Jon Reviews: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (movie)
Jon Reviews: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (movie)
Jon Reviews: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (movie)
Good Evening and welcome! This evening we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and for the first time in re-watching these movies, we have come across a movie that is simply not successful, although it has some good moments, either on its own or as an adaptation to the book it is based on. This is a shame as the Goblet of Fire is overall one of the most edge of your seat reads in the series, and for me probably just a hair behind The Prisoner of Azkaban as my second favorite. As always, before we go any further, I would encourage everyone reading to Like, Share, and Subscribe and also to check out my books “The Shadow of the Past’ and “And the Sun Burned Red” on Amazon.
What worked for me. While overall I have issues with this movie (more on that later), this movie is not without its strong points. Daniel Radcliffe remains strong and engaging as the lead and while this movie does not allow him to flex the full depth and complexity he had started to develop by this point, he engages with the role and makes the most of moments of stress, sass, determination, and anguish that the character experience. Improvements in CGI technology, and better budgets, are really on display here and the movie looks fantastic with much smoother graphics and great use of both sets and set pieces to give the film scope. It is nice to see Harry’s fellow students, particularly the Gryffindors, but others as well, actually have something to do. The supporting cast remains overall excellent, and spot on, with particular stand outs for me being Brendan Gleason as Mad Eye Moody, David Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr., and Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. While perhaps missing a little bit of the nuance from the book, the final sequences in the Graveyard and Moody’s Office are extremely effective and well executed.
What didn’t work for me. This movie returns to the issue that I had with the first movie in that the plot just seems to lurch along, sometimes lacking clear cohesion and the chance to allow the audience to properly think about and digest what they are learning and what is happening on screen. Like the start, big buildup to the Quidditch World cup, it starts and then immediately jumps to the Death Eater Attack, which immediately jumps to them being on the train to Hogwarts. I will talk about this more in the next paragraph, but there are occasional references to the growing darkness, but there is very little time given to actually digest what that means and to actually see it happening, we are just told it is happening. In fact, there is a lot in this movie that we are simply told is happening instead of being shown. Some plot points just suddenly stop being relevant. Rita Skeeter, for example, is perfectly cast and has a couple great scenes, and then immediately stops mattering. Ron and Hermoine are reduced practically to the level of background characters here. Ron in particular isn’t given any time to show why he suddenly becomes resentful of Harry and it is never properly explained at all, so Ron just comes across as a jerk throughout the film, when he does anything at all. Similarly, other than a few moments of moral support, Hermoine seems to exist here only to look concerned, bet frustrated with Harry and Ron, and have a big fight and cry over Ron being a jerk to her. . .all without any buildup or follow through later in the movie. All of these issues with pacing, missing buildup and explanations, and suddenly dropped or ignored plot threads all make it quite frustrating that there are large array of long and drawn out action sequences, pretty as they are to look at, or very forced attempts at humor that could have been far better spent on the plot and characters of the story. Finally, and much has been said about it so I won’t belabor it, but Michael Gambon really misses the mark in this movie. Gambon was a great actor, who filled the shoes of Richard Harris admirably in the 3rd film with the same twinkle in the eye, knowing and slightly eccentric look, and quiet command. He goes on to do a great, and far more subtle, job in the later films of pealing back the layers of what Dumbledore was trying to do, his complexity, and his downsides. Here, however, and I don’t know if it was the script, or trying to do something new, or poor direction/editing or what, but he spends this movie being loud, intense, and exasperated, none of which fit the character well, and the few scenes where he does achieve a more nuanced Dumbledore throws this into even sharper relief.
As an adaption of the book, this simply does not work and in a lot of ways misses the mark. The book Goblet of Fire is an engaging, edge of your seat type of read that provides a regular flow of excitement and action, but also mystery, complex characters, and pealing back the layers on the growing darkness and the various ways people, and institutions, react to that. The book, as much as I greatly enjoy it, is not without its drawbacks of course. We have the usual Dursley abuse and it really doesn’t make much sense at all that Dumbledore and assembly of highly capable wizards couldn’t have come up with SOME way of getting Harry out of the Triwizard Tournament, especially given his youth and the fact that someone clearly manipulated the titular Goblet of Fire. For me personally this is the first book that I find some sections annoying for dealing heavily in teen angst. These sequences make perfect sense for the setting, characters, and their situation, but that doesn’t make them any more tedious to read. What the book delivers in spades, however, is a complex and multi-layered story that really delves into the wider wizarding world for the first time and has a number of fantastic characters and subplots that add so much depth and richness to the world. While the very nature of trying to condense a 700 some page book into a 2 and half hour movie would always necessitate dropping things (as the previous movies have done) this movie for the first time I feel largely ignores or misuses its characters (to the point where some of them might as well not have even been there) and misses both the point of the book in many ways, as well as sucking all of the heart and soul out of the story and settings. Also, there are some genuinely fun and funny scenes in the book but all of these are dropped in favor of some examples of what I found to be very forced, very awkward, and very dated attempts and humor.
Overall, I would say that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a highly flawed movie that frequently does its characters, story, and setting a disservice by largely stripping out the essence, heart, and soul of the novel. Overall, I enjoyed watching it, even with the numerous parts that I was dissatisfied with or annoyed me, and there are parts of the movie that are definitely both good and effective. Something always seems to be missing whenever I watch it however, and for the first time the adaption falls far short of the book. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly for the movies we haven’t gotten to yet, I think this is likely the movie I would say is the weakest.
I hope that you liked my review! Don’t forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe, and also check out my books on Amazon!
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