Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Plot synopsis:
=== Plot introduction ===
Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up, and the added challenge of being a famed wizard: when Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry, which left a lightning-shaped scar on Harry's forehead. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his abusive muggle, or non-magical, aunt and uncle, Aunt Petunia Dursley and Uncle Vernon Dursley, who have a son named Dudley Dursley.
Harry learns that he is a wizard when he is 11 years old, just before he enrolls in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He befriends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and is confronted by Lord Voldemort who is trying to regain power. In Harry's first year he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers at Hogwarts. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked by the legendary monster of the "Chamber of Secrets" after the chamber is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped mass murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learned that it was his father's old school friend Peter Pettigrew who actually betrayed his parents.
=== Plot summary ===
The book opens with Harry seeing Frank Bryce being killed by Lord Voldemort in a vision, and is awoken by his scar hurting. The Weasleys then take Harry and Hermione Granger to the Quidditch World Cup, using a Portkey, to watch Ireland versus Bulgaria, with Ireland emerging victorious. There, Harry meets Cedric Diggory, who is attending the match with his father. After the match, Voldemort's followers attack the site, destroying spectators' tents and wreaking havoc. The Dark Mark gets fired into the sky, which leads to a panic since it is the first time the sign has been seen in 13 years. Winky, Barty Crouch Senior's house elf, is falsely accused of casting the Mark after she is found holding Harry's wand, which is revealed to have been used to cast the Mark, as Harry had lost it during the chaos of the Death Eaters' attack. Hermione, angry at this injustice, forms a society to promote the rights of house elves.
At Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore announces that Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody will be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year, and also that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament, with a prize of one thousand gold Galleons. However, only those over 17—the age of majority in the wizarding world—will be allowed to enter. It is the first time in 202 years that the Triwizard Tournament will be held. Students from Beauxbatons Academy and the Durmstrang Institute, other wizarding academies, will travel to Hogwarts, where they will stay for the year, in hopes of competing. At Halloween, the Goblet of Fire picks Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons Academy; Viktor Krum (who is also the Seeker on Bulgaria's Quidditch team) from Durmstrang Institute; and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts to compete in the tournament. However, it additionally gives a fourth name—Harry Potter—leading to suspicion and indignation from everyone and magically binding Harry to compete. Ron is jealous that Harry is once again in the limelight and refuses to speak to Harry.
Hagrid reveals to Harry that the first task involves dragons, and since Fleur and Krum's headmasters are also aware of this, and will surely tell them in advance, Harry informs Cedric as well. At the task, Harry has to pass a Hungarian Horntail to retrieve a golden egg that contains a hint to the next task, which he does by summoning his Firebolt broomstick with the Accio spell, and finishes the task tied for first with Krum. Ron and Harry subsequently reconcile, Ron now understanding the full danger of the tournament. When Harry opens the egg, though, it merely shrieks loudly. Hermione then takes Harry and Ron to the school kitchens, where house elves work. There, they meet a distraught Winky, who is struggling to get over the loss of her sacking. They also meet Harry's old friend Dobby, who has been employed at Hogwarts to work in the kitchens; he is the only known house elf to appreciate his freedom, despite his hardworking nature.
Meanwhile, gossipy reporter Rita Skeeter is writing scandalous articles of half-truths and outright fabrications in The Daily Prophet about those at Hogwarts, including Hermione, Harry, Hagrid, and Madame Maxime of Beauxbatons.
With the Yule Ball approaching, Harry must find a partner, but when he finally approaches his crush Cho Chang, Cedric has beaten him to her, so Harry and Ron ask Parvati and Padma Patil. Ron is shocked and jealous to see that Hermione is attending with Krum. Cedric gives Harry a tip on the egg, telling him to take it to the prefects' bathroom, but Harry refuses to listen, jealous over Cho.
