Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The "regulars" are all back - a year older and a little wiser. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is having strange dreams and he worries that his arch-enemy, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), may be planning a corporeal return. His friend Hermione (Emma Watson) is turning into a beautiful young woman and attracting a fair amount of male attention - a fact that has not escaped the green-eyed notice of Harry's other buddy, Ron (Rupert Grint). This year, the trio's fourth at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there is to be a "Tri Wizard Tournament," in which champion wizards, one representing each of three different schools, compete against each other for victory. The champions are Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy), and Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski). Unexpectedly, a "wild card" is added: Harry Potter. The tournament challenges prove to be as potentially deadly as they are difficult, and Harry wonders if there are forces aligned against him in a conspiracy. The sides appear to be clearly defined: those who stand with Harry - Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), Prof. McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Prof. Moody (Brendan Gleeson) - and those who stand against him – Prof. Snape (Alan Rickman), Draco and Lucius Malfoy (Tom Felton and Jason Issacs), Wormtail (Timothy Spall), and Barry Crouch Jr. (David Tennant). Yet all may not be as it initially seems.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire contains good qualities and not-so-good ones, although the former greatly outnumber the latter. This is the best of the quartet of Harry Potter features, but it is not without flaws. This movie is more action-oriented than its predecessors, with several exciting sequences (most notably a battle with a dragon and an underwater skirmish with pissed-off mermaids), but I will admit to being let-down by the way in which the film culminates. As high points go, this one is anticlimactic. (This is a case of something working much better on the written page than on the screen.)

read the rest of the review by master reviewer James Berardinelli at harry potter and the goblet of fire