Product: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Rating: 2.0
Rent - Don't Buy
While it is a given that any large book requires some trimming to be adapted to an movie of acceptable length, this latest installment in the Harry Potter series comes across as badly truncated and poorly edited. There are too many gaps in the story/action, as well as a few holes where a scene was obviously deleted. Nor is there any real sense of a whole term passing - with the jarring exceptions of the Yule Ball and End of Term, the action could have all taken place in a matter of days, not months. Also, some of the effects were sloppily exectuted, with Voldemort's "nose" being particularly irritating in the frames where it looks like a bad eraser smudge left on the print. Even the song "Magic Works" at the end of the credits grated - too often off key or screeching.It's time for the producers to consider lengthening the run time and adding an intermission to the remaining films. It will perhaps cut out one performance a day at the cineplex, but in the end will benefit total gross. For while fanatics will overlook the flaws, but ordinary fans will not.