SPOILER!

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The duel in the graveyard disturbed and upset me. Harry facing off against a very (the most?) powerful opponent went against fairness, which seemed very wrong to me. Of course, one might argue – that evil doesn’t obey the rules, the fact that evil exists (or is allowed to exist) is opening a can of existential argument worms… but I digress. Seeing HP’s parents come back for a second and help their son escape made me wince, gasp, and finally feel incredibly relieved. I’ve been screening the HP films in order, getting ready for HP6, and the journey’s been emotional – I’m embarrassed to admit. But I will say this, The Goblet of Fire was something else. It’s an excellent adaptation, little do I remember of the book (it’s been a while), and it’s highly recommended viewing. Full marks. If you haven’t yet caught up on your Potter movies you should do so in time to catch the latest one in the theater this weekend.

When I saw the movie in theaters, I was completely satisfied for the first time by a Harry Potter movie. It’s in my opinion an excellent adaptation. The third movie was a better movie but this one is the best Harry Potter movie if you get what I mean ;) Of course some stuff was left out (but I hate the S.P.E.W. storyline so I really didn’t miss it) but not so much, at least not major stuff like in PoA.

A good movie on the whole, sadly I bought the single-disc DVD by mistake and it has not a single extra. Oh well, I’ll probably buy a boxed set of the seven movies at the end anyway ;)

My favorite Harry Potter movie yet! I know they left out a lot of details, but really it would have been way too long of a movie otherwise. I think it was well done and told the story well enough for everyone to understand.

The movie was… okay. They left out a lot. In fact, the people who were screaming last year that the plot in Prisoner of Azkaban was excessively stripped should have held their breath until viewing this installment. They left out the entire Rita Skeeter sub-plot, although they did show her nosing in on the students a few times and the actress seemed to have her personality down. I think that was the most important detail to overlook. This movie, much more so than the others, was almost unwatchable without having read the book first. I don’t know how I feel about the director, but I do know I’d take Alfonso Cuarón back any day of the week.

I think what bugged me most was that it constantly cut from one five minute scene to the next. There was no real dialog, no sense of close-knit friends. I understand you can only do so much when you have to cram a book as large as this into a two and a half hour movie. I understand this is why plots were left out. Still, couldn’t they have done it Lord of the Rings style and filmed a long, 5 hour movie which was able to get in more of the plot, and then break them into two movies, showing them a couple months apart? I guess that’s too much to ask.

I don’t know how they’re going to do the next movie at all. It’ll just be a series of 30 second clips going from one scene to the next.

The cinematography and special effects were amazing. This bathtub scene (probably one of the longest in the whole film) provided much needed comic relief. I was disappointed with how little Ron and Hermione were in this. I think the twins may have been in it more than them, not that I’m complaining about their amount of screen time.

I guess overall I was just a little disappointed. It was still worth seeing (even worth paying $25 for tickets and fees) but this is undoubtedly my least favorite of the movies so far. Then again, the Goblet of Fire was my least favorite book as well.

It really doesn’t do the book justice, but nevertheless, thought it was worth consuming. There’s just too much time between books and movies, so I am always forgetting what happened last. The books are definitely better than the movies. And is there anyone uglier than Ron ?!?

To say I was disappointed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when I first saw the film is a major understatement. My favorite parts of the book come right up front—the arrival of the Weasley’s to pick up Harry from the Dursley’s and the Quidditch World Cup—so seeing one part cut to barely a mention and the other cut completely made me, in a word, livid less than five minutes into the movie. After that, it didn’t have a chance with me. Granted, I know you can’t pack everything in a massive book like “Goblet of Fire” and have it fit in a movie less than four hours long; however, directors have a really terrible knack of looking at novels as starting points rather than blueprints. When they go hacking at a novel to cut the fat they inevitably cut out muscle and bone in their attempts to shorten a novel and make it more “cinematic.” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a perfect example of this. Director Mike Newell, a man best-known for directing Four Weddings and a Funeral and therefore the absolute worst person you could pick to direct a Harry Potter movie, hacks at J.K. Rowling’s novel not with a carving knife, but a machete. What’s left is a confusing mess. That said, I have to admit as my expectations lowered for DVD viewing I did enjoy the film more. It allowed me to focus more on the excellent effects, Oscar-nominated sets, and the much-improved acting of the kids, especially Daniel Radcliff. Still, there is a lot I don’t like about the film. Plot points are changed for no apparent reason other than to tinker which will have an impact on future adaptations of the remaining books. The music by Patrick Doyle (a very good, but in over his head, composer) is so inappropriate in parts it’s laughable as all of John Williams’ three previous scores, save for the scant use of “Hedwig’s Theme” here and there, is thrown out. Most everyone except Harry has their screen time reduced to almost cameo levels. This movie IS about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, PERIOD. If you’re a fan of the books and can watch the movies as their own entity, you’ll enjoy Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. If you’re like me and have a problem separating the two, be sure to watch it more than once to appreciate what’s good about the movie and get past what’s so very, very wrong.

The first time I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I was disappointed because it departed from the book so much. However, having seen the film again recently, I’m forced to admit that the Harry Potter films stand on their own. Truth be told, I wasn’t a Harry Potter fan until I saw the first movie. I went out the next day and bought the first three books, and I had them read within a week. So I guess if the Harry Potter films had never been made, I would never have been a fan, and that would be sad.

Awesome but much darker than the previous films.