I won’t call myself a devoted follower of the Harry Potter phenomenon dreamed up by J.K. Rowling, while she slept on the streets of Edinburgh. I would say, however, that I am a man who enjoyed the first three movies enough to look forward to seeing the latest incarnation: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire basically continues where “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” left off. Another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Mr. Harry Potter and his wizard friends. This time however, Harry is thrust into the Tri-Wizard Tournament where he must go against older and stronger wizards in challenging quests, all the while dealing with being a 14 year old boy.
Although, in all honestly, I can’t remember fully the stories behind the previous movies, I do believe Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire delves deeper into the psyche of Harry Potter. This is a good thing. We see Harry as being a troubled adolescent, coming to terms with the loss of parents, his awkwardness with girls and his realization of his birthright. It’s just not all fun and games for the boy-wizard anymore. The action scenes are fast paced and the CGI, be it lush landscapes to pissed off dragons, is top notch. Another surprising plus about the movie is Emma Watson who plays Harry’s girl pal Hermione Granger. She is young yet, but in a few years she’ll be one of the hot crowd in Hollywood . . . watch for her.
Of course there are a few dull moments. First, this movie is loooong. Damn near three hours. I would have preferred if the movie was a bit more condensed. After all, I’m an important person, motherfucker. Secondly, the movie is awfully dark. Understandably, a lot of the movie takes place at night, but I once I start squinting to see what the fuck is going I begin to lose focus.
Personally, I don’t think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the best movie in the series. This doesn’t mean you won’t get your kicks out of this movie though. Any fan of the books should see it (if you haven’t already). As for casual followers, if you have three hours to kill, watch it. Otherwise, life will continue as always.
'Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)' have 6 comments
December 5, 2005 @ 8:42 am Bounce Hand
I’m not a big fan of Harry Potter and I have not watched the previous movies either. When I started to watch this movie, I did not have any expectations. To me this was some kid movie which reached puberty for the first since it has a PG-13 ranking for first time in all its installments.
The Goblet of Fire starts with Harry Potter having a dream, which failed to make any sense to me since for obvious reasons, that I had not watched the previous movies from the series. There upon the movie moves to some match up between Ireland and Bulgaria, and I’m thinking soccer match with some witchcraft for scoring goals. Next comes the Triwizard tournament, nut somehow Harry Potter’s name is picked up and spat from the Goblet of Fire! Suprise there. The games itself had some nice touch to it trying to fight the dragons or fishing for some dead people under the lake with a fresh set of fins and gills.
This most recent movie transforms into the setting of a contemporary high school, with teachers slapping students on the back of the head or throwing chalk at them when they are inattentive. They seem to have forgotten they have wands. This movie leans heavily on the previous films. Scraps of unfinished storylines litter the screen. A character is found dead in the forest with no cause of death and no murderer. In the closing scenes Dumbledore delivers a monologue about overcoming prejudice. And last to mention is the fact that some character called Lord Voldemort is played by Ralph Fiennes is worth mentioning.
Well to sum it up, scenes fly by, stripped of depth or meaningful dialog. Atleast this was to me since I could not follow half the movie or who or what the characters meant unless there was some previous knowledge.
This movie fell off a cliff. I rate this movie D.
December 5, 2005 @ 11:31 am Mr. Chocolate
Perhaps you should have seen the first movies before tearing this movie to pieces. Did you feel the same when you watched Star Wars? I thnk not. . .
December 5, 2005 @ 3:20 pm Bounce Hand
Well before I go watch the movie to fill in the gaps, I did mention how the likes of this movie was lacking certain ingredients to make it a worthy watch. Last off, I don’t think this movie would match up to Star Wars even after watching all the previous movies from the series to make comparisons.
December 5, 2005 @ 8:54 pm Mr. Chocolate
I mentioned Star Wars because it is actually the fourth movie of the series. However, I don’t imagine you complained when you first saw it because there were things that you didn’t understand. . .
December 15, 2005 @ 11:47 am Killer Rooster
You mentioned squinting at the dark settings of the movie. You must have a crappy TV set as most of the better high end TV’s now out today adjust this problem by employing several techniques to provide crisp images in dark settings. Time to break the bank and upgrade.
January 25, 2006 @ 8:48 pm Mr. Chocolate
Perhaps I would, if only thecatenas.com paid more for my illustrious reviews . . .