- Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- IMDB: link
It’s time for Harry to start doing things on his own. The Goblet of Fire gives the audience a look to things to come with Harry, Ron & Hermione. The 3 characters are now teenagers and begin their journey into self-acknowledgment and how they fit into the scheme of things. Harry is entered into the Triwizard Tournament completely by surprise and this chore makes him compete on his own, which leaves out the dynamic trio’s group effort to save the day. Ron & Hermione’s relationship starts to evolve through their little arguments. Hermione lets out a little secret to Ron during the Winter Yuletide Ball about her true feelings and how he should have asked her to the ball before somebody else did. The old-timers, Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, and Snape, usually concern themselves a great deal with Harry and his well being, but in The Goblet they didn’t have much to do with him. There were a few moments between Harry and the professors, but overall they were side notes in the whole scheme of things.
Isn’t Hogwarts a school? Funny thing is, the students were only seen in class once throughout the whole film, the rest of the time was spent on the Triwizard Tournament and the meaning behind Harry Potter’s nightmares. Harry is having bad dreams about the return of Lord Voldemort and trying to figure out if they are only a dream or a sign to what comes.
New characters like “Mad Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the new professor of the dark arts and muckraking journalist, Rita Skater (Miranda Richardson) adds a fresh change to the cast and a very entertaining one at that.
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is rated PG-13 in the attempts to be a darker more mature film for kids and adults, but there ended up being a great deal more comical moments in The Goblet of Fire than any previous Potter films. But the lighter side is accompanied with some fairly dark moments; there is a balanced mixture of drama and humor that makes this film a little more entertaining and less daughnting than The Prisoner of Azkaban.
The Goblet of Fire has a few too many CGI moments that don’t quite compute. The technologies we have today really show in films like Potter’s and The Lord of the Rings, but too much of it becomes overbearing and less quality. For example Madame Olympe Maxime (Frances de la Tour) and her Pegasus drawn chariot all look really out of place. She is a very tall woman, bigger than Hagrid and the computer effects used on her character showed the blue screen glow. Other moments of CGI in the film worked a little better, like the Dark Lake event in the Tournament looked pretty cool with the contenders under water with Merfolk and “sea monsters”. Overall, special effects should be used to enhance a films quality, not carry the film or add so much just because. Luckily The Goblet of Fire has a well-written storyline that it didn’t look like the creators were just counting on the special effects to carry the film.
Out of the 4 Potter films, The Goblet of Fire holds together and is one of the better attributes to the collection. As we see Harry get older and start to mature in his abilities as a witch and a young adult the adventures will surely get darker and a great deal more difficult, I hope the films can with stand this quality and keep the audience entertained. I can’t wait to see The Order of the Phoenix, which is not slated for release until 2007; it should prove to be quite exciting. The end of Goblet of Fire left a few open questions and a return of a bad guy on the loose.