Finally acting on the tip, Harry takes the egg to the prefects' bathroom, where Moaning Myrtle tells him to listen to the egg underwater; there the words become understandable. Harry learns that the task is to recover something he will "sorely miss", and starts looking for spells to help him breathe where the objects will be taken: The Black Lake. By the morning of the task, Harry still hasn't found a solution, but Dobby gives him some Gillyweed to give Harry gills. Harry completes the task by rescuing Ron from under the lake. Harry then takes a risk by also rescuing Fleur's younger sister, Gabrielle, after Fleur was unable to. After the judges confer, he earns enough points to tie him with Cedric for the lead.
One month before the final task, Harry and Krum are talking when they encounter Crouch, who appears to have gone insane, but manages to tell Harry to get Dumbledore. Leaving Krum with Crouch, Harry fetches Dumbledore but returns to find Krum stunned and Crouch gone. Harry returns to preparing for the final task, a hedge maze. Inside the maze, Harry is forced to incapacitate Krum, who has been bewitched, to save Cedric. Working together, the two reach the cup. They agree to touch it at the same time, and doing so, discover that it is a Portkey that transports them to a graveyard. There, Peter Pettigrew kills Cedric and uses Harry's blood (along with his own hand and Tom Riddle Sr.'s bone) to resurrect Lord Voldemort.
Voldemort summons his Death Eaters, berating them for thinking he was dead, before he reveals that he has a single "faithful servant" concealed at Hogwarts, who has been working to ensure that Harry would make it to the graveyard, and then challenges Harry to a duel. However, when he and Harry fire curses at each other, their wands connect due to their identical cores. Voldemort's wand releases the most recent spells it performed, resulting in imprints of his last victims appearing in the graveyard, including Harry's parents, who provide a distraction so that Harry can escape back to Hogwarts using the Portkey, taking Cedric's body with him.
When he returns, Moody takes him to his office, and reveals himself to be Voldemort's 'faithful servant'; he was the one who put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, and has been guiding him through the tournament from behind the scenes to ensure that he would grab the Portkey first. Before Moody can kill Harry, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape intervene. They learn that Moody is in fact Barty Crouch Jr., Mr. Crouch's son, disguised by Polyjuice Potion. Crouch had sentenced Crouch Jr. to life imprisonment in Azkaban over alleged ties to the Death Eaters but smuggled him out as a last favour to his dying wife. Crouch Jr. was the one who set off the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup, doing it to scare the Death Eaters he felt had abandoned Voldemort. Eventually, Voldemort had gotten in contact with Crouch Jr. and had him impersonate Moody as part of his plan. Crouch Jr. also admits to killing Crouch Sr., to prevent him telling Dumbledore about Voldemort. The real Moody is found inside Crouch Jr.'s enchanted trunk and rescued. Harry is then declared the winner of the Triwizard Tournament and given his winnings.
Many people, including Fudge, do not believe Harry and Dumbledore about Voldemort's return, and as Fudge has the Dementor's Kiss performed, Crouch Jr. is unable to give testimony. Hermione discovers Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus, who can take the form of a beetle, and blackmails her to force her to stop writing her libellous stories. Not wanting his tournament winnings, Harry gives them to Fred and George to start their joke shop and returns home with the Dursleys.

Tags: dark, fantasy, gothic, murder, cult, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, revenge, entertaining

Review:
Light romance was touched upon yet wasn't over-emphasised and the Yule Ball will please those who enjoyed the scenes in the book but audience members over the age of sixteen might find teens ogling each other a tad dull (Hermione is very out-of-character and the scene does drag).The acting of the adult cast is, of course, exemplary as always.
Molly Weasley and the Dursleys were also missed, especially since I think Julie Walters would have been exceptional in the Molly/Harry interactions that take place aftermath of the graveyard scenes of the novel as the film didn't round off in a manner that reflected a boy had died and Harry would be traumatised by what he saw.I think most Potter fans will enjoy this although they will remark that it could have been better.
This movie doesn't get a 10 because it leaves me feeling like something is missing, but it does deserve a 9 for being the best possible portrayal of the book given a 2.5 hour limitation.
I noticed that, to make up for time, it had multiple things happening in each scene, which made it feel like I was reading the book in fast forward.
Best Potter Yet. I'd hate to face the task of condensing a 700 page book into a movie - even a two and a half hour movie, but they've managed pretty well with this installment of the adventures of Harry Potter.For fans of the movies, you'll find this installment a little darker, a little grittier, and a little more involving.
