Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Release date: November 18, 2005
Director: Mike Newell
Novel by: J.K. Rowling
Screenplay by: Steve Kloves
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, David Tennant, Brendan Gleeson, Timoty Spall, Michael Gambon, Robert Pattinson, Clémence Poésy, Stanislav Ianevski, Katie Leung, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Miranda Richardson, Warwick Davis, Jason Isaacs, Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, Mark Williams, Frances de la Tour, Gary Oldman, Shirley Henderson, Bonnie Wright, Oliver Phelps, James Phelps

Continuing with our Harry Potter reviews before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, I live-tweeted Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire #HP4GoF last night. Now we’ve only got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which Rodrigo will be in charge of (#HP5OotP).

In Goblet of Fire, Harry is taking courses during his fourth year at Hogwarts — if you don’t know what’s Hogwarts, what are you doing reading this? Watch Philosopher’s Stone first — in which there will be a very special event known as the Triwizard Tournament — as in “three” wizards. However, the magic cup known as the Goblet of Fire that chooses the competitors picks one extra wizard… Harry, of course.

So he must not only compete to pass the test, but also for dear life, as things are set in motion for the return of You-Know-Who.

However, between all this drama, there’re the first hints of teenage angsts, love… and even a dance known as the Yuleball, complete with a Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) as lead singer from Wizardry rock band Wyrd Sisters — a name they didn’t use in the film.

Mike Newell, known for films like Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral, picks up after Cuaron in terms of cinematic quality and use of lingering shots enhanced by the enchanting — but not as magical — score by Patrick Doyle, and infuses the series with… hormones? Goblet of Fire is possibly the Harry Potter film that’s more focused on the romantic aspects of the franchise, and it creates a really bizarre atmosphere.

Even if my heart did jump when Hermione comes down the stairs — cue music, cue Parvati Patil “she’s beautiful” in all those warm and fuzzy colors as Harry turns around and his jaw drops.

There are a lot of great things in Goblet of Fire as a film, but most of them are related to the tournament itself. The tasks the Triwizard champions must face are exciting and quite dynamic. While the climax of the film, when Voldemort finally shows up and a noseless, hairless Fiennes takes the stage is quite unsettling.

Other performances to note are Gleesom’s not-Mad-Eye, and Miranda Richardson as the saccharine acid journalist Rita Skeeter.

Rating: ★★★¼☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

14 Responses

  1. Mirella says:

    Meh, Hermione’s “coming down the stair” wasn’t that awesome to me. It felt more powerful to me in the book because Hermione wasn’t “a beauty” but then we realized “damn, the girl cleans up rather well!”. But in the movies Emma was already looking all pretty and stylish since HP3. It was like Dan said in an interview: “Emma was never ugly, so, it was just like, now you’re even more beautiful!”
    And maaaan I hate Hermione’s characterization. She’s never a weepy hysterical girl. She gets mad and even!
    The ones I loved the most were Miranda Richardson and Ralph Fiennes XD
    It unsettled me (but admitedly made me fun) when Snape was used as comic relief for a moment there :P

    • amy says:

      @Mirella, Fiennes looked really eager to be Voldie… and despite being in only two barely significant scenes, Richardson’s Skeeter stole it. Specially with that little wink she gave LOL

      I do have a few points in regards of Hermione… she does whine a lot in Deathly Hallows though, and that’s one of the things I hated the most in the book. She wasn’t weepy in here, she was just tired of Ron’s downright git personality. Gosh, that boy… really.

      I don’t think he ever recovered from that kick down in character he got, which they tried to fix in later movies.

      • Mirella says:

        @amy, That’s it, Hermione gets mad, gets pissy, gets huffy. She doesn’t start crying and screaming histerically… that’s just not her :P
        I think Kloves is a Harry/Hermione shipper, and before all a Hermione fan. She was stealing lines from Ron in movie 2 and 3. Another example of weepy Hermione is when she got to explain what “mudblood” means in movie 2 and she got upset. In the book, it was Ron who explained it (because obv Hermione doesn’t know about racial slurs in wizarding world yet), and she didn’t look about to cry. And in movie 3, it was Ron not Hermione who said “If you want to kill Harry you’ll have to kill us too” to Sirius. :P

  2. Rodrigo says:

    “While the climax of the film, when Voldemort finally shows up and a noseless-hairless-Fiennes takes the stage is quite unsettling.”

    I do think that other parts of the film were really hard to watch as well, especially things involving Grint and Watson.

    Agreed on Gleesom and Richardson as the best acts here.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, it’s because no one likes Ron and Hermione taking over screentime that could be used to develop the tournament xD

      Though some say a natural part of the books, in the movies they look out of place when they don’t have to do with the course of the story. That’s the problem with Ron and Hermione… it has nothing to do with Harry.

  3. Castor says:

    I haven’t seen any Harry Potter movie yet, believe it or not! I’m getting myself ready for a weekend marathon… someday.

  4. Dan says:

    I really enjoyed Goblet of Fire. It marked a change for the Harry Potter series at the time – it begins this transition from them being young children to them being teenagers. I’d probably put it up there with Prisoner of Azkaban as the best of Harry Potter series.

    • amy says:

      @Dan, I used to agree… then Deathly Hallows Part 1 happened. That one didn’t push Azkaban, but it certainly moved Goblet down a notch xD Of course, I’m dreading Part 2 because it could ruin my enjoyment of both parts lol

  5. Red says:

    The 4th one seemed rather bland to me. Obviously still better than the first two years, and definitely marked a change of direction in the series (as did the third…I see the final chapters a combination of those two sections of the series), but if the movie wasn’t displaying the Quidditch World Cup or the Tri-Wizard Tourney, it didn’t do much for me.

    Pretty stoked about 7.2 though. Takes me back to the days of being in junior high/high school and obsessing about this stuff.

    • amy says:

      @Red, I agree – to my shipping heart’s discontent – that the romance did little for the movie, except maybe make it longer. The Triwizard tournament is pretty well handled, though… and perhaps the Quidditch World Cup could have been a bit longer… but I really don’t care much for Quidditch myself. xD

      I would have liked to have more significance to Rita Skeeter though, or at least had given Hermione more than just a “crying girl at the ball” credit.

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