I don't mean to start this off all chipper here, but I really did like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I didn't think I would, but I did, and I'm pretty sure I've figured out why. It's all the scriptwriter, Steven Kloves' fault, and I'm starting to fear for Order of the Phoenix, which he's not adapting.
The thing about movies that are crafted around a much beloved series of books is that rarely do they live up to expectations. Generally speaking, it doesn't matter if the movie is good, or if it holds up as entertaining. The main criteria always seems to be how close it is to the source material, and that's not fair. It's impossible to cram every ounce of detail in a 1000+ page novel into two hours of movie. The best adaptations have always been written by people who excell at editing. It's a unique skill to take a novel and pare it down into a script that flows well enough to drive the action, keep everybody entertained, and capture the salient points of the source material. Obviously, the more detailed and fully realized the novel, the harder that scriptwriter's job.
Fortunately for the Harry Potter series, Steven Kloves excells at his job. To date, he has done a masterful job of editing J.K. Rowling's work into fine movie script form. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is no exception. Yes, it's missing quite a lot of information, and Kloves takes a big risk in relying on what we already know about the Potterverse to bring in new characters, but it works. Goblet of Fire snaps along at a breakneck pace in a masterful attempt to cram as much information into two and a half hours of movie as it possibly can. The end result is that by the time you get situated with your soda and popcorn, switch seats out from in front of the nine year old brat that's kicking the back of your chair, shuffle through a half hour of badly produced commercials and mostly uninteresting previews, you find yourself getting up to leave the theater with the stunning impression that you have just been well entertained for the last few minutes. It's a shocker to find out you've been there over two hours. Any movie that can do that rates an A+ and multiple viewings in my book.
Mike Newell is a director who has always excelled at making movies that sound horrible in concept work extremely well, and I would never have thought to associate him with the Harry Potter series. His track record to date consists of an eclectic mix of non genre work including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pushing Tin, Donnie Brasco and the chick flick to end all chick flicks, Mona Lisa Smile. There's a real mad genius at work behind the scenes of the Potter franchise, and it makes me think that maybe someone like Anthony Minghella should tackel a Steven King novel or two. The combination works and works well. Newell draws outstanding performances out of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint who under a lesser director would be sleepwalking through their parts by now.
Principles aside, the secondary characters in this movie seem to be having fun too. David Tennant has a blast playing Barty Crouch Jr. and masterfully steals every scene he's in. Brendan Gleeson, the great character actor that tends to get cast in at least as many "We need someone Irish" roles as Colm Meaney, is outstanding as the new defense against the dark arts teacher Mad Eye Moody, and Ralph Finnes chews scenerey like Al Pacino on a two day crack bender, bringing exactly the type of insane, calculated menace that Lord Voldemort should have. Alan Rickman doesn't have a lot to do in this one. Snape really could have been completely written out of this movie, but we'll need him for The Order of the Phoenix. However, Rickman squeezes every ounce out of his limited screen time, and ends up presenting one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire doesn't beat Prisoner of Azkaban for drama and sense of wonder, but it's very nearly as entertaining. You know you'll go see it anyway, so just relax and enjoy it. It's solidly entertaing, and a whole lot of fun, two and a half hours well spent.
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