The year was 2005, and my most anticipated movie was “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. This was the very first of the Harry Potter movies to be marketed to young adults, it had a PG-13 ratting, and it set the tone for what all the remaining Harry Potter movies would be like. This is where things get much darker, the storytelling becomes more serious, there are less magical charms, and the scenery really starts to loose its color. This film was fairly well received by both fans and critics, and is often regarded as one of the superior entries in the series, but for me personally ... I'm rather indifferent to this one. In general, any great series of films with a long chain of movies is bound to have at least one entry that I don’t care for, and personally, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is that one entry that never stuck a landing with me. Now even though I don’t like this movie, I also don’t think it’s completely terrible either. Let me put it this way, I’ve seen bad movies, which I think people should avoid for as long as they live, but this film can be perfectly okay for someone else to watch. If you like this movie, that’s great ... I wish I did.
Here’s the premise, it’s year four at Hogwarts School, and most classes are put on hold to make way for a yearlong competition called the Triwizard Tournament. This competition brings together three wizard schools, and a single student is selected from each to compete in a series of obstacles. Through a series of events, Hogwarts selects two champions to compete, one of which is none other than Harry Potter himself ... much to the dismay of everyone, including Harry because he’s too young to participate. Now, Harry is stuck in this lethal tournament, and has to battle all kinds of Obstacles, which I’ll talk about in more detail later. My first reservation with this premise is that there's not as much of a mystery, and the format gets a little repetitive, but I’ll go into all my story problems later ... right now I want to discuss the characters.
I said in my review of the first movie that it never felt like I was watching actors in these parts, and it always felt like I was watching these characters alive and in the flesh. Well, beginning with this film, I started to notice the strings attached. Don’t take that the wrong way, the cast still does a very good job in their respected roles, it’s just that everyone begins to feel like stereotypes of themselves.
You know Ron is going to be the butt of every joke, you know Herminie’s the only smart character that can provide plot exposition, and the character of Harry Potter really looses his charm, and becomes a little dull. I suppose there’s an admirable attempt to make the characters a lot more mature and adult, as their less smiley, but as a result, there’s less warm bonding scenes between them, and they argue a lot. Unfortunately, the drama and heated arguments between the three lead characters feels contrived, and half the time, I don't feel like the arguments have any kind of pay-off. Harry and Ron have this little grudge, which goes on for a while, then it's quickly resolved, and it didn't seem to add anything of substances to either character. One serious problem with the film is the new Albus Dumbledore played by Michael Gambon. The magic and charm that characterized the original Dumbledore were sorely lacking in the previous film, but this movie sinks to a ridiculous new lows with the character. He’s just so grouchy, bitter, depressing, angry, and even a little scary. There’s actually a scene with Dumbledore charging at Harry with full force, putting him in a strangle hold position, pushing him against a table, causing lots of things to topple over, and it’s just so out of character that it almost becomes self parody.
Things unfortunately don’t get much better with the new characters. Not much to say about the three additional champions, although it is kind of cool looking back at the young Robert Pattinson before he became famous.
Also, for whatever it's worth, the one French challenger is quiet beautiful ... I just wish there was more to her character. There’s also a cute little Asian girl named Cho Chang, whom Harry has a crush on, and their select scenes together actually get me excited to see how their relation will develop ... too bad nothing really comes of this in the long run. The new defense against the dark arts teacher is called Mad Eye Moody, who’s played very well by Brendan Gleeson, and he seems like a very interesting character at first. Unfortunately, there’s a twist at the end of the film (spoiler) that the real teacher has been held prisoner, and it was an imposter the whole time, and I mean the whole time, sense scene one, which ruins all the scenes this character shared with Harry in the first place ... this was also an issue I had with the book. Seriously, what was the point of establishing a teacher/ student relationship between these two if it was just an imposter, and what was the point of making the character so interesting if it was never really him? The imposter himself is revealed to be nothing like the teacher at all, in fact he’s just a cartoony villain that wants Harry dead. There’s also an annoying news reporter who's supposed to be one of those characters that you love to hate, but I never felt the movie did enough with her character ... although the actress does fit the role, and is clearly having fun in the part.
