Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In the space of about a month during the summer, I read all six Harry Potter books back-to-back. The are about as addictive as crack cocaine so anyone thinking of delving into the world of Wizards, Hogwarts, owls and pumpkin juice beware; they will take up every second of your free time. Dismissed as children’s books by the ignorant, the series has depth and a level of sophistication (and entertainment) that can be appreciated by anyone. While not as epic as The Lord of the Rings, the Potter books easily surpass the dated Chronicles of Narnia. It remains to be seen which of the various film adaptations of these similarly themed books will prove most successful.

Peter Jackson set the bar high in terms of the quality of transition from book to the big screen and success with his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Mike Newell, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - released last weekend - has done equally well with a challenging adaptation that condensed a 700 page book into a two and a half hour film. The subplots he cut, while adding to a readers enjoyment of J. K. Rowling's book, were the right choices for the film version. So Hermione's fight to liberate house-elves and much of Rita Skeeter's reporting are gone. Instead the film concentrates on the Triwizard tournament and our hero's raging hormones which makes for intense action scenes and explosive fights between the principle characters. The effects work is flawless as can be seen in the awe-inspiring dragon chase sequence.

As is the case in the books the films are getting darker with each instalment. Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort finally makes an his long awaited appearance and he is played in all his insidious nastiness by Ralph Fiennes. The performance of the three leads are honed to perfection. It's now difficult to imagine anyone else playing these characters - especially Rupert Grint as Ron. They may look older than fourteen - as they were supposed to be in the film - but its not exactly usual to see actors in their twenties play characters in their teens. Hopefully they will stay on to complete the series. On another note it was great to see an expanded role for Ron's twin brothers Fred and George who truly are legends - I can't wait until they are truly given a chance to shine in The Order of the Phoenix.

The only criticism I would have is that the score is definitely weaker than the first few films in the franchise, perhaps a symptom of the loss of John Williams this time around.

Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed it. Goblet is certainly up there with the much lauded Prisoner of Azkaban and surpasses the first two Potter films. Go see it!