Read the book first!

This fourth installment of the movie series is entirely about the Triwizard Tournament. Three finalists were chosen by the Goblet of Fire, and then the Goblet spit out an unprecedented fourth name: Harry Potter's. This is against the rules, since you have to be 16 to compete in Triwizardry, and Harry is only 14. The question is, who entered Harry's name, since Harry said he didn't?

"The Goblet of Fire" is my favorite Potter book so far in the series. (Well, I'm still reading "The Half Blood Prince" so that might change soon) If you think the 3rd book was dark, this one only gets darker. So I'm going to be biased about this movie and say I liked it a lot! It's always a pleasure to look at the characters and plots that you love so much to transform onto the big screen. Harry, Ron and Hermione have grown up. Cedric Diggory and Victor Krum looked exactly like what I imagined they would be. Cho Chang only had a few lines in this movie, but I'm sure we all know how much people already love her. I was a bit disappointed at the actress they cast for Fleur Delacour. She's supposed to be this stunning beauty that can take your breath away, but in the movie she was actually kind of bland.

The special effects, settings and costumes were excellent as usual. The dragons, the mermaids and the maze were really cool looking. I liked the look of "The Prisoner of Azkaban" better, but this is still better than the "The Sorcerer's Stone" and "The Chamber of Secrets". Nothing against Chris Columbus, I just don't think he's the right director for these kind of movies.

Onto the problems with this film. Since this book was so much longer than the previous ones, there were way too many subplots that were left out of this movie. I know it's difficult to fit everything into a 2 hour movie, but it's still disappointing. Whatever happened to the whole house elves action stirred up by Hermione? What happened to the butterfly turning Rita Skeeter? Most importantly, where the heck is the last pivotal scene in the book where Dumbledore starts to gather his group which will later become the Order of Phoenix?! I feel that for people who have not read the books, this movie will be really confusing. It didn't really explain a lot of the backstories and characters. Thus I'm not surprised when my friends who did not read the book all told me they didn't think this movie was all that great. This film did a great job of transforming scenes from the book onto the big screen, but storytelling wise, it was scattered and confusing.

So, if you want to truely enjoy this movie, I'll definitely recommend reading the book first before you go. Trust me, it'll be well worth your time.

http://wintervalley.blogspot.com/2005/11/harry-potter-and-goblet-of-fire.html