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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

November. 18,2005
|
7.7
|
PG-13
| Adventure Fantasy
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When Harry Potter's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools—the Triwizard Tournament. But since Harry never submitted his name for the Tournament, who did? Now Harry must confront a deadly dragon, fierce water demons and an enchanted maze only to find himself in the cruel grasp of He Who Must Not Be Named.

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Diagonaldi
2005/11/18

Very well executed

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PodBill
2005/11/19

Just what I expected

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WiseRatFlames
2005/11/20

An unexpected masterpiece

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Ezmae Chang
2005/11/21

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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TheNabOwnzz
2005/11/22

After the extraordinary Prisoner of Azkaban there is no doubt that it was hard to live up to its reputation, and The Goblet of Fire definitely did not manage to do that, as it is definitely the weakest of the bunch up to this point.The biggest problem with this entry when comparing it to its predecessor is its use of digital backdrops instead of natural ones. This is also a part where The Prisoner of Azkaban shines in so brightly, as it used a lot of gorgeous backdrops of natural surroundings and showed a lot of interconnectivity of its area's to create a truly immersive experience. In the Goblet of Fire, many of the outdoor shots are bleak, colorless & quite ugly, and after the incredible cinematography that Azkaban had, the Goblet of Fire just looks like its ugly auntie. Also, this is, like Reign of Fire (2002) once again an absolute insult to common mythology as it is common knowledge that Dragons have four legs, and not two like in this film. The correct term for this creature should be 'Wyvern' instead of Dragon, as they do walk on two legs like the ones in this movie do. The previous two movies were exceptional at introducing new characters, but in this film this is not so much the case, except for Brendan Gleeson ( Moody ) who was, ofcourse, brilliant as usual as this completely mad and insane yet mostly likeable character. However, the addition of two schools of who we have never heard of and its colorless characters such as Krum or Fleur Delacour definitely does not help give the film character. Ofcourse i do not need to explain to people who have seen Twilight what a terrible actor Robert Pattinson ( Cedric ) is, and it is no different in this film. Luckily, he was only used sparingly and his dialogue is quite limited.Another obvious problem is the lack of a John Williams score. The composer Patrick Doyle tries to give it his best but he is obviously no match for Williams, and the score for this film is not memorable in any way, which is in stark contrast to the extremely emotionally powerful scores the first three movies had. The result is the iconic feel of the series is kind of gone, and a great part of it is due to Williams's departure from the series.In the end the film really isn't about anything. It's about a tournament with three deadly objectives just for the sake of 'Tradition and honor'? It seems so out of place after what we have seen in the first three films, in which the narrative seemed logical and humane, but in the Goblet of Fire the narrative seems to be there for the sake of being a narrative, and not much else. There is also a gigantic ball scene with a lot of characters no one cares about and Ron who always seems pissed off at either Hermione of Harry for no obvious reason, which significantly lowers the audience's connections with its three main leads which has been established so wonderfully in its predecessors.Luckily there still is the final half hour, as the graveyard sequence and Voldemort's resurrection is quite fascinating to behold, although it still has its flaws. It is said many times that Voldemort was scarier when he was not fully seen, and there is truth to this, yet i still find it that this scene is the most memorable in the film due to the exceptional special effects clashing of the wands and the fantastic Ralph Fiennes ( Voldemort ) performance. However, it seems he was so obsessed with himself that he let a hollywood cliché get the better of him, preferring to talk Harry to death instead of actually trying to kill him, and this admittedly makes Voldemort less intimidating compared to how intimidating he was in its predecessors when not being seen. Cedric's death is supposed to be an emotional moment after this, but we do not really actually know Cedric's character or what good he has done except tip Harry off about the dive objective, and therefore an emotional connection with his character cannot really be formed which results in his death not affecting the audience that much.It is by no means a bad film overall, as its costume design, parts of indoor cinematography and acting by most of the established actors is still pretty good, but for a Harry Potter entry it is definitely a let down. Oh well, atleast the audience has the joy of seeing that annoying guy from Twilight get killed. That alone makes sure it still deserves some praise.