Naturally, some parts had to be modified or cut entirely - there's no way to avoid that without making it a 10 hour movie - but the parts that were cut were either not critical to the story line, or will be easy to account for in the films to come.
And I can say even with the fourth instalment, the excitement is never reduced.Plot: Harry Potter is selected by the Goblet of fire to compete in the Triwizard Tournament making him the youngest ever to compete much to the chagrin of everyone.Story and direction: This is the first film in the series not to have the first scene at Privett Drive.
I realize that the fact that I was paid $14.50/hr to watch this movie on Wednesday night might give rise to feelings of jealousy among some, but I am currently wishing I could manage to get more than five hours of sleep sometime soon.All that said I must say this was by far the greatest Harry Potter film so far.
After the series low of the previous film, AKA the snoozefest mess Prisoner of Azkaban, it was good to see a mature Harry Potter film with an actual coherent/enjoyable story.This thankfully was an actual decent entry in the franchise, and I truly hope (pray) that David Yates' directing style and skill level has a ton more in common with Mike Newell and Chris Columbus than it does with the laughably overrated guy who directed the beyond boring slog that was Gravity and the single worst Harry Potter film..
First, a confession: I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Potter fan, so I felt something of a fraud as I sneaked into a media screening of Goblet of Fire while many bona fide devotees have had to wait it out.My interest in the franchise has thus far consisted of sitting through the first film in a freezing cinema wondering what all the fuss was about, and skim-reading the second book on an aeroplane to appease my curiosity as to the young wizard's appeal.
The movie kept me on the edge of my seat with all the action, suspense(the dragon scene were especially good), and drama.If your a fan of the books, then I highly suggest that you go see it..
They've gotta be one of the best special effects I have seen in a movie since The Lord of the Rings trilogy.DIRECTION: The director Mike Newell, in my opinion did an excellent job at directing this film.
The special effects are amazing; the acting has definitely got better, and Voldemort was portrayed beautifully, and I must say, the ending definitely saved the movie from a total disaster.But if you would like me to ramble on and on about the good parts, well, that's what the hundreds of positive other reviews in this site is for.There definitely was a lot of material to cover in the fourth book and being a 2 ½ hour long movie, I was expecting parts to be cut; I wasn't disappointed, but actually amazed on how much was cut!
At times I was asking myself "am I watching a Harry Potter movie?" The sense of "magicalness" was taken away in this once scene.
When the DVD comes out, I can just imagining fast forwarding through the dance.Too much time and effort was done trying to make this movie look good with special effects and humor that the essence of Harry Potter was ruined; character and plot development.
The director modernized the movie too much making Hogwarts seem like more of a typical American high school (with immature kids and even a school band) rather then a grand place where people of a higher society go to learn magic (which by the way there was hardly any classroom scene in the movie).I'd much rather have the movie run four or even five hours long, then to sit through certain part of this movie again.
Maybe this is a hit with the middle school crowd, but even still, you can tell the actors themselves are thinking "what the hell IS this about?" EVENTUALLY, everyone remembers (a touch too late) that the evil "you-know-who" seems to be making his way back to life through foreshadowing and not-so-subtle hints, but now we're caught up in a life or death competition where Harry Potter has been illegally entered, and set up basically as bait to lure out Voldemort and/or his henchmen.
Here a legendary event takes place and Harry Potter competes in the Triwizard tournament , in which young people champions are selected , they are representatives from three wizarding colleges confronting in a series of dangerous tests : challenging dragons , horrible sea creatures and a spooky maze .This episode contains loads of adventures and action and it is such deeply riveting and emotional as its predecessors ; besides , getting lots of bombastic special effects and several images have you on the edge of your seat , including an amazing array of technical bizarre creatures , a breathtaking combat between Harry and a dragon , a rescue from sea deep of his friends fighting creepy , scary monsters and an exciting battle between Harry and the Dark Lord and his henchmen , the Death Eaters.
