for a reason. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but I gave the movie a chance because my kids wanted to see it, and I was very interested in seeing the Superman Returns preview they were going to show before the movie (and that looks INCREDIBLE). But neither I nor my children were at all impressed. For our money....ZATHURA was FAR superior. Stick to the books kids, I'm sure they are far better than this drivel.