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Billylkbrooke
2005/11/23

Please note I have included spoilers concerning the story of the book and film of the Goblet of Fire. If you have not read or seen either the book or film first, I would recommend doing so before reading this review. Now onto the review.Preface: Having just finished the finals to my undergraduate degree I decided to re-watch all the Harry Potter films together, and it was relaxing in front of these classic films that I noticed a problem. The Goblet of Fire follows the Prisoner of Azkaban, arguably the best of the films second only to the grand finale, and pales in comparison. Many of the complaints concerning the film focus on its closeness to the books, noticing that a great many details were dropped for time reasons. However, changing aspects of the story aren't always an issue; the third film omitted much of the backstory of Harry's father, and heavily condensed the emphasis on Hermione's impossible timetable that made the time-turner plot twist seem more sudden. The fourth film by comparison had severe pacing issues at its start, and leaves many book events introduced without conclusion, highlighting that its issue lay with how close it wanted to be to the book, which cased it to fall short. With this in mind, I'm suggesting that this film shows the problem a large book presents to a film adaptation; namely, the Goblet of Fire suffers from cutting large sections of the book, forcing pacing issues and reducing the impact of its story.Review Proper: The Goblet of Fire's pacing problem is tantalisingly clear from the very start, with a first act that hurtles forward. We are introduced to the villain, Barty Crouch Junior, in the first scene, and then the Quidditch World Cup, and then to a Death Eater riot that disrupts it, all within 12 minutes. The speed of which this occurs almost causes whiplash as I was left wandering why we were taken to the Quidditch World Cup if all we saw of it was the two teams flying towards each other before a quick cut. The riot afterwards similarly lasts a mere minute as we see a flash of chaos before Harry is quickly knocked out for the important plot point that follows. Hogwarts becomes the stage of the story after 15 minutes of story, a speed at definite odds with other films in the series, and instead highlights not the intriguing story to come but that interesting story points were dropped. The quick build up to the World Cup is squandered as the match is edited out, which only reminded me of its appearance in the book. The chaos of the riot cut short again only reminded me of its more sober and imposing pace devoted to it in the books. Details of the plot edited out for time reasons were abrasively visible, simply because the film mentioned these moments before hurtling past them, refusing to pause to take these moments in. A further moment that shows this is when Hermione recommends Harry tell Sirius about his dream on the train to Hogwarts; the film doesn't take the time to debate this and remind us with some pensive dialogue of Sirius' role in Harry's life. Instead we shift quickly to the next scene where other schools arrive at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Cut, moving uncomfortably between two barely connected story points. The cut is jarring, mismatched, and highlights that this film was juggling many ideas at its start, not knowing quite what to keep or what to omit.As the second act draws in we are introduced to the main crux of the plot itself - the Triwizard Cup Tournament. This is where the film settles down, having many character driven scenes as Harry is forced into the tournament and the dangers to his life mount in ever more dangerous tasks. This is where the film shines a bit more, because the film finds focus, keeping to the telling of the tournament, and regaling plot points and action set pieces important only to the telling of this tournament. We also are given hints towards the grand reveal of the tournament itself; Mad-Eye is fantastically played by Brendan Gleeson, who delivers a masterful act as the menacing but seemingly trusting Defence-Against-the-dark-arts teacher who is not who he seems. There is enough of Barty Junior to add weight to his reveal, and Voldemort's reveal is the true highlight of the film as it is the one time the film stops and takes in the gravity of story taking place.The second act onwards bears the marks of a good film. It is riveting, engaging, and the ending is superb emotionally and visually. However, the opening highlights an issue that prevents this from being a great film, which is story focus. The first act sets up the importance of Barty Crouch Junior to the story but omits most of Crouch Senior until his death and pensive appearance, omitting entirely the story of how he placed the imperius curse on his son to stop him re-joining Voldemort. Seemingly irrelevant material except until we consider that this "side plot" is central to the story. To explain what I mean, I refer primarily to the general story arcs of the book and particularly to what its story is about.So the Goblet of Fire focuses on two consecutive issues: the Triwizard tournament, and the return of Voldemort. The book is about the return of Voldemort, and this is demonstratively clear because the story concludes with Voldemort's return, for which the tournament is only the story's catalyst. The tournament ensures, by means of a timely portkey, that Harry arrives to bring about Voldemort's return, and thus the story is not about the tournament at all. Consequently, the story is instead really about the plot concerning Voldemort's return, and this can be stilled into one main mysterious question: who put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire? This question causes the story to progress as Harry is forced into the tournament against his will, leading eventually to Voldemort's return, and is made possible by Barty Crouch Junior. Crouch Junior is central to this story arc, and thus he needed to be fully fleshed out as a character, and his motivations made clear. This was established in the books with resounding depth by Rowling but lacks depth in the film because his story arc was distilled, and Crouch Junior was reduced to a "loyal servant of Voldemort".As such, the book is exceptional for providing two concurrent plot threads, one of which dominates the story (the tournament) despite being, effectively, a red herring deceiving us on what the story is about. The book overtly tells the story of the tournament but provides a constant stream of clues about Crouch's story arc that moves the true story forward. The film omits much of this, providing a mere 4 scenes for David Tennant, and thus focuses far too much on the tournament. This highlights a key issue in book adaptation, namely that details must be omitted to provide a coherent story within two and a half hours. However, the Goblet of Fire is an example of a film that struggled with this issue, and focused on the wrong areas, unbalancing the story and causing blaring pacing issues. Most of the set up for the story's cathartic reveal comes from the first act, with the Quidditch World Cup and Crouch's introduction, an event glossed over by the film in its haste to introduce us to the Triwizard Tournament. Conclusion: I have been perhaps unduly harsh against the Goblet of Fire, because at its heart it is a good story, and had to deal with a huge problem: how do you adapt a book that has potentially 5 hours' worth of cohesive film material in it? The answer the film presents is focus; emphasise the story points of one of the two main story arcs to provide a coherent narrative for the audience to follow for two hours. Where the Goblet of Fire fell short of being a great film was it simply, to my mind, focused on the lesser of the two stories. The Triwizard tournament is a distraction in the books from the more important mystery of who put Harry Potter's name in the Goblet of Fire, who Barty Crouch Junior was, and why did he want so desperately to bring about Voldemort's return. The film answered only the most basic of these questions, succumbing to the distraction the action of the tournament provided. The confused first act of the film demonstrates this issue; the first act of the book's story was dedicated to setting up Crouch Junior, establishing Crouch Senior's controlling character and introducing Winkie the house elf. With this cut down, the first act had little to stand on and wobbled.I'd like to conclude here by asserting that this shows not that the Goblet of Fire was a poor adaptation, but instead illustrates the danger long books pose to story telling in film. The solution the Goblet of Fire poses pulls the film short of being great. I feel with this Harry Potter film, Steve Kloves did not quite understand the book as well as he did Rowling's other works when writing the screenplay. That is not to say he failed, simply that he fell short, which is disappointing considering how great the Goblet of Fire book is.