Well, that takes care of all my grapes with the characters, now let’s go back to my reservations with the story. However, before I continue, I do want to state that “Goblet of Fire” is perhaps the most difficult of the Harry Potter books to stream-line into a movie. After all, it’s twice the size of all the other books, and unlike “Deathly Hallows”, this film couldn’t be split into two movies. Let me just say that by taking this big a book, and scripting it into a motion picture, one that even non Harry Potter fans can follow is no simple task, but they did it, and ... it's a damn impressive feat.
Yet, while the writers put their all into this project, I’m still not too fond of the films tone, or the way the film is paced. Everything comes off as rushed, there isn’t enough time for the characters to breath, and they move from one scene to the next so quickly that it makes things somewhat dull. Plus, when you really look at this, “Goblet of Fire” doesn’t have much of a plot. It’s just Harry surviving this tournament, and everything else in-between comes off like filer. Now, you can argue that there was a lot of filler in the first three movies, which is true, but the difference is that the pacing was so good, that every scene felt like an experience in of itself, and it helped liven up this films magical universe. When this movie abruptly jumps from one scene to another, I just can’t take anything in as an experience, and it makes this magical world feel more like a special effect rather than a place you can live and breathe in. Even the visuals are a little too cartoony, with less of the practical effects that I loved in the first three films.
There’s also a number of scenes that as a fan, I was really looking forward to experiencing in this film, but I feel just didn't deliver all the way ... namely the big dance scene. Please don't miss understand me, I really was looking forward to the Yule Ball sequence, as it was an opportunity for our hero's to finally breath, and have a good time. Plus, I love the overall design of this ballroom, and making Hogwarts look like a giant ice cave was a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, there are two things that really spoil this scene for me. First of all, Harries date is some nameless girl with a stuck-up attitude, so I can’t say that it’s cute, or special when the two of them dance. Second, this scene leads to more uncomfortable heated arguing between our hero's. I wouldn’t mind this so much if it amounted to something, but the very next scene is a bonding moment between Herminie and Harry, focusing on how she’s concerned for his safety. In other words, the movie just continues as if that argument at the Yule Ball never happened, Harry never apologizes, Herminie and Ron never forgive one another, the film just moves on. So, what was the point of building up that Yule Ball if nothing special happens or if their friendship struggles have no bearing on the film?
Thankfully, we still have the three challenges, one of which is an awesome battle with a dragon. Actually, for whatever it’s worth, this dragon fight is one of the phew scenes that even improves on the book. It doesn't just take place in an arena, instead Harry gets on a broom, pursued by the dragon, and it all leads to this thrilling chase on the castle grounds. The second challenge is an underwater rescue mission as Harry has to save his friends from Mer-People. In the third challenge, Harry has to navigate through this magical maze, which should have been awesome ... I mean, it’s a magical maze, and the possibilities you could do with that are endless. Unfortunately, all we get in this maze are bushes that move around a little ... which is very underwhelming, as the writers should have watched Jim Henson’s motion picture “Labyrinth” to get some inspiration for what to do with a magical maze.
To be fair, the actual climax redeems my issues with the final challenge. Harries greatest enemy Voldemort emerges in the flesh, and challenges him in a wizard’s dual to the death. Voldemort is now played by Ralph Fiennes, a great actor, but he doesn’t really command the role until the next movie. To be honest, my first impressions of him weren’t that positive. I didn’t really like the characters design, and the voice just did feel as creepy in comparison to the first Voldemort played by Ian Heart. That Voldemort had a sinister, snake like voice, while this guy sounded like his throat was damaged from smoking. The performance was also a little too hammy at times, but thankfully Ralph Fiennes will completely redeem himself in the following films, and earn the recognition for being one of Hollywood’s greatest movie villains. The climax again is descent enough, and it's cool to finally see wand powers colliding. There's also a great moment in which the ghosts of Harry's parents come to his aide during the duel, and it works as one of the films more emotional highlights. The movie itself doesn’t exactly close on a high note, but at least it does a good job setting the stage for all the events that will unfold in the next film.
In all honesty, this was the first Harry Potter movie that I just felt in-different towered. It did it's just progressing the story forward at the end, but the experience leading-up to that has just never been one I cared to repeat. There are select moments that make for cool clips to watch, but in the end, this is still my least favorite entry in the original eight Harry Potter film series, but it doesn't bother me, as I still have plenty films in this series that I still like and enjoy. There's just something about the premise of this film that doesn't engage me, the characters just hit there familiar check-marks, and I've just never cared to re-watch it. As stated above, I don't hate this movie or anything, and if you like it, that's fine ... it’s just not for me.
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