Phenomenal and spectacular musical score by Patrick Doyle , substituting to the great master John Williams.The movie was magnificently directed by Mike Newell .The film is recommended to Harry Potter saga lovers as well as neophyte who didn't have seen prior episodes..
So lets start from the beginning shall we?first there was a harry potter book series written by J.K Rowling that was good, children and adults all over the word rejoiced.
Based on the choppy scenes with no genuine transitions and lack of continuity, the movie itself seemed like one big trailer that would be promoting the "real film." I find it hard to believe that anyone who had not read the books could follow along in the beginning at all.
In the book, Harry never left the arena and that scene in the movie was completely ridiculous with them climbing on the roof of the castle.
For those of you who know the books and have seen GOF than you know what I am talking about.GOF had great special effects and Mike Newell did a wonderful job directing the actors to appropriately portray their characters.
The fourth Harry Potter book has so many interesting moments and potential  the stunning Quidditch World Championship final, the dangerous tasks at the Triwizard Tournament and its tragic ending, the romantic moments at the Yule Ball.
Nice performances also by the gorgeous and hunky Robert Pattinson as the tragic hero Cedric Diggory and the charming Katie Leung as Cho. All in one "Harry Potter and the GoF" is a 3-hour-trailer: Scenes and people are introduced without letting them space to develop their character, we get hints and foreshadowings, surprises and impressions but you cannot really see a flow or a plot.
And Dumbledore - I think Michael Gambon is an exemplary actor, but to see Dumbledore lose it with Harry in such an uncharacteristic way was dumbfounding.See, I can understand why things have to be left out - it's a long book, and there are extraneous elements.
Again, I wish these people would really read the book - at one point, the expelliarmus charm managed to knock someone off their feet whilst they were still holding their wand - getting small details like that wrong is rather ridiculous too.I saw the film with my fiancé who has not read the books, and he was rather confused by it - you didn't even see the seasons change, and the film felt so rushed and the plot was so unexplained that it might as well have been 6 weeks rather than an academic year.Oh well - it's a great looking film, and I was most pleased to see the split-second appearance of Jarvis Cocker, Jonny Greenwood et al, but it's relationship to the book is somewhat distance - second cousin twice removed perhaps?.
Newell completely abandons the magic of the first few films and goes for an all out "noir", losing one of the best bits about a Harry Potter film: magic.The script remains tarred, leaving out some of the best and most entertaining elements of the novel such as the opening Quidditch World Cup - an exhilarating read and surely an excellent addition to the film?
Poor acting for major characters, a patchy and inconsistent script that seemingly misinterprets the brilliance of Rowling's fourth novel, and Newell's inability to direct both the action and the actors on screen result in a film that is mediocre at best and completely undeserving of the recent hype that has accompanied its theatrical release.
But Goblet of Fire is far and away the best movie of series.The movie is full of action and I was able to get totally into the suspense of it all, even though I have read the book several times and already knew everything that was going to happen.The kids are finally kids!
This realism adds so much not only to this movie, in terms of fun and real heart, but lets the audience get to know the students and care about them and their struggles.The ending is pretty much flawless- powerful, touching, and exactly as I had imagined it, while still remaining true to the aims of this film.On of my biggest reservations about this movie is Gambon's portrayal of Dumbledore as a little too panicky for my taste.
He doesn't know exactly what's going on or why in the book, yet he is always with an air of wisdom and power, and this is the reason Harry trusts him so limitlessly and comes to rely on him completely to be able to take care of any matters that arise.Overall, this movie is not only the best Potter movie to date, but one of my favorite movies of the year.
I know it's an old cliché that people always say about books into movies but it really does appropriately describe the world of Harry Potter.
Personally I think this is the weakest of the Harry Potter Films released, But one of the best books so far, How on Earth could the Director get the Picture so wrong????
For anyone not acquainted with the Harry Potter Book series may find this film very disorientating and jumpy, those book fans out there will realise that they have chopped and changed the story around, and, as you will all be glad to hear, left all the good parts out.
I am an avid Harry Potter Fan of both the books and the movies, though they are separate entities, and was very psyched to see this new film.
