'Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire' is directed by Mike Newell and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, and Alan Rickman. The fourth novel in the 'Harry Potter' series was one of the larger tomes to be released and as expected, adapting such a beefy book to the silver screen was no easy task. While for the most part they do succeed, I'm sad to say that I was really disappointed in this one. First off, I want to be known that I don't believe any film in this franchise to be horrible or unwatchable, quite the opposite in fact. It was fun to watch these all again, but you can't ignore what are obvious problems. I think the biggest issue here is that the film tries to shove as much as possible in a two hour running time, causing some more important aspects to be left on the cutting room floor while rather pointless subplots leak in.
What I love about the film is once again the beautiful cinematography and the wonderful casting. The introduction of Ralph Fiennes' Voldemort is a genuinely chilling one and you can just feel the joy slowly drain from your body when he's present. He pulls off the villain perfectly. The film's special effects this time around are really top notch as well. The film's centerpiece revolves around what you would call 'Wizard Olympics' and here's where the design team gets to show off some unique and really cool creatures and action sequences. The film itself seems to have this icy look to it throughout as well. Somewhat continuing 'Azkaban's' foggy style but going full stylized with it, it really adds to the look of the film.
Unfortunately, despite all of this I'd be hard pressed to tell you I remember much of what actually occurs in the film scene by scene. With the previous films and even the later ones, there's that one standout sequence that I always remember but with 'Goblet of Fire' I can't recall much that really wowed me. Yes, the ending is the highlight for sure and the various challenges Harry faces have some great action to them, I really just can't get into this one. The novel was much more engaging and with this being one of my favorite books in the series, I was really bummed that the film couldn't achieve a greater status than it did.
In summary, I said before I don't hate any of these films but 'Goblet of Fire' should have been so much better. It's more disappointment for me than a bad film, as its as well made as the rest and the cast still performs brilliantly as always. It's just the many elements stripped from the book and the overall rushed feeling the film has that lets it down. I still recommend it but not as much as the others.
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