Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Darker But Still Magical

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, the much anticipated fourth installment of J.K. Rowling’s tale of the boy wizard finally hit theaters in November. With its darker theme, the movie was the first of the Harry Potter movies to receive a PG-13 rating.

This time around Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is faced with a number of obstacles. From the beginning, Harry has dreams of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) who seems to be planning a way to get rid of him. Harry also finds himself falling for Cho Chang (Katie Leung), a fellow Hogwarts student. However, the biggest event that Harry has to face is the Triwizard Tournament.

Hogwarts plays host to Durmstrang with their headmaster Karkaroff (Predrag Bjelac) and Beauxbatons with headmistress Madame Maxime (Frances de la Tour). The names of candidates are placed in an old, impartial goblet which chooses a champion from each school. The goblet produces the names of Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski) from Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy) from Beauxbatons and Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) from Hogwarts. Everyone is shocked when a fourth name is thrown out: Harry Potter.

Since each champion is required to compete, there is no backing out for Harry who must face three grueling tasks: recover a golden egg that’s being guarded by a dragon, recover “something precious that has been stolen” which has been placed in the lake and finding the tournament trophy in a massive maze. Although the tasks are daunting, Harry seems to find an ally in Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Will Harry win the Triwizard Tournament? How does Voldemort play into all this? You’ll have to watch “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” to find out!

This is another movie where I’ve heard pros and cons about so I ended up seeing this one twice just to form my own opinion. The book itself is several hundred pages long while the movie is around two and a half hours so some things had to be edited out or not filmed at all. The movie covered the major points of the book which should lead to a smooth transition to the next film, for the most part.

The three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament were exciting; especially the chase scene in the first task between Harry and the dragon. The underwater sequences were fun and the maze sequence was a bit spooky. Another highlight was the graveyard scene. (In case you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it!) I also thought the Dark Mark effect that was shown several times was good.

The cast has to be one of the main reasons the films are successful. Brendan Gleeson was an excellent addition as the slightly crazed Mad-Eye Moody. He, along with George and Fred Weasley (Oliver and James Phelps) brought some comedic relief to the film as does Snape (Alan Rickman) in a scene with Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Harry in class. It was also good to see more of Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) in this film (she seemed underutilized in the last one) as well as Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) beginning to break out of his shell.

One of the major debates that some movie fans have been having is Michael Gambon’s (angrier/emotional) portrayal of Dumbledore in the new film. I tend to be one of those who liked this performance for two reasons: he knew, for once, he couldn’t protect Harry and I think it shows that he has what it takes to take on Voldemort in the next movie.

There were a couple of things that I thought could have been better about the film. Rita Skeeter (Miranda Richardson) was barely used in the movie so we don’t get to see just how much of a nuisance she was to Harry and Hermione. We also don’t get to know too much about Barty Crouch Jr.’s (David Tennant) background. Also, while Dumbledore does give a closing speech regarding the events that have happened, I thought it would have been a little better if the movie would have touched on the impending “war” with Voldemort and the problems with the Ministry of Magic. I believe (if memory serves me right) at the end of the book he sent out Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Snape on separate missions while contacting some of his allies who’ll eventually be the “Order of the Phoenix”.

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is a good continuation of the story. It shows that things are changing and signals the darker times to come.