That change was widely accepted, but, in my opinion, this movie was a bit too different for my liking.Firstly, though the book was meant to do this, I felt utterly blown away at the end of the film.
This movie felt set apart, but not necessarily in a good way.I will withhold complete judgment until I can see the directors cut, but I actually believe it could have been better as two movies, if it meant that important plot points could have been left in, such as why exactly Barty Crouch died, which seemed quite random in the book.
The match wasn't shown, Ludo Bagman doesn't appear ( and his wager with the twins disappears as well ) we are not introduced to the Veela and so we cannot find any reasonable explanation as to why Fleur has such a great effect on Ron. The other Weasly brothers are not shown ( Charlie should have been there to take care of the dragons ), Amos Diggory is not given a chance to talk so much about how good his son was against Harry in Quidditch ( and Cedric at first seems somewhat arrogant and not at all like he is depicted in the book )and believe me I could go on.
Additionally, there are a lot of unexplained story lines- the complete destruction of 1,000's of tents at the Quiddich Cup, Ron's anger at Harry, Harry's sulkiness at the Ball, Neville's response to the cruciatus curse, Hermione's interest in Krum, Priori Incantatem...the list is too long to continue- questions dealt with succinctly in the book- in the movie, left to the audience to decipher.
I guess they couldn't afford Winky or Dobby- maybe they should have saved a little money from the god-awful Yule Ball and dragon scenes.I guess it's Dumbledore who sums it up best- in times when you have to choose between what's right and what's easy- remember what happened to a book that was good, and whole, and interesting- that strayed into the hands of a hack director and a studio that turned movies like "Batman" into "Batman & Robin"...
By the end of the movie, and apparently Harry's fourth year, the audience is left scratching their heads, as no tangible chronology is provided for ANY PART of this movie.I could continue, but my point is clear: an eight-hundred page book adapted into one three and a half hour film either cuts prominent sections of the original text out of the finished product, or tries to make a mad scramble to stay relatively close to the original work.The result here, unfortunately, is a film with a lot of potential, and little else.
There is very little in the books that would not work on screen, and having read Steve Kloves scripts for the first three films I think he did a very good job.
Though I am a greater fan of the Harry Potter books written by J.K. Rowling, I am almost as equally excited when a new movie comes out.
Many Harry Potter fans have shown anger and disappointment towards Warner Brothers for not making the movies like the books.
How unfortunate that this film, even at 2 hrs 30 min, feels rushed and appears to missed the point.As a big Harry Potter fan this movie makes me feel more like re-reading the books than watching the films.If you are a fan you will find yourself smiling and maybe even cheering in the movie theater but end up going home feeling disappointed and empty.
He was no Yoda, he was Anakin Skywalker, a over-reacting schoolboy!This movie could have been good, if it was made into two full-length features with more emphasize on every one scene, connected with something like the womping willow shuffling it's treetop.Actors: 5-8 stars (Please let there be more time on every single character) Dumbledore: 0 stars (I know, brilliant Richard Harris is death, but please give, also-brilliant Michael Gambon some other role, as he totally misses the character) directing: 1 star (for the decision to cramp 734 pages into one movie and to disconnect the remaining scenes) script: 3 stars (As Steven Kloves was not able to catch the chemistry between the 3 main characters and to screw up the new cramped connection between scenes AND to make all this little mistakes in every single one scene I forgot because i shoved this movie out of my brain)This rubbish put together makes no more than 2 stars, as I was totally confused about the story and some basic mistakes they made with the cemetery-scene, the hacked-together movie, bad Dumbledore and ruining the wonderful feeling I had with reading all books over and over and the feeling which had been installed with film 3...Shame!.
Harry Potter fans are likely to be very disappointed with this movie.
If the next movie, which thankfully is being directed by someone other than Newell, veers away from the storyline in the manner Goblet of Fire has I would say the Harry Potter series is essentially doomed at least for those of us who have read the books and see what a mess Newell made of it so far.
I'm starting to think that the people who make the movies just don't even read the books, because Dumbledore was SO out of character it made me angry.
First of all, I must mention that Goblet of Fire is my favourite Harry Potter book, and so I expected great things from this movie.