Head and shoulders the best of the series so far... but is that really saying so much?* This franchise seemingly doomed by ongoing fidelity/adherence to the books, and they don't employ directors who would be liberated rather than constricted by this confinement. Viz sexagenarian M.Newell, who unlike C.Columbus and A.Cuaron at least enjoyed/endured a British education - and now returns to "school" a couple of years after the rather more sedate Mona Lisa Smile.

D.Radcliffe, R.Grint and E.Watson visibly ageing quicker than their characters, now supposedly 14/15 (can't they explain it via an aside about how wizards get older at different rate from humans?) Watson as usual quietly stealing the show as she 'blossoms' towards her inevitable future of wall-to-wall prestige costume-dramas (scripts presumably already piling up on her agent's mat).

For the characters, growing pains / hormonal changes are the main themes. Stroppy teens: Ron gets to say "bloody hell" a lot, even tells Harry to "piss off" at one stage during their clunky mid-movie fallout.

Brokenbacked structure: feeling that we're being hustled through exposition in first act leading up to start of 'Tri-Wizard Tournament' (one of many elements which, like so much in this franchise, is never quite satisfactorily explained); first of three tasks (dragon fighting, Reign of Fire style) is oddly truncated, with only one of four participants shown in action. Notably saggy-slow 'character development' hour follows, dedicated to earthbound rivalry/jealousy/squabbling shenanigans.

Pace picks up again with second (underwater peril) and third (misty maze) tasks, then takes off with helter-skelter finale featuring R.Fiennes' debut as oddly noseless uberbaddie Lord Voldemort (Red Dragon turf for the thespian): much sturm und drang building up to and accompanying his version of Sith's "Lord Vader.... Riiiise!" moment. Graveyard-set slimax is essentially straight from horror genre.

Set-pieces work fine: gigantism-flaunting, excitingly spectacular stuff with camera(s) soaring high into the air on many occasions. As with Ang Lee's similarly gravity-scoffing Crouching Tiger, however, the 'up-time' is so up that the 'down-times' in between are a real drag. 

Overall: way, way too long (any magician could tell them that the best spells are the shortest), with Newell and scriptwriter S.Kloves struggling to condense J.Rowling's doorstop of a book - reckoned the best of the literary sextet by aficionados.

Time-consuming Dursley-house prologue mercifully absent this time; but 'hidden baddie' twist present and correct, now tiresome. Girls noticeably sidelined in testosterone-heavy tourney stuff. Odd damp-squib final line ("... every week.") 

Nowhere near enough for A.Rickman to do, but pic features crowded gallery of star cameos to keep things interesting: from octogenarian E.Sykes (the first face seen on screen!) to J.Cocker (on stage with band, visible for all of two seconds).

F.De La Tour eight-and-a-half-foot tall as Hagrid's love-interest Madame Maxine, her head in perpetual danger of scraping the ceilings - just like in Rising Damp. Speaking of TV... if you caught the last episode of Doctor Who, this'll be the second time this year you seen somebody unexpectedly transmogrify into toothy D.Tennant.

Neil Young
15th November, 2005

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE : [6/10] : USA (US-UK) 2005 : Mike NEWELL : 157 mins
seen at Odeon cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 15th November 2005 - press show


* Jigsaw Lounge Potter Archive
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - 5/10
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 4/10
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 4/10