Josh's Weblog: Review: <em>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</em>

Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Monday night Misty and I pre-screened Harry Potter at the Goblet of Fire in hopes of seeing that it would be appropriate for Alana (8) and Ryan (now 6). We came to the conclusion that it's probably too scary for them as yet. Perhaps I should not let Alana see it until she actually reads it and still asks to see it.

So, the widespread discussion about this new movie (and book) being considerably darker than the previous ones is certainly true. There's the same peril and adventure, but a decidedly nastier tone. People are actually killed and not saved in some way for the first time in the series. We have our first one-on-one confrontation with the nemesis. The light-hearted tone has faded somewhat.

However, we have a new addition that may be welcome for some in that each of our chums is starting to have romantic feelings. Of course they are confused and many angsty mistakes are made. That must be a given. We have our first dance and the usual comedy around asking people out, dressing up, and dancing.

The film checks in at two and a half hours and yet we still missed important parts of previous adventures. There's very little of the normal school stories, or even a Quidditch match. Confrontations with Snape and Malfoy feel truncated. There's no recognition of Harry's birthday (which starts off each book/year). There's no Headless Nick that I remember.

So, this film comes across a little rushed and flat compared to previous ones. I agree with others that Harry's cohorts appear to have done better acting around early teenage emotional issues compared to the main actor. Ralph Finnes did a great (and evil) performance. Little else really jumped out at me, except the new defense against the dark arts instructor. This is not going to win as my favorite of the four films, and none of these four compares to, say, Lord of the Rings. I gave the others a pass as being movies for children, but this one is no longer for children (at PG-13). And I certainly won't take my 8-year-old to see it.

Now I need to pre-screen The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe…

Josh Poulson

Posted Wednesday, Dec 7 2005 07:16 AM

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Comments

There are 2 comments on this entry.

Have you read the book? Quiddich was canceled because they grew the maze where the quiddich field used to be.

I thought they edited quite well and that the deviations from the book were done very well and gave the movie more flow and balance than it woudl have had if they had tried to keep things like the house elfs and such in. I thought it was the best one so far.

Lou

Posted Wednesday, Dec 7 2005 08:53 AM