Bloodless Coup

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It's very good. Not perfect, but if you are a Potter and Hogwarts fan, and I am, I don't think you'll be disappointed. While it doesn't hold to the book in every way, it certainly captures the spirit of the text, and it tells a fun, dark, fantastical story at a fast clip, even if the movie is rather long. Mike Newell (who directed Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco, among other works) helms this 4th Potter film, and while it's not presented in as poetic a fashion as Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban, he effectively manages both the comedy and the horror to create a great weekend diversion.

There are several things that I think were done extremely well. Lord Voldemort's return and duel with Harry is handled well, even if it's a little shorter than I would have preferred. Ralph Fiennes is great as the villian, who like so many super villains before him, should know better than to slowly engage our hero in a duel. Miranda Richardson is superb and malicious as Rita Skeeter, the dangerous "journalist". The actors cast as Viktor Krum and Cedric Diggory are perfect for their roles (quiet, hulking and athletic and almost too good-guy handsome and strong). The addition of Mad-Eye Moody is one of the great pleasures of the film, and Madame Maxime adds more wizarding world flavor. The Yule Ball scene is superbly realized, as is the mer-people task in the Triwizard Tournament, and there are a number of even small bits to the film that are just as you'd be likely to visualize them when reading the book (for example, the Potter Stingks badges). And as a big fan of the Weasley twins and Shirley Henderson (who plays Moaning Myrtle), its good to see them get some screen time.

I have some quibbles with the film that I'll discus in the extended entry, but on the whole, it's good. I recommend it - fine (albeit dark and spooky) family fun.

OK, so here is the SPOILERS section.

Some of the omissions from the book are fine. There's no real need to see Ludo Bagman, for example. But to omit everything involving the house elves is a little odd. It's not a gross omission, but for fans of the book, well, it's a big change in the story. Still, it's handled pretty well, even if it does tone down part of Hermione's character (and any interest in the student body of Hogwarts in political activism). I wouldn't have continued to explicitly mention the students' ages in this film - they don't look 14, after all. And depending on what they plan on doing with Rita Skeeter in the future films, its seems problematic that they didn't discuss a key aspect of her character. And the maze, well, I'm not sure I really like what they did with it, but all in all, I'm not annoyed or disappointed.

So, what did disappoint me? As a big fan of Professor Trelawney and Molly Weasley, I was a little disappointed not to see them in this film. I am also annoyed that they never discussed Cedric being a member of Hufflepuff. The Houses have been a big part of the mythology of this work, but they aren't mentioned at all in this film. And since Diggory is the biggest thing that we'll ever see associated with Hufflepuff, the House that gets the "hard-workers" (aka those who aren't particularly smart, brave or ambitious), it's too bad not to see that connection made in the film (I'm presuming that there are Hufflepuff fans out there, even though that's somewhat similar to saying that Ringo is one's favorite Beatle). Finally, my biggest head-scratchers are 1) the way they handled the wands crossing in the duel (which will likely leave viewers who haven't read the book confused) and 2) the way the film handled Beauxbatons. The script makes it a girls' school (which it wasn't in the book, though its champion was a girl), forces the girls to perform an ever-so stereotypical, feminine dance, and yet, even though they are going through all that cooing in silk stuff, chooses not to mention veela at all. That seems odd to me. As long as you are piling on, why not follow the mythology?

Still, these are mostly minor quibbles. It's a good movie, and am rather disappointed (yes, already) that I have to wait a year to see the next installment in the series.