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morganstephens512
2005/11/24

This movie is very different from the first three in the series. The entire movie shows that the fun and happy adventure that were in the first three movies is not really what is going to stick around the whole time. The entire movie sets up Voldemort and his introduction was one of the best things in the entire series. He has a great introduction in this movie and all four events shown in this movie were really well done and great to watch and it does have a lot of great eye candy to it for lack of a better term. The actors really start to get good in this movie and this is the first movie that goes outside of Hogwarts and while Hogwarts doesn't really feel like a different character anymore, it is sacrificed for the series feeling like a much larger world of its own from this point forward.

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colm-hearne365
2005/11/25

The reason why I think Goblet of Fire is the best out of all the Harry Potter movies is because it's the most exciting, action-packed, darker, suspenseful or even romantic. One of the things I loved about it was that it was the one with the most new characters: Victor Krum, Cedric Diggory, Fleur Declour, Rita Skeeter, Cho Chang, Mad-Eye Moody, the Patil twins, Barty Crouch Sr., Barty Crouch Jr.. They also did a really great job on the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The tasks were so action packed and fantastic. My favourite character in this one is Mad Eye Moody. Brendan Gleeson was so great as him. And he's probably one of my favourite actors from my country. Another thing I really liked about the first touch of romance in it. There were a lot of fine girls in this film: Hermione Granger, Cho Chang, Fleur Declour and the Patil twins. One of my favourite scenes was the Yule Ball. Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) looked so beautiful in this scene! One of the biggest things about this film is the return of Lord Voldemort. I just loved all the special effects and magic and how organised the plot is. The Harry Potter books and films really inspire me to become an writer myself. Also, happy birthday to the very talented and beautiful Emma Watson!

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