Film: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter 4)

Directed by: Mike Newell

Year: 2005

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

Reviewed by: The Zombieslayer

After watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I'm wondering if this was a bad case of Affirmative Action. The Harry Potter movies never had a British director, which was kind of ironic. So they hired a British director for HP4.

I'm not sure if this guy's a genius and just made a bad movie or if he was over his head with this, but HP4 was without a doubt the worst of the Harry Potter movies. It's not a bad film, just a major disappointment after seeing the wonderful work done with HP3.

They tried to make a Hollywood action movie for HP4. Big mistake. I know the book was huge and part of the problem was deciding what to leave out. So they focused on only two scenes - the Ball and the Tournament.

The director of HP3 managed to develop a lot of the other characters, the director of HP4 had more time to work with and failed to develop any. So character development gets an F.

Instead, we see an extended scene of Harry Potter getting chased by a dragon, kind of like how police movies low on plot have ridiculously long chases. Ron's jealousy of Harry, Hermoine's platonic love for Harry and romantic love for Ron, the bond between Sirius and Harry, the annoyances of Rita Skeeter, and the romance of Hagrid and that half-giant lady each get a brief nod but no real development.

I didn't pay to see a James Bond flick. I paid to see the next Harry Potter movie. The director must have thought differently. For those who never read the books, I imagine they'd be completely lost. For those who had read the books, I imagine they'd be wondering why X and Y stories were so poorly developed.

7 dead zombies. The movie itself gets five, but the scenes are gorgeous and take you to the Harry Potter universe which alone is worth the price of admission. Worst of the four, but still worth watching.

Comments on this review.